Mopar Muscle – October 2019

We recently

returned from the

2019 Mopars at

the Strip event in Las Vegas and had a great time.

Of course, it’s always fun and interesting to see the

endless amounts of Mopars, both vintage and late-

model. But this trip was more fateful than it usually

is because of something that happened when we

arrived at the rental-car counter. Typically, our travel

budgets only allow us to get a small, imported

compact. Last year, we were fortunate enough to get

a Chrysler 300, but we usually receive some sort

of Kia, Hyundai, or Nissan to work out of with our

camera equipment.

But this year when we arrived with our reservation in

hand, the rental agent literally explained and apologized that

he had some bad news. He said, “I’m really sorry, but we’re all

out of cars and don’t have anything at the moment. We might

have a four-door sedan coming back in soon, if you can wait.”

I replied that “we were really running on a tight schedule and

actually needed something sooner so we could continue on

with our busy day.”

Without his knowing our destination, he then replied that

“if it would be OK with us, he could offer us a white HEMI

Dodge Challenger that was being washed at the moment,

and he would let us have that for the same compact-car daily

BANGIN GEARS

BOB MEHLHOFF, EDITOR

DRIVE IT

LIKE IT’S A

RENTAL CAR

rate of $39.” After we thought about that for about a tenth of a

second, we said sure, “We’d probably manage to make that work.”

The Challenger was obviously a blast to drive and to work out

of. The trunk was large enough to accommodate our camera gear

and made a great backdrop for some of the photo shoots. And

the HEMI engine had lots of great power and added a lot of fun

to our trip.

This worked out so well that I think next year we’ll try to

reserve another HEMI Dodge Challenger for this trip. I just hope

they’re not out of them when we arrive, and instead offer us

a Kia or Toyota Corolla for the same rate.

8 moparmuscle.com