Roadkill Garage: The Bro-Charger Lives!

[DynoDave]

The Bro-Charger Lives! | Roadkill Garage FULL EPISODE | Brought to you by Castrol Edge

[hanks73340]

That's awesome! Love it!

[jeremy]

Goes to show how much of the performance equation is in the tires. They said the fast cars were in the low 40's, and they got into the mid 50's - with low horsepower, 3 speed auto and the highway gear ratio in the diff, drum brakes, the "luxury" suspension, and they didn't say anything about replacing bushings so all the rubber in the suspension is 50 years old. Did anyone see a sway bar?

I like that Dulcich is sticking with the 318. I'm not as big a fan of the 904. Don't dislike it but it can't take big power (unless you really know what you're doing) and it doesn't have an overdrive for highway cruising. Most likely I'll be keeping mine for some time to come, but what I want is a good 6 speed manual.

The video makes me appreciate my car more though. It's great that they love the car, and I didn't hear anything like "I wish it was a 2nd gen."  I'm amazed that the 318 got through all that without a rebuild.  It's concerning that they had smoke at one point, I thought the rings were shot and they were going to have to pull the motor.  I wonder what happened?   The problem must have gone away.  It's giving me some hope that maybe I don't have to rebuild my motor immediately after all.  

[DynoDave]

What the heck could have happened to that floor? Rear u-joint failure and the shaft bouncing off the ground beat the heck out of it???

No rear sway bar. Which is surprising to me. I would have thought y '73''74, SE's would have had that as std.

And you are right Jeremy...all OE rubber, which in a later 3rd gen is quite a bit more than in an early car.

At 27:38, two more 3rd gen Chargers, one a '72 in Petty Blue with yellow letter GoodYear racing Eagles on it, and another a '71/'72 with it's back to you, then at 27:42, yet another 3rd gen. on shell on a dolly (a look I'm too familiar with).

[jeremy]

The floor damage is bizarre. Your guess is as good as any. I don't think a forklift could push the driveshaft up that high. It's something I'll check out when I put my driveshaft back in. Wouldn't there be other signs of forklift damage?

They may have new rubber in the leaf springs at least. They said the old ones had broken leafs. I believe they put new springs on, which usually come with new bushings. Unless Dulcich is into spring replacement.

I've got a 600 cfm carb on my 318 and many told me it was too much, unless the smallest jets were used. They put a 750 on . . .

[DynoDave]

Yet another '72 3rd gen waiting in line at the track in at 34:15!

I didn't catch the comment about the springs, so that's good. Do the '73 / '74 have BOTH the rubber block around the leaf at it's attachment point, AND the oval from eye like my '77 does? From a performance point of view, I feel the oval front bushing on the leaf springs is the worst piece of that whole iso system. It's a LOT of rubber right in the path of all the spring forces.

And yes, I thought the use of a 750 was a bit much. Your 600 sounds perfect to me. And of course, any off-the-shelf carb may need some jetting changes.

[DynoDave]

I'm noticing during Dulcich's run at the autocross...the low camera shots right behind the RF tire...the tire sidewall is not deflecting much at all...I'd love to know what air pressure they are running. Taxing my memory quite a bit here to remember what I ran my fairly bald (they were GoodYear dealer scrap pile freebies) 215/65/15 Eagle GTs on police wheels at when I autocrossed my '78 Cordoba in college. I'm remembering 44 psi front, 40 rear, but that may have been what I later autocrossed my FWD '85 Duster at. Can't recall exactly . But he's got 'em pumped up for sure.

Those police wheels and used up GTs are what the Charger shell is still sitting on to this day.

[jeremy]

Even all beat up the Charger still looks mean. I love the wide rear tires, and that the nearly-stock 318 was able to do a little burnout with the fat tires.

[jeremy]

Maybe the 318 wasn't so stock after all . . .

Extra points for letting us know that he prefers the 2nd gen.  

I'm curious what the bars from the center firewall to the middle of the fenders are.  I suppose strut tower braces aren't needed when you don't have struts.  

[DynoDave]

My non-professional medical opinion is: there's a better than average chance that Steve Magnante got his current brain infection by constantly messing around in junk yards with cars covered in God-knows-what kind of feces. Watching this guy choking after inhaling a cloud of powdered rodent dung makes me cringe.