Big Little Block Barracuda

by Randy Holden

Photos by Rob Wolf

In the real world, outside of Mopars, it's often said that behind every successful man, you'll find a good woman. This isn't always the case with our old Mopars, as in many cases our significant others tolerate our little affliction, but don't take much of an active role. We've seen a lot of old cars sold because of the missus throws down the ultimatum and demands a literal garage sale, but this month, we have the tale of a made-in-Mopar heaven relationship that's inspirational to all of us married guys, and it involves well-known Mopar custom builder matt Delaney of Shreveport, Louisiana.

When Matt was a mere lad of sixteen years, he bought his first car; a 1973 340 Duster. This started his lifelong love for Mopars. He drove the Duster for several years, but ended up selling it while in college because of tight funds. After college, Matt met the girl of his dreams; one Cindy Mitchell. Three years later, when he convinced Cindy to marry him, Cindy found and bought back Matt's Duster from the guy Matt had sold it to, then gave it to him as a surprise wedding gift! That's when he realized this was absolutely the right girl to marry. Ho many cases can each of us cite where Mopar collections were sold off after the exchanging of vows? This is an extraordinary case where a collection was actually started and encouraged by the little lady in the sparkling dress!

Matt and Cindy have been happily married for twenty-two years, and throughout those years, Matt's built a large number of custom Dodges and Plymouths. Many of Matt's creations have gone on to national acclaim, magazine features, and a number of them have served as display vehicles at the huge SEMA show in Las Vegas. Along the way, Matt managed to accumulate a personal fleet of ten running Mopars (including the Duster) and at least ten more project cars he plans to build later. Through al of this, Cindy has been there, supportive and understanding. What more could a Mopar guy dream of?

A few years back, Cindy was putting away Matt's monthly stack of car magazines and saw a picture of a 1968 Barracuda convertible in one. The smallish A-body with the clean lines struck a chord with Cindy. She read the article and wound up thinking what an all-around great package those earlier Barracuda convertibles were. Cindy told Matt that evening, if she ever bought a muscle car for herself, a '68 Barracuda convert would be what she'd like. At this point, it helps to know a little about Matt Delaney. It doesn't take much suggestion to get his creative gears turning and once he heard Cindy mention this, the boy's brain kicked into overdrive right away. She had actually expressed interest in a old Mopar for herself! This demanded action! Without making a big deal out of the comment, Matt's mind was feverishly making plans while the rest of the evening unfolded. He decided immediately that he just had to build Cindy a '68 Barracuda to show his appreciation for the years of tolerating his incurable addiction to old Mopars. Once something like this gets into Matt's head, there's no getting rid of it until the thought has become reality. So, where's a guy in northern Louisiana supposed to find a decent starting point for a '68 Barracuda convert project? Calls started circulating within twenty-four hours, and having the network that Matt has, it didn't take long to find the machine he was looking for.

As fate would have it, Matt's good friend, Robert Stachowitz, had a largely original '68 Barracuda drop top, and once Matt explained this was going to be a driver project car for Cindy, Robert readily agreed to sell it for such a noble cause as that. Originally a low option small block car, the tired Barracuda was hauled over to Matt's shop and completely disassembled. The body was taken down to bare metal to remove all traces of rust and decay, the few minor dings acquired through the years were straightened out. Goodmark Industries and Year One supplied some repro sheet metal to deal with rust problems, then once everything was straight, the shell was primed and blocked multiple times to ensure it was slicker than a new Mercedes. Of course, Matt's known for creating awesome Pro Touring-type machines, so Cindy's little A-body wasn't going to be an exception to that pattern. As is the case with those machines, it's what lies below the skin that makes the difference.

Since this is a convertible and high horsepower was deemed essential, the original unibody construction obviously wasn't going to be strong enough. To deal with this, Matt welded in a pair of U.S. Car Tool sub-frame connectors to make the A-body seriously rigid. Suspension work is one of Matt's strong points, do for Cindy's ride, he contacted Air Ride Technologies to acquire a custom-made four-link rear combined with air shocks. This completely adjustable rear suspension holds a traditional 8-3/4" rear axle stuffed with conservative Sure Grip highway gears for ease of driving. The front suspension consists of tubular steel A-arms and a host of other components from AlterKtion, including one of their seriously low slung and wicked K-members, furnished by Bill Reilly at Reilly's Motor Sports. To haul the small mover to a halt instantly, Matt opted for big discs on all four corners from Wilwood Brakes. Given the size and weight of this thing, most brand name luxury touring sedans don't handle or stop as well as the forty-year-old Plymouth.

