SUPERCHARGER 1 OWNER RAFFI MINASIAN ON THE BOARD

[nascarxx29]

 He might come check out our board .But found his reply on moparts tonight










A friend of mine alerted me to the chat on this car and the photos. I owned the Supercharger from 1983-1998. I purchased it at a local car auction in SoCal with my dad, when I was 21 years old. My dad was interested in the 30's era cars but I thought this was the coolest car at the sale. I bought it for $11k and planned to sell my Boss 302 to finance it.

The car had 11,000 original miles and was purchased by Larry Rupert (who died about a month later). Rupert bought it from someone who had purchased it right out of Van Nuys Dodge, where it had been since the early 70's. The car was used by Elwood Engle at Chrysler but sold off along with a lot of these types of cars to dealers. The reported price for sale to VN Dodge was $1200.00

The car had no mufflers and original Poly tires when I bought it. The car started life as a 68 and was shown in white with blue stripes and trim. In 69 it was updated using the Daytona nose and painted. It was always a 440 4bbl car NEVER a Hemi as was sometimes misquoted in magazines of the era.

I drove the car all the time cause it was one of the most reliable cars I ever had. I took it to shows and one early morning had it on the interstate on the way to a show in Palm Springs. I pushed it up to where the needle read 125mph and it had another 2300 rmp left in it till I was near redline. Because it was so long and flat on the back, the air kept pushing it down making it more stable at over 100 than you might imagine.

I drove to Canada with it for a show and had to let a border agent crawl into the back of the car to make sure I was not smuggling people or stuff in. There was no trunk, only a removable back panel with carpet covering. Coming home from the show in Canada it started raining. My wife and I just kept pushing on at 75 mph - the rain washing over us at that speed. We kept in the fast lane and unlike most US highway drivers, everyone moved over for us when I flashed. We made it home safely but a bit soggy. I put a space heater in the car that eve to dry it out. My wife was pregnant at the time - we still tell that story now and then to our now 14 year old daughter. All told I put about 7k miles on the car in my 16 years of ownership. Not a lot but those were some great miles with wife, kids, and good friends on the way to Mopar shows.

The first set of pics showing the car in solid orange (earlier in the threads on this board) are the correct original car. They were probably taken by someone who knew the owner in the late 1970's as they are not photos of me or anyone I know. The second set show a car that someone made to look like the original. Their car is well done but has different interior, stripes, and a taller windshield.

I sold the car to Steven Juliano and he restored the car to an astonishingly high level of originality with date coded parts and amazing body and paint work. It was one of the best cars I have ever owned and I have had a lot of interesting cars. It is the ONLY car I ever regret selling, but my ownership was very gratifying. I was lucky to not only own it but to have owned it at a time when I was not afraid to drive it, go fast with it, and show it without worrying about perfection. That was the best part about owing it - using it.

I just signed in to this board but if anyone has questions let me know and I will be happy to answer them as best as I can. If I can figure out how to add photos I will do that as well.

[nascarxx29]

 Second part Raffis reply Well if you ever want to do it I know how and what to do with the conversions. The car was really very unique in that the nose is a combination of the Daytona and Superbird styles. The various details and surface work on the car are really unusual and some subtle.

I am a car designer by profession (www.raffim.com) and do a lot of work with cars in general so I have a great deal of appreciation for the design. The 68 Charger was enough of an advancement in design at the time when Richard Sias designed it in the mid 1960's as a fresh out of school designer. I wrote a two part article on the design of that car for HPM years ago to be sure he got the real credit for the design, NOT Bill Brownlie who normally does get credit.

If you get serious about that project to recreate it let me know. I have a lot of information on the car and have done a great deal of evaluation on the surfaces and details of the car, including some of the strange stuff like having no wipers but still having a wiper switch on the dash!!

Thanks for the nice comments.

