Your name & where you are from?     

Your name & where you are from?  

John Nolan, Originally from Littleton, MA., (hard to tell from my accent) but currently in Neosho, MO.                 

What is the year, make & model of your car?

A 1987 Dodge Shelby Charger

When did you get your car & from where?

I got it from a small used car dealer Laconia, NH.

When you bought it was it complete?

Yup – stock but with this gawd awful stuck-on script on the sail panels “Turbocharged Street Machine”.  Didn’t take long to get rid of that!

What was under the hood when you bought it? 

Stock turbo charged 2.2 making about 146HP – Turbo I, as they are called.

What have you changed about your car?  

Other than the body, nothing is really stock in it anymore!

First built motor was from an 87 Shelby Daytona called Turbo II – stock was 175HP but I installed a “Super 60” upgrade kit and this motor was dyno’d at 205HP and 235TQ. Never got this motor to full potential as the stage II computer clamped it some, then it blew up! Lol Block cracked along the freeze plugs!

Got an 89 “Common Block” (2.2 and 2.5 motors shared the same block – hence the name) and this is where things got crazy. I had ordered an aftermarket ECU for the old motor, so we wired this one in and while we were at it, made a wild custom roller cam. Once running I never liked the sound the valve train made and the ECU was never fully tuned correctly – it bummed me out so I parked it for years. My New England club members got on to me to finish it so I had it ready for the national club meet that was in the KY area and this is when I started moving down here to Bentonville (at the time).

It broke again about a month or so ago – broke both rockers and a lifter in #4! Got them replaced then the car doesn’t start now. ARGH!! Turns out that the crank trigger pickup failed. I’m in process of upgrading the ECU and ordering a different pickup.

That’s the very short reader digest version!! lol

Was this your first project car?

In a way but not the one finished first. I bought an 85 Shelby for parts but most of the parts from the 87 went into the 85 and I had a running car for some fun. This brings us to another long Shelby story for another time.

Next in line is our 83 Plymouth Scamp GT

Why a Mopar?

My first new car got me – 83 Shelby charger. Been stuck on Ma Mopar ever since!

 

What’s the best thing about your car?

It's different and gets lots of looks, and it's fast when it’s running right!

I was thinking after I sent my answers - the 'what made me go to Mopar and I totally spaced on my dad’s Mopars as well as my mom’s (via way of AMC)

He had a ‘60 dodge (I know the style when I see it) a ‘64 Fury (I think - again I know it when I see it) and the last one a ‘70 dodge polara wagon (had a lot of "camping" done in this thing visiting my aunt and uncle in MI).

My mom’s first car was a ‘62 or ‘63 rambler and the other a ‘67 ambassador that I would like to find one to replace it - hers was a dark gold/tan white top and tan-ish interior. All the years she owned it, we never saw a twin - a 4 door once, that was it.