1970 Dodge Charger
I had a theme day of sorts yesterday. In celebration of the Minnesota Vietnam Vets coming to take away my ’85 Grand Royal Oldsmobile, I decided I go check out the Car Craft Summer National Car Show at the Minnesota Sate Fair Grounds. The State Fair Grounds hosts non-fair events all summer until the Fair actually starts on August 26th. Each event is always some festival celebrating the various active sub-cultures that roam our country. The Car Craft show brings together over 3000 muscle cars for everyone to ogle. As is typical of an event like this one, the participants are almost as interesting as the vehicles. I go to these events for one purpose and one purpose only and that’s to check out the sampling of 1970 Dodge Chargers. Unlike the 1969 Charger (aka The General Lee) The 1970 Charger is distinguishable by its ultra cool single continuous grill.

There were a few pristine specimens at the car show. The green paint job on the Charger R/T (pictured above) was off-the-hook. The photo doesn’t do it justice. The orange Charger 500 however had a 426 dual-overhead cam Hemi engine inside that was previously owned and used by Richard Petty. The engine alone was valued by it’s owner at around $30,000. Needless to say he wasn’t going to give me a ride. Which was probably a good thing because it turns out that this particular Charger 500 had somewhat of a Stephen King Christine-like curse to it. Apparently the last two owners of the vehicle had died behind the wheel in non-accident related deaths.

I ended my Mopar appreciation day at Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge, where $1.25 cans of Schmidt were the Sunday special and the pizza was delicious.