[nascarxx29]

Raffi welcome to the board and for chiming in and for your replys.I met you at the Franklin Mint Image award show .I think you worked there designing the cars. I was there with a friend and a B5 440 -6 pack superbird . I got a 70-ish newsletter where Dave Taylor was at Van Nuys dodge back in the day.And reported it to the club.Seeing the car and getting a reader story as he had a Hemi car in for service.I can find it and post   
If you didnt know the supercharger played a small roll in a movie called Truck Turner circa 1974
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=134567&PHPSESSID=e0f632043bc86fda7d78ac9f5d885093


--------------------
1969 Daytona 440
1970 Coronet 500 383 Presently owned
1970 Superbird 440 U 166242
1970 Superbird 440 U 174597
1970 Superbird 440-6 V 179697
1970 Coronet RT 440 U 224126
1968 Road Runner 426 J 134509
1970 Daytona Replica 318 G 178701

[nascarxx29]

Archive pictures of the Supercharger

[nascarxx29]

I seen it after 1998

[Ghoste]

An everyday driver, that is too cool to imagine. 

[tan top]

intresting story 

[daytonalo]

And I always thought the Batmobile was a GTO !!!

[nascarxx29]

The one off supercharger did get used and driven alot for a car thats not that practial and doesnt have much of a windshield.Got to admire its owners .And Dayclona and our member Magnumcharger who building the Deora replica.They both plan to recreate the Supercharger
Any questions about the car Raffi said just email him .He is also suppose to post pictures  Raffi Minasian Email  rmdesign@nni.com     
   
The Topless Charger began life as a standard 1968 Charger R/T.  Chief stylist for Chrysler Corporation Elwood P. Engel used the roofless Charger as an evaluation in styling.  The Charger's roof was cut down to the belt line, while a short windshield kept the debris from the occupants faces.  In order to maintain a sleek clean image the door handles were removed and the rear seating area was covered with a roadster hard-shell boot.  The white with blue trimmed Charger had its bumpers de-chromed and painted body color (white).  The hood and trunk lid were both painted non-glare black. Additional sport features included perforated stainless alloy steering wheel, cone-styled side view mirrors, custom racing wheels, finned side pipes, locking hood pins, and dual quick fill gas caps.

The 1970 Super Charger was Dodge's latest show car entry.  Based off the 1968 topless Charger, the Super Charger was designed by Dodge stylist and built by George Busti of Creative Customs in Detroit.  By using the 1968 topless Charger, the Super Charger had a strong platform on which the stylist could make cosmetic changes.

New of 1970 was the introduction of tapered nose cone and functional air scoops on top of both fenders, which were borrowed from the Dodge Daytona.  Engine cooling was increased by adding two sets of vacuum operated louvers in the hood.  The rear deck lid now incorporated an adjustable air spoiler.  The driver was able to electronically operated the rear fin for increased rear down force.

The Super Charger's new paint scheme included seven coats of "Fire Orange" paint with non glare black accents.  The interior was simply changed to current 1970 standard Charger.  The black trimmed interior included fully padded high back bucket seats. 

   
   
     

 

[UFO]

Looks like it had a short stint with the regular 69 charger front end.

[nascarxx29]

More Raffi replys
Very interesting stuff here. I remember meeting a lot of folks over the years through that car so it is nice to see it continues to introduce me to new folks and touch base with others I have not hear from in many years.

The fellow who is doing the Deora replica is one brave soldier. I studied under Harry Bradley at Art Center and he was a very talented designer. He was a hard person to know since you never knew how he would react to certain things but I recall telling him about my interest in the Mopar cars he had worked on and he brought in some drawings to class one day that shocked me. Lots of really nice detailed segments showing tail light sections, venting, trim, etc. He not only designed the cars, he gave detailed instructions on how to fasten, alter, even paint or finish the overall part just so he could get the exact effect. Bradley had an amazing visual library that he could draw from pulling parts from various makes of cars to create new looks. He was one of the best customizers but hated to be thought of that way. His work on the Deora was actually two fold both as a full size and a model car. In recent years he and I stayed in touch as I started working professionally. One day I encouraged him to write a book about his career and that ended our friendship - he hated the idea that his work was done and wanted nothing to do with documenting his life through his cars. The Deora was one of the most complex cars he worked on and remains today one of the most innovative cars of the decade

[Magnumcharger]

Neeto huh?
Raffi's own pictures!!

[Magnumcharger]

Another few....

[nascarxx29]

  Thanks

[Magnumcharger]

A couple more....I hope Raffi comes on board!

[Magnumcharger]

One more...

[69_500]

Never noticed that it has a 22" radiator in it. Must have a nice highway gear in the back 3.23's unless someone changed them out along the way.

[Charger1970]

Isn't that a Superbird nose?

