(music builds)
(upbeat music)
- So muscle cars ladies and gentleman, are a dying breed.
We know they're out there, we see them in garages,
and we see them at car shows every now and then.
But the one place that you rarely actually see them is here.
You don't see them ripping through the dessert
at 80 or 90 miles an hour.
And you sure as hell don't see them
taking a 2500 mile road trip across the United States
to the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Now to start of the House of Muscle,
we wanted to do something epic.
We figured, "What can we do that's going to
blow the minds of everybody?"
Well, sitting in my garage is this car.
This is a 1969 Dodge Daytona.
It is a clone, some people are going to bitch
but I don't care.
- [Mike Voiceover] In our convoy we have two vehicles.
A Dodge Charger Hellcat, and the '69 Daytona.
One old, and more importantly, one new
in case the old one breaks down.
- Up in the Hellcat up there we have Pat Devera.
I'm sure he's nice and comfortable,
probably got the AC on at about 72.
My eyes right now are going two places.
In the road in front of us, and the temperature gauge.
Because this car, once it gets really hot,
it doesn't like it. It just doesn't like it.
(upbeat music)
- We're at Benton gas station,
I don't even know what town we're in.
We pulled off and it seems like
one of our big fans took a crash.
It went up to 220.
- It's down to 170.
- Well it is now, but as soon as we start
it's going to go back up to 220.
The car went up to 220 degrees ,
we pulled over, and trying to cool it off.
But it's over 100 degrees out now,
and it's just a question of if it is the relay,
(laughs) can we pull a relay from somebody else and fix it
or can we just wire it to the battery to see if
the actual fan hasn't actually taken a dump but works.
This was my biggest fear.
That something in the car was going to crap out
and leave us stranded literally in the middle of nowhere.
But we have to let it cool, we just do.
- [Colin] Do you have connectors? And wire?
- Yeah. - [Colin] Hook it up.
- The best part about this is we have a Colin.
When you have a Colin, you can pretty much guarantee that
your stuff's going to be fixed
and you will get to your destination.
Everybody should have a Colin by the way. Everybody.
Every woman should have a Colin too, that's a plug.
- It's junk.
- What the hell was that?
- That is the connector for the fans.
- Oh dude, it's totally melted.
- Yeah, look.
- So anytime I go on a road trip, I have what I call my,
for all intensive purposes we'll call it my O-Pit Kit.
It's got wiring, it's got clamps, it's got hoses,
it's got fuel line, it's got a whole bunch of stuff.
And when we first did this trip,
Colin kind of look at it and was like,
"You probably don't need to bring this".
Yet I did need to bring it.
- The things we do for our cars. (laughs)
- O-Pit Kit.
- You ready for this?
- Switch.
(fan turns on)
Yay!
What do we have? - Two working fans.
- So we have two working fans?
Two working fans, and a Colin.
Tell me we're not going to get there.
(upbeat music)
- So one of my favorite things about this car
is that it's a great example of a time when
an automotive manufacturer just said "screw it".
It's actually pretty indicative of how
Dodge is today these days.
Like the next thing you know,
you can buy a Charger with 707 horsepower.
It passes all 50 State emissions, it gets decent mileage,
and it's crazy reliable.
This is a perfect example of that, is this car.
You look at the Hellcat, you look at the Charger Hellcat,
the Challenger Hellcat.
Dodge is just reinventing itself
and they're having that moment again.
And they're having that,
"You know, screw it.
Let's just build the coolest stuff we can
and put it out there".
(upbeat music)
- So I got to be honest.
Right now I'm pretty excited.
I'm standing in front of a bucket list location for me.
Behind me is the Goldfield Hotel.
Now if you are a Dodge or a Mopar guy,
you know that the Goldfield Hotel was the home of Super Soul
from the movie Vanishing Point.
His radio station WKOW was right there.
Right there!
This is amazing.
And like Super Soul said, man,
speed means freedom of the soul.
That's why we came here.
(upbeat music)
So apparently the Goldfield Hotel
is not the only cool thing in Goldfield, Nevada.
This is the International Car Forest of the Last Church.
It's an art installation.
Now, we've got 40 cars that are buried kind of nose-in,
all different makes and models.
We're looking around and I want to find a couple of
old Dodges and Chrysler and like, this is it.
This is an old Chrysler,
looks to be an old Imperial or something,
like an airport car.
And back in the day, they didn't have SUVs right.
They didn't have minivans.
So this is what they used,
they used these massive stretched road cars.
