Orlando Bowtie Club at Hooters, Sanford Florida

Click to enlarge, then click again for full size

Was called for rain but we had a few people show up

I follow Dodge via google+ and came across this very cool article about our 3rd gen Challengers

In response to the tremendous demand from consumers, including 40,000 hand-raisers who answered a web survey, the Challenger was quickly green-lighted for production.  While Michael Castiglione of Chrysler’s Pacifica Studio had designed the original concept, with Allen Barrington performing the dash and interior, the transformation to volume production car was accomplished by Brian Nielander and Chrysler Design Manager Jeff Gale, son of famed Chrysler designer Tom Gale.

In December of 2007, Dodge began taking orders for the 2008 Challenger, selling out the entire year’s model run before production began. Just over 7000 specially badged Challengers were built that model year, all SRT8 models with 6.1L HEMI V8s and five-speed AutoStick transmissions. For 2009 a full model lineup was offered with an entire range of powertrain and trim options.

 For the full article and source, click here Follow Dodge on google plus, click here

Mopars, a photo by jlandi on Flickr.

This is a must visit show. Had to be well over 150 cars, plenty of shops and restaurants as well as people walking the streets to look at the cars.

I should be hitting two events over this weekend (Sept 15/16) along with a few other local Challenger owners.

Saturday Sept 15 – McDonald’s 233 East Main street, Apopka

McDonald’s 40^th Anniversary Car Cruise from 11am-2pm.  This Apopka McDonalds has been part of the community for 40 years.  Bring out your classic car and help us celebrate this milestone.  Rock n roll music by DJ Don from the Orlando Bowtie Club.  This event is free and open to everyone. http://www.OrlandoBowtieClub.com

Sunday Sept 15th – Kee Wees 780 East. State Road 434, Winter Springs

Kee Wee’s Car Cruise from 5pm-8pm.  Seminole County’s newest family entertainment complex featuring a full bar, restaurant, outdoor patio, light bite café, mini bowling, skeeball and arcade games.  20% food discount for all cruisers.  Rock n roll music by DJ Don from the Orlando Bowtie Club.   Free event and open to everyone. Located on the corner of Rt 434 and Rt 419. http://www.OrlandoBowtieClub.com

As always weather permitting. If you are able to make it out to one of the events, please stop by my car and say hi.

I still need to do a full write up but here is a quick look at how these turned out.

Below you can see how the new 2011+ SRT spoiler compares to the originals on a friends 2010 Challenger

A close up of the front facing camera

What it looks like from inside the car when the front facing camera turns on

I’ll have a more detailed write up on the front facing camera, for more info on how to install an SRT chin spoiler on our R/Ts, check out Speed’s garage, where he has a very detailed video on how to do this install. I’ll have a mini write up where Rob and I will add a few helpful hints that may make it go a bit easier.

The garage and drive way will be filled with Challengers this weekend while we tackle a pair of Challengers (My 2010 Plum Crazy Purl R/T and a friends 2009 Dark Titanium Metallic R/T)

We’ll be replacing our current chin spoilers with 2011 SRT one piece spoilers with brake air vent plenums.  At the same time we’ll also be installing a pair of front facing camera’s to our pre installed Lockpicks.

Last of the double mods will be replacing our current factory lug nuts.  There’s been some chatter on the forums and even a good friend at the local car club, who has had swollen lug nuts that had to be cut off.  So for some cheap premaintenance we’ll be replacing our OEM lug nuts and wheel locks with a set of after market Gorilla Lug nuts

The 2009 will also get a new set of Bullet Tech R/T center caps.

More pictures, part numbers and step by step instruction(s) next week.

Picked up a used Hurst Pistol grip shifter from the Challengertalk.com forums for a great price last week and it came in today.  I’ll be mating this with an already upgraded shifter assembly from HURST.

It should be noted that this was the version from pistolgrip727.com, that fits stock 6-Speed shifter assemblies, which I’m installing on the full Hurst sort throw assembly.  However with a few very minor modifications I was able to install and buttoned this mod up in about 20 minutes, which included a test drive.

Continue reading →

CNBC/Yahoo lists the 1970 Dodge Challenger (in Plum Crazy no less) as one of the top ten most beautiful cars of all time

1970 Dodge Challenger R/T

A white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T famously starred in the 1971 film “Vanishing Point” (and because of that, a plot device in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof”). Brauer points out other noteworthy aspects of this model: It was also the first for “E-Body,” it offered with 426 Hemi engine and it was available in “high-impact” colors like “Plum Crazy Purple.”

Modern Day Successor: Dodge Challenger

– Source and to see the other nine cars click here via Modern Mopar Forums