By Rory Ward – Racers Only Motorsport Designs
When we last left you Challenger IV (CH4) was sitting at Collins Motorsports in Las Vegas getting some much needed fabrication work. One of the major items on the agenda was the designing of the front torsion bar fingers. When we bought the car these were missing. My best guess is they were taken from CH4 and used on CH5 since it had the same front suspension. As with everything on CH4, nothing could be bought over the counter, it had to be custom built. In steps Billy Goerke who designed the torsion fingers and then sent the files to Sway-A-Way to be built.
Gearworks came over to Collins shop to check out CH4 so they could make the 2 speed Power Glide trans with a custom tail shaft. The tail would have a sliding shaft instead of the driveline, which is the way it was originally designed back in the day.
Before picking up CH4 we dropped the new motor in. It’s a beautifully built SBC 383 stroker with approx 500hp. After getting it in the car I was now ready to start plumbing the entire car with Earls Plumbing. C&J Engineering massaged the Holley Ultra carburetor for us and topped it off with a K&N filter.
Greg Holman at REF unlimited was set to build new headers but once he saw the originals (which he had originally built in 1978) he said they were in great shape and only needed some slight repair work. C&R racing built the custom radiator and it along with the original oil and trans coolers were mounted back into the car after being pressure tested and sonicly cleaned.
Everything sped up tenfold during this time because we had the parts ready and everything was in place with nothing really to hold us back. Brake lines were completed along with mounting of the Wilwood brake calipers/hats/rotors. CH4 was ready to go back to Collins Motorsports to get all the pulleys and mounts fabricated up for the front of the engine. Nothing store bought was going to work due to the tight constraints of the engine compartment and everything would be located closer to the harmonic balancer.
We are on the home stretch, once Collins finishes up the engine pulleys and a couple more projects CH4 will be ready for wiring. 2014 is looking up and we can’t wait for May 10th!