383RT
Active Member
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2018
- Messages
- 35
- Reaction score
- 20
My name is Allen and I'm new to the forum but not to the hobby. My story dates back to the late seventies as a junior in high school. I was always a Mopar fan because of my Dad's influence. I got hooked that year on a Challenger that looked to be straight out of Car Craft Magazine. It was silver with a multi color paint scheme and a big block with a tunnel ram and two fours popping straight out of the hood. From then on I knew I had to have one of my own. Later, I found out an older neighbor of mine "Bob", had a 383 Four Barrel, Plum Crazy, 1970 Challenger SE sitting in the backyard on the side of his house and I started hounding him to sell. Bob wouldn't budge on selling as he always had thoughts of restoring it someday. He had no problems though in letting me come over to check it out and dream of owning one. Time went on and during my senior year I picked up the paper one day and found a non-descript ad for a Red 1970 Challenger 383 R/T. I called the owner and arranged to go over and look at it. When I drove up, the car was out in the driveway and my jaw just dropped. I got out and met "Bill" who was the original owner and kept this thing in his garage for weekend getaways to Tahoe. His ad failed to mention the black vinyl top and interior, or that it was a 4spd car! I couldn't believe the condition of this car. I made a quick trip home to get my Dad and have him look at the car. He agreed it was a nice car to start with and I put a $100 deposit on it that night with the agreed price to be $2900.00. I asked Bill to give me a few days for the rest of the money and my Dad helped in co-signing a loan for me. The loan was a little scary as I was only working part time at a gas station, but I managed to make the $90 a month payment for roughly 3 years and consider it one of my best investments I've ever made. Here are a few early pics just after I bought it.
Here you will notice chrome bumper bolts below the rear window. It is a rear window louver car, but Bill didn't care for the look and decided to remove them. Luckily he still had them and promised to call me when he was able to get them out of his attic.
Here she is from the front.
That's me trying to look cool or something. My friend who took the picture was on the high school year book and came up with the idea.
Bill came through with the louvers and here is a shot with them finally on.
That's me sandwiched between 2 Hemi cars at an early Car Craft Nationals at the Cal State Expo in Sacramento.
Well that's enough for now. I do have another story to tell later about my neighbor Bob's 70 Challenger 383 Four Barrel SE and how I ended up owning that one as well.
Here you will notice chrome bumper bolts below the rear window. It is a rear window louver car, but Bill didn't care for the look and decided to remove them. Luckily he still had them and promised to call me when he was able to get them out of his attic.
That's me trying to look cool or something. My friend who took the picture was on the high school year book and came up with the idea.
Bill came through with the louvers and here is a shot with them finally on.
Well that's enough for now. I do have another story to tell later about my neighbor Bob's 70 Challenger 383 Four Barrel SE and how I ended up owning that one as well.
