{"id":27335,"date":"2019-08-25T04:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T08:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=27335"},"modified":"2024-03-25T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T15:24:17","slug":"the-one-that-never-got-away-original-owner-1970-hemi-challenger-r-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/owners-clubs\/2019\/08\/the-one-that-never-got-away-original-owner-1970-hemi-challenger-r-t.html","title":{"rendered":"The One That Never Got Away – Original Owner 1970 HEMI®<\/sup> Challenger R\/T"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How many times have we heard the tale of the one that got away?\nNot a girlfriend or boyfriend, you can replace those. No, we\u2019re talking about a\ncool muscle car that was part of your youth a time long ago. It was more than\nmetal, rubber, vinyl and gas. The car was part of your personality, it was\nyour buddy and confidant. It made you a hero when you laid down two long black\nstripes on the pavement when you stabbed the gas pedal. The hoodlum friends you\nhung out with loved it and your parents hated it. As with most of these\nstories, the muscle car owner grows up, heads off to college, gets married,\nkids come along and soon the street machine is no longer practical. The\nmulti-carbureted big block that drank a gallon of expensive high-octane fuel\nfor every seven miles traveled is not the most pragmatic mode of\ntransportation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Joe Medwick of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, he made sure\nhis badass 1970 Dodge HEMI\u00ae<\/sup> Challenger R\/T SE that he purchased brand new didn\u2019t\nslip away from his grip. While many of his peers succumbed to family pressure\nof selling their muscle cars during the era of high-insurance rates, oil\nembargoes and long lines at the gas pumps that included fuel rationing, Joe\nhung on to his rare ride for almost 50 years. He bought the Challenger R\/T in\nlate 1970, but like most tales, there\u2019s a bit of a backstory. The dealer wanted\nthe Burnt Orange Challenger R\/T SE off the showroom floor. It had been sitting\nfor months and was eroding any profit the salesman could make on this car. Joe\nwas driving a 1968 Charger R\/T powered by a 440 Magnum and his local dealer had\nbeen bugging him to trade in the Charger and take the Challenger. Joe wasn\u2019t in\nneed of a new car, his Charger R\/T performed flawlessly. But since the dealer\nwas desperate to move the Challenger as the 1971 models would be showing up\nsoon, Joe threw a lowball offer at the salesman, which was quickly rejected. Later on, the salesman took Joe\u2019s bid and the HEMI Challenger R\/T was his. It took Joe giving\nthe dealer about $2,000 cash plus his 1968 Charger R\/T, but the deal was done. As\nJoe likes to put it, \u201cWhenever I traded a car in, I wanted to trade up. Well, you\ncan\u2019t really go further up from a HEMI car!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"manufacturer<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joe certainly traded up. His shiny Burnt Orange HEMI Challenger R\/T SE was fairly well optioned for muscle car standards. First, it was ordered by the dealer with the \u201cSpecial Edition\u201d package, which included a white vinyl roof with a special \u201cSE\u201d emblem on the pillar, a smaller \u201cformal\u201d rear window that provided more privacy for the driver and passengers, special bright trim moldings along the front splash pan, door, hood and upper quarter panel, edge of decklid, and other areas that make the Challenger look more country club member and less like a street brawler. On the inside, the SE package included an overhead aircraft-style console with warning lights (a futuristic option for 1970), partially carpeted door panels, and optional leather bucket seats. Along with the SE package, the other major options which were pricey for the time include the 426 HEMI engine ($778.75), 727 TorqueFlite\u00ae<\/sup> automatic transmission ($227.05) and the Super Track Pack, which is the 4.10 Dana axle ($221.40). These options pushed the Challenger’s final sticker price to $5,273.55. That was a big chunk of change for 1970, but Joe came out the winner in this deal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Like most muscle car owners of\nthat era, Joe began making mods as soon as the Challenger was in his driveway.\nFirst to be bolted on were a set of Ansen mags (same ones he has on the car\ntoday) and then high-performance parts under the hood to extract even more\npower from the mighty HEMI engine. Joe also wanted a more aggressive hood with\na bigger scoop to feed the HEMI\u2019s dual four-barrel Carter AFB carbs a steady\nstream of cool, fresh air. He bought this cool fiberglass aftermarket hood over\nthe counter at his local speed shop decades ago and has resisted the temptation\nto bolt the stock Challenger R\/T performance hood back on the car. Joe also\ntook the Challenger to the drag strip and clicked off low 12-second ETs with\nease after the modifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1970<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joe drove the Challenger every day from 1970 to 1975. This included many harsh Pennsylvania winters that meant scrapping snow off the windshield and mounting studded Goodyear Polyglas GT Town & Country Snow Tires back on the factory wheels so he could drive the HEMI Challenger through the winter months. Remember, these were just cars back then and for many, it was their daily driver until they stopped running, rusted out, were sold or traded in. Joe could see the snow- and salt-covered roads were taking their toll on his precious Challenger and parked it in 1976. About a decade or so ago, Joe enlisted the help of Dennis Kohr of Kohr\u2019s Kustoms in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, and did a complete top-to-bottom, front-to-back restoration on the Challenger. Because you can never have too much power, Joe had the 426 HEMI rebuilt and increased its displacement to over 500 cubic-inches. Now it\u2019s pushing over 700 horsepower and even though Joe\u2019s doesn\u2019t hit the drag strip that much these days, he still likes to shake the pavement at cruise nights and car shows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"man<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Joe\u2019s also been active in the Mopar\u00ae<\/sub> car club scene and has been a member of the National HEMI Owners Association (NHOA) going back to 1976. Because HEMI muscle cars were always unique and scarce, parts and info were hard to come by. The NHOA club was formed by a group of passionate HEMI enthusiasts looking to network with other owners for parts and information. Joe has made some lifelong friends through NHOA that he cherishes today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe and his Challenger have been\ntogether now for almost 50 years, that\u2019s longer than most marriages last. Maybe\nit\u2019s because he has the insight to hang on to a good thing, maybe it was\nanother reason. All we know is Joe will never let this one get away. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How many times have we heard the tale of the one that got away? Not a girlfriend or boyfriend, you can replace those. No, we\u2019re talking about a cool muscle car that was part of your youth a time long ago. It was more than metal, rubber, vinyl and gas. The car was part of your personality, it was your buddy and confidant. It made you a hero when you laid down two long black stripes on the pavement when you stabbed the gas pedal. The hoodlum friends you hung […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":27339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2624],"tags":[2948,2011],"class_list":["post-27335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-owners-clubs","tag-dodge-classics","tag-hemi-engine"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/feature-14.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27335"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27350,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27335\/revisions\/27350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}