Getting Better With Age : The 1968 Charger

Some things seem to get better with age.

And that statement couldn’t ring truer for the 1968 Dodge Charger. Restyled for the ‘68 model year, the car adopted a new sleek Coke-bottle shape that set standards for how a muscle car should look. If you were to ask a non-car lover to name one muscle car, chances are  “a Charger” would be at the top of the list.

And a special 1968 Charger owned by Vern Olmsted of Huron, South Dakota shines brighter now then when it left the Motor City forty-plus years ago. What started out as a base Charger model with a 383 two-barrel and a four-speed has morphed into fire-breathing green giant. Now armed with one of the muscle car era’s most revered engines, Chrysler’s mighty 426 Hemi, the car ‘s not only fast and good looking, it’s dream machine become a reality.

Back in the Good ‘Ol Days
Before we get a rundown of the car’s current condition, let’s flashback to 1970. Richard Nixon was in the White House and a gallon of gas was around 36 cents. A young Vern had just finished high school a year prior and was due up for a present to congratulate all of his hard work. And as a diehard Mopar fan, a ’68 Charger was the perfect gift.

“I got it for a late high school graduation present in February of ‘70,” Vern says. “I was the second owner.”

The previous owner bought the car new, but had a short-lived career with the car. The Charger’s aggressive styling combined with the big block V-8 made for a troublesome combination.

“His wife made him get rid of it,” Vern says. “She would get mad when he would get too wild with it.”

Even to start with, the two-barrel 383 (heck, muscle cars are at least supposed to have four) put out 290 horsepower and a stout 390 lb-feet of torque. But that was nothing when compared to the Hemi with 425 horsepower and 490 lb-feet of torque. During a November 1967 Car and Driver test of the ’68 Charger, the car managed to do the quarter mile in 13.5 seconds at 105 mph; and remember that’s with slippery old street tires. The car tested also had a cruiser friendly set of 3.23 gears, great for cruising down the freeway but definitely not what you want for tearing down the drag strip, slowing down the quarter-mile test time a little. The car had a top end of 158 mph.

It was the high-performance image that made a young Vern to fall in love with Mopars, especially the new Charger.

A lifelong mechanic and hot rodder, it didn’t take long for the Charger to gain a little more muscle. For starters, the two-barrel intake came off and was replaced by a four-barrel.

“I replace the two-barrel carb with a four barrel one, then added some headers,” he says. “Then I found out that the four-quart oil pan isn’t big enough for shifts at seven grand.”

Then came a new cam, ported heads and an advanced oiling system. With skills gained from his Dad, along with engine work experience from a Bjorke Cycle, a local Honda shop, the Charger started to become a rip-roaring muscle machine.

“I’ve won a lot of beer money with this car,” he says. “We used to travel from town to town looking for people to race.”

One memorable race was with a fellow car nut from Lake Preston, SD who had a fast ‘68 Chevelle. Whoever won the battle would walk away with $100 from the other driver. When the Chevelle came up short in the quarter mile, the owner didn’t have the money to pay. Luckily, he had other options.

“His Dad owned a bar over there and he just went and got a bunch of cases of beer to pay us with,” Vern says remembering a good time had by all afterwards. “And I had to dive back to Huron with a couple teeth missing from my 4.88s.”

The Charger also drew some heavy competition. A pair of brothers from Tulare, SD owned a nice and light ’64 Chevy Nova. Every time Vern or the “Tschetter brothers” would do something new to their car they would have a match to see who would walk away with bragging rights. The competition led to not only a lot of great quarter mile shoot outs, but also to camaraderie and an intense knowledge of what worked and didn’t work when it came to making a car go faster.

Besides the, uh, not-so-legal street races, the Charger saw its fair share of races at Thunder Valley Dragstrip in Marion. Vern first journeyed down to the racetrack shortly after it opened. And after a lifetime of hot rodding and rag races, the years seem to blend together. He can’t remember exactly when he made his first trip to the strip.

“I was there either the first or second year they opened,” he says. “Then I started taking the Charger down there.” 

