You can sort of make out that this car was at one time a Dodge Challenger. The Hemi-powered LC-platform unit here is a salvage-title vehicle that has been brought back from the dead and stripped of all unnecessary sheetmetal in an effort to lighten it. The trend for this type of car was started years ago with the “Vette cart” trend and has spread to other makes and models. Like the Street Van above, it too was participating in the Grand Champion triathlon.
Dodge no longer makes the Challenger, but some dealers still have inventory. This “Last Call” Dodge Challenger Scat Pack in F8 green in the MoParty manufacturer’s midway is one of a very few convertible conversions sanctioned by Dodge and the dealership’s rep was giving away free Dodge water bottles. We had never seen one of these in person before MoParty and the conversion looks to be top notch!
All things The Dukes of Hazzard are sacred to Mopar faithful and for the first time in MoParty history event-goers were rewarded with the appearance of Catherine Bach (70), who played the role of Daisy Duke in the TV series. Throughout the day on Saturday, Bach signed autographs and took photos with fans in the manufacturer’s midway.
Mopar fans also got to check out Shane Taylor’s “Gold Digger” 1966 Dodge Coronet, a genre-bending vintage tribute to street racer and civil-rights activist Big Willie Robinson, who was a close friend of Taylor’s. We’ve covered this car before in detail, and it features a load of vintage parts and decals Taylor has collected over the years to build the ultimate inexpensive tribute machine.
The House of Kolor “Tangerine Kandy” wasn’t a factory color for Plymouth in 1973, but it looks awesome on Andrew and Kevin Aldus’s Road Runner (Lakeland, Florida). It features a Magnum Force front suspension, a low-deck B-series stroker with 451ci, and a four-speed manual with overdrive.
We can only imagine the story behind this shortened, 440-equipped 1979 B200 Dodge Van, which was still for sale when we departed. It’s got 53K miles on the odometer and had been marked down to $10,500. We had to wait quite a while to get the shot as the kids of MoParty were irresistibly drawn to its diminutive silhouette.
Here’s another shot of the shortened 1979 Dodge B200 van from the inside. It is at least as commodious as a new Corvette and we’ll bet, unlike a Corvette, it does wheelies on demand!
We saw a changing of the guard at MoParty 2024 with some of the traditional players in the manufacturer’s midway missing but other new ones arriving. One of the new faces this year was Levi Green, owner and operator of Hammerfab, an Austin-based hot rod shop that specializes in Mopar suspensions. Green’s previous career as a fabricator for Rad Rides by Troy has given him insight into the suspension and fabrication world that’s second to none, and his new suspension system for Mopar A-Bodies is something we plan to bring you details on soon!
This sharp little 1967 Dodge Dart two-door sedan looks ready to attack the track in mind-bending fury with its Paxton Novi-blown 340 small-block, but seemed satisfied with wowing onlookers at the car show. Riddle: What do you do if you’ve got two colors of paint but not enough of either to paint a whole car? If you’re Richard Petty, you combine them to make Petty blue. If you’re this guy, you paint one half black and the other half white!
We already showed you the extremely rare Last Call edition 2023 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack convertible, but have you seen the even more rare 1991 Dodge Dakota 318ci small-block convertible? Dodge only made eight of them in 1991, the last year of the Dakota convertible (1989–1991) and the first year of the small-block V-8 Dakota. This is one that performed duty at the 1991 Indy 500.
When HOT ROD Hellcat-swapped a 1986 Buick Regal for HOT ROD Drag Week 2023, it must have made an impression on people, because this Moparty guest out of Virginia brought a similar-vintage GM G-body—this one an Oldsmobile Cutlass—with the same Hellcat swap performed. After all, why should Buicks get all the boosted fun?
The MoParty swap meet gets larger every year, and if you’re a Mopar guy or gal, you know swap meets are a lot more important than most might imagine. This 1964 Plymouth Belvedere two-door sedan had no engine or driveline but sported some original “Buzzard Bait” racing graphics. The owner wasn’t looking to sell it yet but wanted to find out the back history on it first. If you have any intel on the Buzzard Bait racer, its owner would like you to call 270-668-8314!
Buddy Baker was the first driver to set a 200-mph pace on a closed course at Talladega, Alabama, on March 24, 1970, and it was with a Cotton Owens-built 1969 Dodge Daytona very similar to this one—but was it with this Dodge Daytona? We don’t have the answer to that, although it’s commonly held that the car that did it is currently in the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. The version at MoParty, however, did have all the telltale signs of having been driven hard on the NASCAR circuit.
One of the author’s favorite rides is the 2019-to-2023 Dodge Challenger Super Stock, a variant of the Redeye that took about 20 percent of its parts from the Demon parts bin, including its wheels, engine (sans race gas tune!), tires, and drag suspension. We featured Billy Jack Hazlett’s Tor Red 2021 Dodge Super Stock earlier, and he was having a tough time slowing it down to the 10.00 index he had declared for the Hellcat/Redeye/Demon/Super Stock (HRDS) bracket. Billy Jack does not like to slow down for Demons!
We’re a bit confused that MoParty promoters elected to make the Scat Pack 1320 class an index; these cars have virtually identical performance to each other, so a heads-up format would’ve provided a lot more spectator interest. Nevertheless, it’s fun to watch a class full of affordable and mostly stock cars with naturally aspirated 392 Hemis running high 11s on nothing more than good tires and well-chosen factory hardware. We even spotted some completely stock 1320s run bottom 12s on the factory 275/40R20 Nexen N’Fera SUR4G drag radials!
The moment we laid eyes on the Miller family’s 1984 Dodge Diplomat, we were hooked. It used to belong to great-aunt Eva, a high-school principal and fellow Mopar leadfoot. She passed away and the car was passed to her grand nephews, who fittingly swapped in a 5.9-liter Magnum engine and an intercooled turbocharger. Great-aunt Eva would’ve approved of the spooled 8¾ rear and Mickey Thompson ET Streets. Look for a feature on it soon.
That’s Travis Waller of St. Louis, Missouri, standing near his 1967 Plymouth Valiant, which was built at home on a skinny budget. Travis followed the author’s 1968 Plymouth Valiant project but took a more modern path with an EFI’d 6.1-liter Gen 3 Hemi boosted with an intercooled turbo setup. This super affordable combo was running 10-ohs at MoParty, embarrassing cars costing 10 times as much. We have a feature in the bag, so stay tuned!
Sublime Technologies is a company that specializes in Hemi swaps, which are becoming a lot more mainstream these days. One of the last stumbling blocks to be addressed is the power-distribution issue, which Sublime Technologies solves with its power distribution kit. This is the electrical interface you’ve been chasing, and it allows you to power all your Hemi’s needs without completely stripping down a donor car for its harness, relays, and wiring. Called the R2 QuickRun harness, it’s currently on sale for $900.
