Another one I’ve been hunting for: bagged! The light metallic blue Dodge Charger finally came up for sale, and although it was a bidding war, I got it! I wouldn’t say it was a bargain, but it was probably about par for the value, and once it arrived it did not disappoint!
Presented without a vinyl top-the only Auto World Charger I’ve acquired without one-my goal to acquire this blue beauty was inspired by an episode of M.C.o.t.W. profiling a 1970 model in a similar color. If anyone had told me light sky blue would be a good color on a Charger I would have said they were nuts, but that video convinced me, and when I found out that AW had made one in a similar shade for Release 20, I set my mark. While I have no reason to believe this is a limited production model, it certainly is hard to find; I’ve only seen it come up for sale the one time…the time I got it!
So again, I wanted to experiment with doing something a little different with this one. I recently profiled another new build, a white and black ’69 Z/28 which got fit with black painted Road Race Replicas “Bullets,” the first time I had used the black version on a muscle car. Here I opted for the gray-finish version, which are also almost exclusively seen on my sports cars, this being only the 2nd muscle car (after the yellow ’67 Nova SS) to wear them. I also decided against RWL tires, instead going for a virgin set of the peerless full-sized silicone blackwalls.
So, what to name her? Well, I’m giving this baby a name I’ve been saving. A really fun low-budget B-movie from Australia called “Road Train”, released in 2010, helped provide the inspiration: in that film, a group of teenagers engage with a mysterious monster rig, a brand-less death machine whose only logo is its hood ornament, a chrome plated, red-eyed image of the 3 headed dog that guarded the Gateway to Hell in Greek mythology: CERBERUS!
While this big bad Chrysler wears no hood ornament, the spirit of the underworld is unleashed when big muscular furry blonde owner/operator Gunner “Grizzly” Gustavsson, a bearded Minnesota native nearly as wide as he is tall, romps down on that 440 6-Pack under the hood! Repainted once in its original and very rare color, with the RT tail stripes and stock black interior, equipped with front disk brakes, MSD ignition, multiple sway bars and other upgrades, and running through a A-833 4-speed to a Dana 60 3.91:1 Sure-Grip, there’s nothing much out of the ordinary here for a slightly modernized Charger, and that’s just fine, because the original stuff gets the job done! No one is going to argue that when they see this subtle blue classic vanish in a thick cloud of black smoke!
“Grizzly” Gustavsson and “Cerberus” are new blood at Drag City, and while he has yet to appear in a tournament, his qualifying times were impressive! When new Mopar Muscle arrives at the track for the spring season, get ready to rumbllllllllllllllle!
I really liked that movie Road Train, though I kept thinking it was called Road Kill for some reason. A killer 18th wheeler, you gotta love that and this fantastic Charger!