It's HEMI time !!! Compliments of NJSteve

[njsteve]

Glenn, Verne, thanks for the donation!

The car is happy. (You are now on her "friends" list).

[Xplantdad]

And that is why this site is the best on the net...

[njsteve]

OK, so anyone familiar with the crazy Charger and its haunted nature will appreciate today's episode...

So I decided to go to the local Cops and Rodders show in North Brunswick, NJ. Lots of neat stuff shows up and its for a good cause - the PBA widow and orphan fund.

Anyway. As is the usual procedure I park, open the trunk and wait the obligatory ten minutes for the genie to emerge from the bottle. If you recall, anytime I go to a car show and open the trunk, the original mechanic and his son soon appear like clockwork. And so it happened on cue: Larry and John Ehnat appear once again:

[njsteve]

And if you thought that was it, you are mistaken. Within 20 minutes after that, the second owner Steve Martin shows up with his son. I only spoke to Mr. Martin once about 12 years ago for a brief few minutes. He walks up to the car and immediately recognizes it as the car he bought from Richard Wickberg in 1976.

We talked a while and he gave me some more great stories on the car and corroborated a lot of the existing ones as well. He said he bought the car for $1700 plus $1000 for a load of extra parts back in 1976 after Richard Wickberg blew the engine up.

Here he is with his son in the car:



While he was sitting there I had him open the glove box and tell me what was there:



He started laughing when he saw the original piston that he installed backwards after drinking a case of beer and assembling the engine. This was a priceless photo of his reaction at the time.

We had a fun time talking cars and politics. He also said that he has the original block from the car. He said he bought the original busted up block from Richard Wickberg in the $1000 extra parts package. Though we now have two contradictory stories on what happened to the blown up block, I always side with the optomistic story just in case it's true. I gave him a standing offer of a new block or cash for that old one, plus the chance to drive the car once the original motor goes back in. He said he'll think on it (he is building his own hemi car as a project now and is using that block I think).

All in all it was just another entertaining day in the life of the most haunted hemi car in the universe.

[MrsBillyBobcat]

Steve,

That photo is PRICELESS!

As far as your car being "haunted"...I have to agree with you on that!

[bashton]

And so...did anyone happen to notice the date that these meetings occurred?

Bashton
MCACN Managing Member

[njsteve]

Why it was 4/26 of course.

Remember, coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

[mchriscad]

The COPO Camaro that we just finished was purchased by Stefano on 4/27! He won't ever forget that date.