ACMfinish
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114Muscle Car Corner
Paul Dodd gets a soaking over the bank holiday weekend.
Want to get in touch with Paul? Email [email protected] or write to the address on page 3
It’s August bank holiday and
the plan is for a good few of us
to meet up at the BP near my
house, then all rumble into the
Buster Lang show; what could
go wrong? Well, the weather,
actually. It was a total wash-out
and most had bailed out but Mad
Dog had driven over all the way
from Ashford in his Duke Charger,
and fellow Surrey Muscler Nick
Woods was also at the garage
in his new Z06 Corvette as I
arrived in my Astra. Yes, even I
had chickened out. “Where’s the
Olds?” they said, as if it was a
lovely sunny day!
Sod it we thought, we are
here now so let’s give it a go, so
next thing we are at the show
huddling under a gazebo atthe Mopar Muscle Association
stand courtesy of Derek Carter
and family who were there in
force and also supplied the
marshals for free. Considering
the weather there was actually a
good turnout of cars, especially
of the Mopar variety, but about
an hour or so in the rain was
getting heavier so we called it a
day. I did feel for the organisers,
stallholders and marshals as
over 500 cars had signed up to
appear but mother nature was
not playing ball.
On a brighter note, what is
encouraging is that at every
event I go to a few muscle car
gems pop up. At the Buster Lang
show there was an unmolested
’67 Super Sport Impala in aprimrose colour, and a really
clean second-gen Camaro in
black with bling wheels. At the
Krispy Kreme meet a couple of
weeks before, an original orange
Plymouth Duster turned up
and an immaculate ‘72 Chevelle
to die for. Then there was a
Ford Maverick, a rare find in
this country, and this one was
done up like a circuit racer. At
the beginning of the month I
popped down to the American
Car Day at Brooklands and came
across two absolute gems; a
beautifully restored bronze 440
‘Cuda alongside an equally clean
convertible Super Bee. There
was a notable amount of new
muscle both at Dragstalgia and
the Mopars too so the scene is as
healthy as it has ever been. After
doing the rounds at drag races,
cruises and shows for the last 25
years you eventually run into the
same faces and the same cars
so it really is refreshing when
you see new stuff, especially
if it’s muscle car shaped, and
a seemingly endless flow are
flooding in which is great news.
Maybe all those American
car programmes on Discovery
and the new “Muscle Car Wars”
are helping to revive interest
with the likes of the 700-plus
horsepower Hellcat and the new
Corvette, Camaro and Mustang
starting to make their way over
here in increasing numbers, but
can they really compete with theoriginals? Well, they are certainly
more powerful and comfortable,
and driving to Buster Lang in the
rain today sandwiched between
the old Charger and the new
‘Vette showed the gulf between
the two. The Charger twitched
sideways every time even a
small amount of throttle was
applied and Dave was struggling
to see through the condensation
on the windscreen. I could
actually smell the petrol fumes
coming out of the rear of the
Charger as the highly strung
motor spat and snarled at idle in
traffic, getting hotter and hotter
and causing the inside to mist
up even more. Meanwhile I could
not even hear the engine in the
Corvette behind me as it made
effortless progress through it
all, but believe me this Z06 can
move, being able to cover the
quarter mile in 11 seconds on
its way to 180mph-plus via a
paddle-shift six-speed and can
corner like it’s on rails with its
aluminium chassis, so along with
the likes of the Hellcat these
really are proper muscle cars.
Then again this particular ‘69
Charger is no ordinary Dukes
of Hazzard tribute car - it has
run the quarter in the low-nine-
second zone, sounded awesome
as the boom from each cylinder
pounded the ground, and looked
the absolute nuts on the road, so
for me the old school rules. Keep
bringing them over, I say!finish line.indd 114 21/09/2015 11:43:39