This is awesome.
This thing is cool.
(upbeat music)
- Okay so Mike has asked me to tell you
what I think about this car 'cause he just raves about it.
But I like my modern cars like the Hellcat.
Honestly, by any normal modern measure,
this car is horrendous.
But there is something about it that's kind of amazing.
The fact that it's still going.
Because if it gets too hot, it's going to blow.
And if it gets behind a car, it's going to blow.
And if I go too fast, it's going to blow.
I'd just like to go really fast,
in which case it'll be fine.
But then here's the thing again about it.
Once you've driven this for a couple of miles
you forget all of these things.
You forget you're boiling,
you forget every pore in your body is running with sweat.
You forget you can hardly hear. And the windows are open.
Doesn't really matter.
Because this car is amazing.
(upbeat music)
(music fades)
(awe-inspiring music)
(awe-inspiring music continues)
- So obviously on this trip,
one of the main goals was to connect
with some Dodge enthusiasts.
So we're here at the Red Rock amphitheater
with Dan Frazzini.
And so Dan, give me an idea of why
you chose this place for us to meet with you.
- Well first of all I grew up here in Denver.
And first concert ever was at Red Rock.
And there's really not a more beautiful scenic spot to pick.
But really, why are you here with that car--
(Mike laughs)
Driving cross country?
- Our whole thing was driving something
that was fun and exciting across the country, right.
And we actually the wrong car to drive across the country.
We've been battling heat, we've been battling overheating,
we've been battling gas fumes and everything else.
But you know, we made it. And it's here, which is good.
One of the first things I found out about you
is that you had a '68.
You obviously know that I have a '68.
So it's kind of, it's a soft spot.
So walk me through this thing, because I love it, I love it.
- Yeah, thank you.
So this is my 1968 Dodge Charger.
It's a 440, four speed car.
I've done a couple things to it.
It has aluminum radiator with duel fans.
I kind of rerouted the fuel system a little bit.
- Which you kind of need out here.
- Yes, you do.
With the altitude, you're always struggling,
tuning the car, etcetera.
Always gives you something to do.
Switched it over to disc breaks,
just for safety sake and nothing else.
Upgraded the suspension, put a big old front sway bar in,
tied up the sub-frames, so it has sub-frame connectors,
just made the car a lot more solid.
And then when I put in the four speed,
I did all the liner--
- Yeah, sure.
- Made it much more quiet inside.
Kind of kept some heat out.
- So it feels kind of normal.
- Kind of normal.
So this is a straight line, go fast car.
Not worried about cornering.
And you have to stop good, too.
- You do need breaks. That's always a bonus.
This '68 Charger is obviously my favorite Mopar
of all time, but I know you brought something else.
- Yeah. I have my '70 Cuda.
This car I really thought would look good
sort of with a pro- touring vibe.
I wanted just a little bit of a different slant
to a traditional numbers matching style of car.
So I plunked up the wheels to 18 by eights
and 18 by tens.
And added some of the Hotchkiss sports suspension.
But I kept with the 340 six barrel in there.
- Oh good, okay so you still got the heritage in there.
- Yeah.
- This is the stuff that I still can't believe
that Dodge and Mopar did back in the day.
- Maybe I'm a little biased, 'cause I'm a Dodge guy,
but they are so easy to spot, they just stand out.
And that's always been the truth with Dodge.
They've always made something that is just
so far different from everybody else.
They had the vivid colors.
They had models that were not even close to anything else.
- Right.
It's a Tuesday in Colorado.
Nobody wants to go to work,
they'd rather just hang out with Mopars.
(upbeat music)
- So we were getting on the Freeway,
and I made a left-hand turn.
And in the back of the car is a jack
that is not fastened down into the box.
And it slid over and pinched the harness for the fuel pump
and grounded the harness, the wire to the fuel pump.
And then it blew the fuse.
- And this is why you always bring Colin
on every road trip you do.
- And a spare 20 amp fuse. - And a spare 20 amp fuse.
- Just like that. Love it.
(slow upbeat music)
- Thanks for coming out.
- Dude, how are you? - Good, thanks Mike.
- Oh my God.
I'm going to say right off the bat, I hate you.
(both laugh)
But I love you at the same time.
Is that a Mr Norm's van?
- That is Mr Norm's van.
- What?
- '77 Dodge Tradesman with the 440 in a Dayna.
- Where did you find this?
- I found this four doors down from my house
in Naperville.
