Leno's Garage Highlights a Radical '70 Charger

[68X426]

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/22/jay-leno-1970-dodge-charger-tantrum-1650-horsepower-video/

23 minute video of Jay highlighting a highly modified '70 Charger (with a 1650 hp Mercury boat engine).  

Radical is the only word to describe it.

At 15:20 they show off the undercarriage.  Wow.

[myk]

Two words: dream machine.  I think the grille and the tail lights should be stock or close to it, but damn...that is a dream build for sure...

[TPR]

It's growing on me.
TPR

[1974dodgecharger]

the stance is better than I thought it would be sits a tad higher than in the pics and seems driveable....other than front and rear grill setup its a badass ride.....

[lukedukem]

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,122514.0.html

[TruckDriver]

I think it's fugly 

Ram air hoods should be left for GM's, wheels are way to big, and not fond of the grille either.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Happy to see one of those 6 figure "show cars" actually thrashed around....kudos to the builders

[keepat]

Happy to see one of those 6 figure "show cars" actually thrashed around....kudos to the builders

Very cool car and it sounds awesome!

[mike69440]

the stance is better than I thought it would be sits a tad higher than in the pics and seems driveable....other than front and rear grill setup its a badass ride.....

Enough with the "Hot Wheels Size Wheels,  Not a fan of the grill, Stock looking is best (1969)  Plus Stock looking Taillights, and two big stainless tips for exhausts work.

Hood may be there for clearance, otherwise the stock style of a Charger just nails it.

[RallyeMike]

Pretty cool.

[cbrestorations]

not a fan of the exhaust, nor the engine note...doesnt even have the cool choppy idle, grill looks like a 69 torino grill, tail lights just dont go with that body. interior is ehhh...too modernized for my taste. but, it has some damn good craftsmanship. but why...why put a marine mercury engine in it, thats just dumb

[phantom]

the stance is better than I thought it would be sits a tad higher than in the pics and seems driveable....other than front and rear grill setup its a badass ride.....

Enough with the "Hot Wheels Size Wheels,  Not a fan of the grill, Stock looking is best (1969)  Plus Stock looking Taillights, and two big stainless tips for exhausts work.

Hood may be there for clearance, otherwise the stock style of a Charger just nails it.

Not every Charger must be stock looking. How dull is that? Besides, with all those mods, they will need brakes to cope with everything else, so the wheels must be bigger. Even if they ran stock brakes, they would never pull of the look and stance of the rest of this car with 14" or 15" wheels.

[sixty-niner]

I love this charger, and that engine is beautiful, impractical yes, but those pipes are sexy as hell.  I don't dig the grill, but pretty much everything else is great!!!.  I LOVE PRO-TOURING!@!! 

[SRT-440]

I don't understand why ppl want ALL cars to look the same!  I guess, he did something right since his is on TV and the stock cars are sitting in a garage somewhere. 

[G-man]

Pro touring is great... but It will never handle like an exotic, and probably cost more.

Now you got a more expensive clunker that no longer looks how its supposed to nor handles like what you tried to make it be.

Blah to that.

It's like trying to sit on 2 seats and falling between.

The carbon fibre is nice however. That would be worth it.

Marine engine?

Why not just build a Hemi with twin turbos. Could of had 2000 HP and been a "Hemi".

Well all I need to see now is someone stick a jet engine under the hood.

Can you imagine a charger sitting next to you at the lights, turning the revs up and sounding like a Stealth Fighter? That would be "WHAT?" Moment before the light goes green.

[JR]

The builder said in the video that the engine was chosen before the car. They needed a big car to put the big engine in.

I don't understand the "they coulda had a HEMI!!!" argument. That's not the point of the build. The whole point of this was to showcase the fabrication skills of their shop. Considering this car has gotten them national exposure, Id say it worked.

They were the first to take a 9 liter powerboat racing engine and successfully fit it to a road going car.

That's more impressive to the rest of the car world than building yet another hemi Charger clone.

[Mike DC]

 
I wonder about the CF panels.  These old muscle-era cars had tolerances so bad . . . could you even mass-produce a CF panel and have it fit everyone's car?  CF is extremely rigid.  You can't just push & pull on it to make things align like fiberglass or metal.

I'd rather have a set of aluminum panels for an old Charger than CF. 

Jay Leno was talking about whether CF has surpassed aluminum for the hot material now, as if aluminum has even had its day yet.  Not in the musclecar hobby. 

[Aero426]

Overall, meh.    It's so hard to improve on the original.      

When I saw that Dave Salvaggio was involved, it brought back memories of this abomination.