But the Charger holds more memories than as just a race-ready street machine. It was the car that he owned when he met his wife, Janelle (Nellie).  The couple has now been married for 39 years.

“I have a lot of memories with that car,” she says. “It was part of [Vern] when I met him and first fell in love with him.” I’m sure there are many gearheads out there who wish their wives were as supportive.

Nellie says Vern used to pick her up in the Charger at her folks place just south of Iroquois, SD. “He even let me drive it home once,” she says. “But I don’t know if I would want to drive it now,” in reference to the car’s high-powered power plant.

The Transformation

Remember the comic book Hero the Hulk? The muscle bound green beast. He started out as just a normal man. Well, this green automobile has undergone a similar transformation from normal to beast.

The Charger has the same green paint and vinyl top as a famous Dodge ad for the Charger R/T package; the “Ramrod” ad is still in print as poster today. Legend has it that the “Ramrod” car was modified Hemi R/T Charger built by famed Chrysler race engineer Tom Hoover. Vern already had the car, a metallic green Charger with a green vinyl roof. He just needed a Hemi and a few other parts to make his dream car a reality.

Luckily, someone else’s bad luck turned into his good fortune. 

“There was 69 Hemi GTX that sat at service station in Pierre,” he says. “Someone took it for a joy ride down the hill and made it to the curve by a railroad trestle and wiped out. I heard about it but I didn’t have any spare money, so I told a friend about and he drove out there and bought the motor and transmission.” Then several years later he went over to visit the friend armed with a saved-up pile of $100 bills, and the mighty Hemi was his.

“I just kept laying down the $100 bills until he couldn’t stand it,” he says.

The Hemi is a story itself. With less than 4000 miles on it, it still has the original crank, rods and pistons. And that’s saying a lot for something that was usually trashed to its maximum potential on each use.

This particular Hemi found its way into Vern’s Charger in the early ‘80s. Finally, he had the dream ride was after since he was teenager.

In the mid ‘90s, the car’s original paint started to show its age. So the Charger went into the body shop to get a fresh coat of paint. And thanks to the great work of the folks at S&S Paint and Salvage located just outside of Forestburg, SD, the ol’ 68 Charger looks better than ever. Most of the interior looks great as well. Only the carpet and the front bucket seats have been replaced.

Even though the Charger has reached the ultimate in Mopar Performance cool with the Hemi, the original 383 two-barrel ranks among the rarities. There were only 283 of the cars built with a four-speed for 1968.

“A guy came up to me at and said I should pull the hemi out and get the 383 back in,” Vern says remembering an incident at an all-Mopar car show in Sioux Falls some years back. The guy asked him why he would do something like that to a rare car. The answer was simple — “Because I want to go fast.”

Yesterday’s Race Car, Today’s Show Car

Lately, the Charger has become a staple at regional car shows. Its good looks and aggressive vibe has earned many first place trophies. “Everybody knows the car when I bring it out,” Vern says. The car even earned so many first place awards at Huron’s Back Street Cruisers’ Car Show that they told him he won too many times and that the trophy had to go to someone else. But the Charger’s great styling combined with the Hemi and the attention, love and detail eventually earned him top honors again when he brought it back out after a hiatus.

The car brings a lot of onlookers.

“ I love going out cruising in it,” Nellie says. “Everywhere we go we get thumbs up and waves, and people shouting ‘nice car.’”

Although it’s not a numbers matching Hemi Charger R/T, it’s got a numbers matching show beauty beat on several levels. For starters, no one in their right mind would want to modify an all-original model, unless they’re also into burning money in the fireplace. A car like this can still be driven and let everyone know why the muscle car era still reigns at the top of the automotive hierarchy. Beside, “it’s got a lot of better parts in it,” says Vern when comparing to an original.

The car has one numerous trophies from area car shows including Canton and all-Mopar Moparama currently held at Billion Dodge.

100 Percent Mopar

How many homes in South Dakota can claim to have a ’68 Hemi Charger and ’70 Hemi ‘Cuda sitting out in the garage? Not too many I would bet.