- This is the original Mr Norm's van, right?
- Yep. Mr Norm owned it in 1977 to 1980
and took his family to Aspen in it.
And then it went missing 'cause my neighbor had it.
- And nobody knew? He just didn't--?
- He didn't even know who Mr Norm was.
- So he bought this looking like this,
had no clue of the significance of the van.
- Yep.
- And just drove it around.
- Just drove it around and took his family
to Branson, Missouri every summer in it.
And what's cool is the lady that painted it,
her name and the date when she pained the mural
is on the other side.
- Okay so this is obvious-- What did this start out as?
'Cause obviously you modified the hell out of it.
- Yep. It's a real Ucode, so it's a real 440 car.
It was B5 blue.
- So why'd you go paint it panther pink?
- It's my favorite color.
- Is it really?
- Yeah it just--
when I see pink, and sassy grass and purple,
those high-impact colors, they make you hyper.
- This is beautiful.
It's a '70 Charger 500. - Mhm.
- Is it a real 500?
- Yep, it's a real 500. - Okay.
- George Kubis, who is a legend in the Hemi world,
he built the car.
He's a well known man, he's 70 years old.
Him and his cousin Billy built it.
The carbs are date-coded, the intake's date-coded,
the manifold's are date-coded, the air cleaner's date-coded.
So they really went nuts
to try and make this like a real Hemi car.
- Can I drive something?
- Take your pick, man.
- Really? - Yeah.
The cat's fast, the fastest,
but this thing's got the TBS that handles great.
And that's got a 528, so.
You have your choice.
I mean, then you've got the van,
but I don't know if you guys want to showcase that.
(upbeat music)
- [Mike Voiceover] What you need to understand is
that back in the day,
Norm Kraus, or Mr Norm as he was known,
was the premiere name in Pentastar Tuning
and his Grand Spaulding Dealership
was considered hollowed ground to many purists.
Thus getting to pilot his personal van was a kin
to getting to ride in a shag-upholstered time machine.
And while it was an experience I'll never forget,
the Woodward Dream Cruise was in sight.
So it was time to get back on the road.
(upbeat music)
- So we finally made it to the Woodward Dream Cruise
and we're standing here at the Dodge booth
in front of the new 2017 Dodge Daytona.
Now at first I wasn't really sure what to make
of the Daytona considering we drove here in a 1969 version.
Now, this is so much more than I ever really thought.
We're talking a 392.
Big 20-inch wheels were in 275 series rubber.
485 Horespower.
Think of the 2017 as a Hellcat Light,
and you'll see where I'm going with this.
The key here is fun, and that's what Dodge is known for.
- [Mike Voiceover] So here's the thing.
Driving across the country is one thing.
But being invited to run against the boys from Roadkill
in a drag race in front of 25,000 people,
well that's something else altogether.
At this moment, I'm about to race Mike Finnegan
in the Dirt-Track Challenger.
So if i lose, it'll be so painfully big
that it'll be one of the most embarrassing moments
in my automotive career.
The other huge concern, and the one I'm more worried about,
is scratching a very special
and really expensive borrowed helmet.
- You've got such a small head. Ow.
So tight.
(upbeat music)
(heavy music)
(cars revving)
(loud car engines)
- That's pretty good.
- [Man] That's the biggest smile
I've seen on Colin all week.
- Oh my God. That's full redemption for the Daytona.
(upbeat music)
(wheels screeching)
(engines roaring)
(upbeat music)
(Mike laughs)
- That was a proper ass-kicking.
I'm not bummed at all.
If I'm going to lose to somebody,
at least I can lose to somebody cool.
- That was fun.
- I can't believe we drag raced
in front of all these people.
- I can't believe my car didn't blow up.
(upbeat music)
- [Mike Voiceover] Making memories
are what road trips are all about.
From meeting fellow enthusiasts
to running at Roadkill Nights,
and ultimately making it to the Woodward Dream Cruise.
These experiences fall from a single passion
and bonds us all together.
And to put it simply, we love to drive.
If you liked this episode of The House
Of Muscle and want to see more there's a brand new one available right
now on Motor Trend On Demand
so normally I would find myself lying
underneath the belly of a car
however this is no ordinary car what your looking at is quite
possibly the greatest Plymouth Belvedere
ever made well a solid
1600 horsepower
20 pounds of boost it's so fast
each new episode of the House Of Muscle premieres
exclusively on Motor Trend On Demand
sign up for a free 30-day trial and
watch the latest episode now