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.”
