We’ve seen enough General Lee replicas, we’ve seen enough Bullitt Chargers, and people are already starting to wear out the image of Roadkill’s General Mayhem, but what we haven’t seen too much of are 1968 Dodge Chargers that can hit 200 mph (322 km/h).
Courtesy of Autopia LA’s YouTube Channel, we’re treated to a tour of Jimmy Shine’s 1968 Dodge Charger, which he built to race at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Shine built the muscle car in the early 2000s with a dream team of hot rodders, including Dick Landy and Pete Shaporous.
To test the vehicle’s top speed, the team took it to a dry lake bed, but not the one they were supposed to be on. Shine says they were able to do four runs on a stretch of dirt beside the highway before the police showed up, but in that time they were able to get the car up to 180 mph (290 km/h).
The car was originally built for a TV show that Shine was set to star in, but after that day on the lake bed, the project was effectively canceled, and the vehicle (owned by the production company) disappeared.
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One day, Shine received a call from his agent saying “I have the car, I don’t know what to do with it.” It had been hidden away for 15 years, the engine had been removed, and the car was deteriorating. Shine bought the car back and decided to build it up as a top speed runner, just like it was originally intended.
Providing the motivation is none other than a Hemi. It could have been a 318, because that’s what the car started out with. Obviously, that had to go, and a 510 hp Hemi 494 was plopped between the frame rails, along with a 727 torqueflite automatic. The rear axle was changed to a Ford nine-inch for strength, and the gear ratio is 3.00 in order to reach its top speed.
One might expect a Mopar muscle car to be riding on fat tires for traction, but that’s not how it works with land speed racing, so the Charger has been fitted with skinny tires front and rear which allow them to dig into the salt at Bonneville.
As for the exterior modifications, there aren’t too many besides the six-pack scoop and the moon wheel covers, which provide a modicum of aerodynamic improvement. In addition, both the front windshield and the rear back window feature aluminum bars that are riveted to the sheet metal, which stops them from blowing out at high speed.
One of the best pieces of the car is the gas pedal, and not for the reason you think. Shine explains that the foot-shaped unit is a cheap item from Pep-Boys, but it throws the style back to the modified cars of the 1970s.
Taking it for a ride in downtown LA certainly isn’t what the car was built to do, but it does provide us with a little taste of its character.