The Mopar bug bite Vern when he was a youngster. Racers like Sox & Martin and Dick Landy were tearing up the drag strips in their Dodge and Plymouths. Plus, Ma Mopar cultivated a strong a performance image back in the ‘60s with their aggressive power plants, cool cars and wild paint and striping options. Chrysler sported more performance vehicles than any other Detroit auto manufacturer in the ‘60s.

Although the Charger holds a special place in his own history, it’s far from the only Mopar he’s owned or raced. Today, his garage also sports a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda, that, just like the Charger, started life as a 383 car and now sports a Hemi, and a super-light 1976 Duster drag car with a worked-up 440.

In today’s market, the Mopars are some of the most sought after beasts from the muscle car era. But back when Vern first started buying Dodges and Plymouth in the early to mid ‘70s it was different story.  

“I saw a lot of ‘Cudas and Challengers with Six Packs (440s) and Hemis go for $800, $900 dollars,” he says. Although the market has settled a little since the recession, a lot of those bargain “gas hogs” fetch well into the six-figures today.

When asked why chose Mopars over the other competitors with cool cars back in the muscle car days, Vern says, “I wanted to be a little different. Everybody had Chevy’s and my parents were into Fords.”  Reliability was also another factor. “I never saw too much go wrong with Mopar stuff, unless they weren’t take car of; gee, when was the last time I changed the oil … type stuff.”

His garage is filled with all sorts of Mopar goodies, mostly stuff he’s picked up over the years when it wasn’t desirable or second hand at swap meets. As someone who isn’t a rich, retired banker or racer with big sponsorship deals, a lot of the parts he’s acquired over the years are second hand.

“My Dad always told me that used parts were the way to go,” he says.  “If they are still work after all this time, you know you’ve got a good one.” 

He’s passed the love for Chrysler products on to his family. His wife Nellie used to drive a gray 1970 Cuda as her daily use vehicle. She would pick up the couple’s daughter, Angie, from school in the Cuda. Needless to say, Angie’s mom had the nicest ride of all the school’s parents. Although that particular ’70 Cuda had a low compression 400 engine that was suitable for a going to the grocery store, it was also outfitted with a slick nitrous oxide unit that made a rather fast car. An old time slip from the Marion drag strip shows the silver Cuda tripping the quarter-mile lights at 11.92 at 122.95 mph.

And when it came time for his daughter Angie to climb behind the wheel, she wound up with a Panther Pink 1970 ‘Cuda. Although it took several years to restore, the car became the home of the Charger’s original 383 motor. Talk about keeping a great tradition going. Recently, Vern helped his grandson build a worked up 360 for his ‘90s Dodge Dakota pickup.

The Wrenching Never Ends

The ’68 Charger must be a familiar sound to Vern’s neighbors.

The Hemi’s exhaust runs through a set of two-inch Hooker headers into 3-1/2 exhaust pipes (fashioned from Chevy drive shafts, no kidding) with two-chamber Flowmaster mufflers. The exhaust tone catches your attention, and nothing quite sounds like a Hemi. With this car it’s safe to bet that even those who hate the idea of a gas-guzzling beast are happy to catch site of such a beautiful machine.

The car is like being a loud rock concert; it’s over the top, a little bit dangerous and way too loud. But that’s the charm. There’s no power brakes or steering in this baby, because, as Vern quickly points out, that would take away from the rear wheel horsepower.

Although he still does a little bit of racing at Marion in his Duster, Vern prefers to be out in his garage working on his next project. Surrounded by a lifetime’s collection of engine parts, car show and drag strip trophies and, most importantly, memories. Plus, he keeps those old Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars running and looking great.

Plus, he’s always got new project on the backburner. On recent trip to his garage there is an engine head from a 440 up on a stand for a little port and polish work.  And, what’s this? … GASP … A Ford 351 head getting the same port and polish work in a die-hard Mopar fan’s garage!

It turns out passing on any of his hard learned hot rod knowledge is something he loves to do, even if it isn’t for a Dodge or Plymouth.

“I like helping people who aren’t afraid to do the work themselves,” he says. “I never had a lot of money, so I had to work to make these things run faster.”