Whats the most amount of fun you've had in your Charger?

[my73charger]

Right after I bought it I took it to work.  Work for me was 55 miles west of where I live.  I found a straight stretch and kicked it up to around 130mph.  THAT WAS FUN!  Also, now that I have it built for qtr mile evertime I get in it I have fun.  Last summer I got sideways as often as possible.

[Paladin]

    There have been a lot of good memories involving my Charger over the years, but this is probably my favorite.  

    It was several years ago now, I was on duty and had dropped off my '94 Caprice LT-1 "slicktop" unit for maintenance work at a local shop.  I was assigned office duty while the sergeant was gone but still felt the need for a set of wheels.  So, I bummed a ride off one of my rookies, Kurt Knapp, and picked up my '71 R/T and took it back over to the office.  

    Sometime later I was at my desk, suffering the death of a thousand paper cuts and wanting to be on the road where I belonged.  Suddenly, the duty communications operator started shouting, saying that Kurt had an entire carload of bad ones pulled over and was requesting assistance.  I grabbed my hat and ran for the door, fumbling for the keys as the operator gave more information.  There were five people in that one car, and four of them had prior arrests on homicide charges.  Kurt was by himself with no other backup available and he sounded just a bit excited over the radio.

    When I got that 440 fired, I didn't take off, I launched that Dodge.  The operator later said it looked like some sort of naval fighter leaving a carrier deck.  I shot under the overpass and hung a hard left in a perfect four wheel drift, feeding her just enough gas to keep the natural understeer down.  I picked off both apexes on the entrance ramp in textbook fashion and when that Charger's nose cleared that last corner I was hard on the gas and working that SlapStick.

     Even with the 2.76 Sure Grip, the rear tires spun a bit when I hit low.  She wiggles a little bit, 6200 on the tach, and you hit second at nearly 70 MPH.  6200 RPM comes up pretty quickly again as the speedometer climbs above 120.  Punch the shift again and now you are moving in anybody's book.  For a moment the thought crosses your mind; "I can't believe I get paid for this stuff."

     A mile down the road you are hard on the brakes, trying to whoa down all that Mopar momentum.  Kurt has got his Sig-Sauer out and you can tell right away that he is not messing around.  All five are standing there with their hands in the air as you come to a smoking, skidding halt over on the roadway shoulder.  Kurt never even turns around, he said later he could hear that 440 turn on when I hit the Interstate and knew that the cavalry was on the way.  I palm my own Sig Sauer and cover this bunch as Kurt barks out instructions.  I wish I had a camera, these guys all have a stunned look in their eyes.  Turns out that they were being a little difficult in following orders at first.  But when that red Charger and I showed up on the scene, they decided to go along with the program.  

    Kurt made his arrests, and I slapped him on the back for scoring one for the good guys that afternoon.  From then on, that Charger meant something extra special to him.  He's the one that started calling it "The Beast", and the name stuck.  He was always asking me about what I had done to it, or relaying compliments on it that he had heard from others.  I made the mistake of telling him that I would probably have to sell it some day, and he was aghast at the thought.  

    Kurt went on to become a veteran troop in his own right and as fine a young man as I ever knew.  Later, he transferred down to Fredericksburg with his now growing family.  One gloomy, slick, rainy evening, Trooper Kurt Knapp was patrolling Interstate 10 near Comfort, Texas.  As best as we can tell, he went after a speeder and lost control of his Crown Vic.  The state of Texas lost a fine trooper that night; and his wife lost her husband.  Two young children will never really know their Dad.  As for me, I lost a friend and all of the rest of us lost one of the really good guys.  And they're getting harder and harder to find these days.  Rest in peace, Kurt.  

May God Bless America,
Paladin

[bull]

That was a great story, Paladin! Except for the ending of course. Funny how stress and adrenalin (and horsepower ) can solidify our memories.

BTW, did you sell it?

[4402tuff4u]

That was a great story until the end. Sorry to hear that - that blows!

[my73charger]

Paladin that story rocked!!  I was totally into the mental image of the event.  You need to answer your calling as a writer...

RIP Trooper Kurt Knapp

[Mike DC]

Good story there.

-----------------------------------------------------------

My most fun was the first time I ever drove my car.
Also the first time I'd ever driven a Charger, or even just a RWD carb'd musclecar for that matter.

Rough-ass 1969 Charger,"General Lee" paint, 383 Magnum, headers & blown-out glasspacks, no seatbelts, no kickdown linkage, worthless front drum brakes . . . and it was barely a week after my 16th birthday, and knowing that this car was MINE now! 


It was a total dream come true, seriously rusted framerails or not. 
I fell sorry for the generations of teenagers to come who will only be able to experience these cars through video games.

.

[Paladin]

To All,   

I would like to thank everyone who had such nice words to say about my prior post.  Kurt was someone very special in a lot of people's lives, not just my own.  He was young enough to have been my own son and losing him was tough.  Whenever I would get to thinking that the Texas Highway Patrol was going to hell in a hand basket (you think like that the more you get older), I would think of Kurt and decide the future was not all bad, after all. 

Bull, the R/T still sits in my garage, ready to answer any call to duty that might come its' way.  Since I have had it, it has been through high water, ice storms and winds that were blowing camper shells off the backs of pickups going down the Interstate.  It has made Boy Scout outings, weddings, vacations, and was lead car at my dad's funeral one gloomy South Texas day several years back.  The truth is, though, with the value of these '71 R/Ts skyrocketing like they are, I am seriously debating selling it sometime next summer.  I bought that car with the intention of never getting rid of it and set it up with that in mind.  But with body parts being as rare as they are and no repops in sight, I can not in good conscience drive it the way that I have done in the past.  There is a lot I can do for my family with what the value these cars are fetching these days.  I wish now I would have found a plain jane 1973-74 Charger instead of such a rare variation of the breed. 

And if any of you are ever on Interstate 10 just east of the US 87 junction outside of Comfort, Texas, would you please say a little prayer for Kurt and his family?   You know, as a former Marine I remember well the verse in the Marine Corps Hymn about Heaven being guarded by the United States Marines.  I would like to think that the Big Man upstairs needed a certain young state trooper to help fill in a gap.

May God bless America,
Paladin

 

[RT DAVE]

blowing the doors off a 70 v code coronet RT.  I went to school with the kid who's father owned the car and he would always talk smack about how bad his dad could blow my doors off.  My happiness was shortlived when I saw that same car run a best of 15.95 at the local dragstrip.   I thought I was fast but I guess it was more about him being slow...