[daytonalo]

Does it have rocket launchers ??

[nascarxx29]

I believe its a daytona nose with a few superbird traits incorporated as center nose seam.The 22 inch radiator I think is also in the pictures. I took underhood .I recall motor was blue no wiper motor and the hood air intake mechanism.Were areas I checked out details.I believe the dash pad was still a 68 type the 70 added later seats were a little higher then the canopy.Steve said there was some unique key chain stuck down the dash .Maybe Raffi will chime in with some other details to this factory one off show car.I think it was in mopar muscle or high performance but not sure

[hemi-hampton]

I know I have that Magazine Article somewhere, Spent about 2 hours going through hundreds of old Mopar mags but could only find it on the cover of MCG   What mag & issue is it in with Dave Ferro driving it? LEON.

[nascarxx29]

Im thinking mopar muscle or high performance mopar magazine

[nascarxx29]

Reged: Jan 18 2009
Loc: SF Bay Area, CA   Re: RTS Caravan Barracuda?  [Re: autoxcuda]
      #4962614 - Wed Jan 21 2009 03:27 AM   Edit     Reply     Quote     Quick Reply   



Juliano owns the 71 RR that Chuck built. I think that car is called the "chicken head" car on account of the little 3D Road Runner heads mounted on the front fenders. It is a funny detail but you remember those things. The car still wears the original paint indeed today. Not sure of the price when it was offered for sale.

The Supercharger had a turquoise engine and no wiper motor. The air cleaner was the standard 440 4bbl black crinkle paint canister with the standard pie plate and graphics. The car had chrome valve covers and the large radiator. To be clear, both the white and orange version of this car are the SAME car. So it is a "two of one" car, meaning if someone were to restore it BACK to the first iteration, it would be correct in white with no nose cone, but in my opinion this would be a shame cause you lose the more interesting and dynamic evolution that the Supercharger became.

The interior used the standard RT dash from 1968 and it had two right side toggle switches that controlled the hood louvers and the rear spoiler angle. When I owned the car, the louvers were not connected to the motor that drove them and the toggle switches were gone. The only thing that remained on the dash (where the switches were) were two "dyno" tape labels that read HOOD and WING. The car had a radio with thumbwheel control and a dash speaker, however with no antenna - it never actually worked. No matter. I never could hear it anyway when I drove and frankly listening to the engine was far more interesting than music. The seats were 1970 style that were added along with the updated door panels in 1970 when the car was redone. There were no seat belts in the car when I got it and the exhaust was long gone. I drove it with no seatbelts for years but when I moved to Seattle, Richard Sias (the designer of the original Charger) GAVE me a set of black date coded seat belts for the car. I installed them. They are probably the same ones in the car today.

In my ownership the car had Rallye wheels. Steve replaced the wheels with the original style American wheel (I think that was the brand) and I rode on modern radials. I did have a full set of the Polyglas tires for the car but they were so slick that I could hardly keep the car on the road so I replaced them. This was 1985. I kept the tires for a few years and then sold them to a guy in the local area I think his name was Jay Adams. He had a 440 4bbl in violet cuda.

The Supercharger used a Daytona nose but it had the crown in the center and it was smoother than the Daytona nose around the headlight bucket sections. It had twin gas filler caps but only one side worked. The caps were molded from SHI LA LA SPEED SHOP (cast into the lid). The rear bumble bee stripe was painted on, not tape. The rear had 69 style side markers but there were none molded into the front fenders.

If I think about it long enough I could probably describe every inch of the car. I still have some reference materials and lots of photos of it filed away. A memory of something special never really fades - and this one was about as good as anything I have ever owned. 

[Ghoste]

This is great stuff.  How about some trunk details?  Taillight cover and jack(s) for example?

[Magnumcharger]

Since I now own a 1968 Charger R/T, it has always been a real temptation to modify it to "Topless Charger" specifications, and since I have a complete 1970 front clip as well, the "Supercharger" option is there as well.
Cutting the roof off of my Charger has been the real issue. It is not a numbers matching car, and to be honest, isn't a track pak or performance axle car either. And since most of the body panels have been replaced, there's no originality to preserve either.



As far as the gas cap(s) go, Steven Juliano replaced the ones on the car with an exact replica set, found in an ad he saw in a vintage car magazine. So I'm assuming he still has the original set.