1000HP Gen III Hemi in a Rare 1970 Dodge Challenger!
This very Rare 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T owned by Brook Niemi is one of less than 150 cars that originally had a 440 cubic inch big-block engine.
In the beginning the car was ordered by a Montana Dodge salesman who was a real car guy. He specified the four-barrel 440, an R/T package, an A833 four-speed and a Dana 60 rear end. When the car came in, he then changed it over to an even rarer Six Pack and a factory T/A hood. The car also had a Special Edition package including four-point seatbelts, a console in the headliner and a smaller rear window. It must have been nice to just order your dream car brand new!
Brook had been watching the car for years as other owners modified the car, painting it white and even installing a 500 cubic inch Six Pack motor. Brook finally got his chance when a collector decided to sell the car.
So he went to work on restoring the car to the level of his childhood memories. He enlisted the guys at Kindig-it Design for body work and a new coat of white paint. And he decided that the original 440 engine should go back in.
The restoration went well and Brook was enjoying his car. But then one day something big happened:
“I was sitting at a stoplight one day when a Sublime Green Challenger R/T with a 426 Hemi pulled up behind me. It looked so good that even though I had just finished painting my car white, I decided at that moment that I had to repaint it green,”
So along with doing all the work of stripping and repainting the car back to the original factory color Sublime Green, he also decided to upgrade the whole drive train. This must have been a very tough decision altering such a rare car.
Brook went to Absolute Performance in Sandy, Utah to build an all-aluminum Gen III 426 Hemi engine. They started with an aftermarket aluminum block and installed a Callies forged crank, Oliver steel rods, Wiseco 9.5:1 Forged pistons and a set of Thitek Aluminum heads. On top they added an Edelbrock E-Force supercharger. A custom spec Hydraulic roller cam was ground by Arrow Racing.
The result was over 1000HP and 1100 ft lbs of torque. To handle this power level he changed the transmission to a TKO 600 five-speed and a Strange S60 rear end.
The suspension was upgraded using many of the Reilly Motorsports components. In the front a new K-member, control arms, sway bar and coilovers were installed. In the rear the stock springs were replaced with a four-link setup. Wilwood disc brakes were also installed to stop this monster of a car.
Brook has tried to retain the original interior and body appearance of this hard to find ’70s Muscle car as much as possible. The wheels are EVOD Challenge 18 x 9.5 in front and 18 x 10.5 in the rear.
You can read more on this project at Hotrod.com here
