The Escalantes '70 Challenger R/T "EL HEMI"

[el hemi]

[ QUOTE ]
Love the car and story of El Hemi. So sorry about the loss of your dad - I too lost a father who died way too young due to pancreatic cancer - a cruel killer.

[/ QUOTE ]
mmcporter: Sorry to hear about your dad. You are right..of all cancers this one is a tough one to beat.

On a lighter note and for some of my own therapy here is a picture in 1996 of my dad moments before he trailered the car to the port in Venezuela. It wasnt easy to get EL HEMI out of Venezuela and back to the US. The trouble started in 1972 when he imported the car to Venezuela and had the car registered with Vzla's own version of a BMV. A clerk at the BMV in Vzla did not pay attention and mistyped the car's VIN #. Dad never checked it! When it was time to start all the proceeding to bring the car back to the US we found the mistake. It took over a year to get this corrected. If you think BMV is bad in the US you have no idea how BAD it is in other places. You can't see from this picture but while we were going through all the red tape my dad had the car stored at a friend's JUNKYARD. Check out the 1968 camaro in the back.

[Dave Rifkin]

Nice Scrambler too.

[el hemi]

Here is another shot of the car leaving our friend's junkyard on its way to the port.

[Tracker1]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice Scrambler too.

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmmm...me thinks that red/white nose belongs to a 68-72 Chevy-GMC pickup or blazer instead?

[Dave Rifkin]

I was referring to the tow vehicle; it's definately a Jeep CJ8 Scramble.

[Tracker1]

right you are.

[el hemi]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Nice Scrambler too.

[/ QUOTE ]
hmmmm...me thinks that red/white nose belongs to a 68-72 Chevy-GMC pickup or blazer instead?

[/ QUOTE ]
You are both right....towing vehicle out of the junkyard is a Jeep Scrambler and red/white nose appears to be a GMC truck behind the red fence.

Here more pictures circa 1996 when El Hemi made it to Jacksonville, Florida. My heart was pounding when the container showed up.


Picture below...workers from the port - The guy with the camera was from Mopar Muscle Magazine who came to photograph the arrival of the car. You cant see it in this picture but there was a lady from the Food and Drug administration who was there to inspect the car. When the container doors opened the lady didnt understand why the guys were in ahhhh! After one of the workers told her what it was she asked me for the form she needed to sign...signed it, gave it back to me and said "I dont need to inspect the car. Good Bye".

[Bill Pritchard]

More great photos and story....keep 'em coming, Juan!

[Xplantdad]

Neat!

[el hemi]

Another story associated with the return of El Hemi has to do with the EDA (estimated date of arrival) of the vessel transporting the car to the port in Jacksonville. I had to follow this closely because I coordinated all the logistics of flying down to Jacksonville and renting a UHAUL truck and trailer to make the trip north to Indiana. Car arrived to port almost a month later. Not usual given the fact the voyage is no more than a week..if that. According to our freight forwarder, the captain of the vessel had a heart attack and died. They had to make a stop on one of the caribbean islands.

Picture below is the UHAUL truck somewhere in Tennessee. I drove straight from Jacksonville to Indianapolis. I was running on adrenaline!!