My brother swapped his 1973 2 door Plymouth Satellite for this car. The lifters were shagged and it took 20 minutes to start it when he got it; the base of the carb was distorted that's why it flooded and was difficult to start, so I skimmed the base of the carb and he put a new set of lifters in the motor. Within a few days he realised that slight rumble from the motor was the mains, a few days later the big ends got noisy. The previous owner had changed the bearings prior to selling it. When he removed the sump it was quite amazing one of the rod journals had a serious step between the two rods; I have never seen a crank in such a state except for knackered roller crank pins, the bloke had managed to get 5 thou US shells on one of the worn journals, with a bit of help from a file by the look of it.

At this stage he suggested swapping the charger for the 1967 Mustang that I had just rebuilt, I owed him a lot of money anyway, so we swapped cars and cleared the slate. I took the motor out and swapped it for a load of new engine parts that a bloke with a Superbird had and I bought a stripped Jensen 440 motor that had all been remachined by a machinist at Panther Cars.

Over the next 6 months I cut all the rust out of the body, all patches were solder filled after welding in. When you look along the panels of a car they are invariably quite rippley especially the rear quarters of cars with big blocks. Sikkens 2pack stopper had just come out, I skimmed every panel and got the car super straight. It was originally green[?], I painted it red. When I went to the yank breakers in Colliers Wood[ South London] they remembered the car when it was first imported it had been in primer when it was imported and was painted black by them.

I didn't need much to rebuild the 440 Jensen motor, just some pushrods and an intake manifold. I went to see a Chrysler New Yorker that was for sale, I went 3 months after the advert had been printed and I got it for £100. It was absolutely mint just needed a set of clutches in the gearbox. I got it home pulled the engine and box and took the rest to a scrap yard. I have always regretted this as the car was so clean, the guy I bought it off had been to the states in 1969 and bought it[new] while he was there. The petrol shortage in the 70's meant it wasn't used very much, then he decided it was rather expensive to run, I think it had done 30,000 miles. I put this motor in the Charger and took a driving test, so this was my first car that I could drive:)

I was a member of the NDRC[national drag racing club] who raced at Blackbush and Long Marston[it's called Avon Park now], I thought I would try my hand at street racing. I immediately decided to rebuild the motor, with a stock rebuild it ran 13.6 s not bad for an old heavy car.

A friend of mine was racing an Alfa Bertone in the Alfa Challenge[roundy-roundy], the Bertone wasn't a road car and was taken everywhere on a transporter and I took all the tools in the boot of the Dodge. Going to one meeting I drove the Dodge at 140 MPH for just over an hour and pulled into some services to wait for the transporter to catch up, I didn't know where the race track was. In the entrance to the restaurant was an RAC man trying to sell RAC membership including recovery; I said "what would I need that for?" When I went back to the car there was a line of transmission fluid that had leaked from it. The gearbox tailshaft housing had broken off, just behind the bearing. I decided the leak wasn't that fast and I would drive the rest of the way[10 miles] so I filled the box and drove at 40 MPH with the transporter behind me. We stopped to fill the box every couple of miles. When we got there the CF was covered in a fine mist of transmission fluid so was Tony's Alfa. Tony and Julian went home in the Bertone, Julian moaned about burning his arse on the floor, the Bertone was stripped and the floor got very hot from the exhaust. I drove home in the CF with the Charger on the back, cost about £35 in petrol to get it there and £8 in diesel to get it home. We should have put all the tools in the car, they were in the boot and above 30 MPH the steering was very light, in fact I had great difficulty keeping it on one lane of the motorway above 30 MPH. I decided that the tailshaft housing had probably cracked the week before when I drove down from Birmingham with a broken engine mount.

I still have the plate from the flitch, up until recently I had the build sheet from under the rear seat I appear to have lost it.

It was a column change car but I fancied a floor change so I made a ratchet shifter, it was aluminium with anodised shear nuts from a Harrier and gauge plate gates. It was quite an impressive looking thing, people said it looked like it should be in a harrier. When a mate of mine bought a B&M shifter we looked at how they worked and they seemed to be almost the same, mine had a lever to get out of the ratchet instead of lifting the stick. I wouldn't be surprised if it was removed to fit a name brand shifter I would love to have it back. I have been hunting for other pictures of it I have one of it next to Bobs Daytona Charger at North Weald dragstrip, but I can't find it, well this wasn't the one I was thinking about.