As the Barracuda took shape, parts boxes arrived from all parts of the country. The lenses, emblems, most trim pieces, and items such as that, generally came from Year One to replace missing or pitted original parts. Year One also supplied a new convertible top, a host of engine bay components, brackets, hoses, clamps, and way more parts than we have room to list.

Wanting to make the cockpit every bit as comfortable ad anything on the showroom floor today, once again, Matt went back to people he had worked with many times before. The tilt steering column and custom steering wheel are both from Flaming River, as is the very cool cruise control unit. Tim and Matilda Clark hand crafted the killer bucket seat interior, stitching it all together in supple white leather (that's a big help given Louisiana's muggy climate). An ear hammering Kicker stereo system and CD changer is tucked away in the dash, and speakers are carefully placed throughout the interior to provide concert sound regardless of what seat you happen to be in.

All of which is leading us up to the biggest little small block you'd ever want to see. The key to keeping a '68 A-body Barracuda happy is keeping it balanced. Many enthusiasts place big blocks or Hemi's into these cars, which is fine if you're going drag racing, but it makes them so nose heavy that their downright miserable to drive on a daily basis. There was some thought given toward placing a new Mopar Performance 5.9 Hemi into the convert, or even a ore conventional 5.7 Liter Hemi. That went away quickly once Matt saw the brand new 530 horsepower stroker 360 at the PRI Show in 2006. A masterpiece of modern engineering, the 530 horse 360-based engine is bored with a custom stroker crank, custom pistons, custom rods, you name it. This one is all-new technology from the oil pan upwards, which is precisely why Mopar Performance displayed it prominently in their booth at PRI. Looking at this thing from the outside, you expect it to be a warmed over 360, but when you find out this sucker actually displaces a legit 440 cubic inches, that gets your attention! Yes, this is a genuine 440 inch small block! Since Mopar Performance had built this engine as a test bed of sorts and used for auto show duty, they couldn't sell the engine to the general public. Thanks to their previous cooperation on other mutually beneficial projects, when Matt informed MP that he wanted one of these engines ASAP, they offered him the prototype engine displayed at PRI. Thus, this is the very first 440-inch stroker Mopar Performance small block ever built. What could be better than a lightweight small block with 530 horses? Backing up the prototype mill is a Shaffi Keisler 4L60E overdrive automatic, which allows for outstanding neck snapping acceleration and effortless high speed highway cruising as well.

Once everything was coming together, Mike Harris sprayed on the QQ1 blue metallic paint, which is actually an original 1968 Chrysler color that Cindy had liked when she saw it on a Charger Matt built for a customer. The blue/white/white combo just screams summertime fun. Putting all the steel on the ground, you'll find a set of custom Budnik Rocker wheels holding 555R Nitto Extreme radials all around.

The Barracuda was finished up not long before the Mopars at the Strip event and made its maiden voyage on the cruise from Scottsdale to Vegas. This was a really cool road trip, because Matt took his '73 Duster along as well, so the car that started it all was jockeying for position the whole way with the freshly built Barracuda. What better first road trip for a car like this than through the picturesque desert between Phoenix and Vegas?

Cindy had a blast and tells us the Barracuda rides like a luxury car, handles like a European exotic car, and takes off like a rocket any time you lay the pedal to the floor - provided that you're already going at least forty miles-per-hour. We were kinda' puzzled about that last comment too, until she clarified by saying that if you nail it at any speed below that, the car goes berserk and "acts like a skateboard on steroids." That's what five hundred horses and a light weight body will do we suppose!

There is one legitimate problem with Cindy's first Mopar muscle car, however. It seems that the car's so much fun to drive that Matt keeps bugging her to borrow it! Being a candidate for wife of the century, Cindy generally obliges, provided she can borrow the keys to some of Matt's Hemi cars or other Mopar monsters of the course! What can we say, some people are just destined for each other.

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Bolt On Bruiser

by: Randy Holden

Photos by: Rob Wolf

Matt Delaney’s established himself as one of the premier innovators in the realm of custom Mopars. While guys like Chip Fosse and Boyd Coddington have carved out their niche with Street Rods and radically sculpted older machines, Matt’s done pretty much the same thing among Mopar faithful. One of the main ingredients to Matt’s success in the custom field is that he’s never lost sight of what a muscle car Mopar is supposed to look like. Let’s face it, during the muscle car ear, Chrysler got the styling of their cars right, so Matt’s never sought to change the outward appearance of his creations, only to update them with killer technology and power gains, while leaving the presence and soul of the original car intact. That’s not the case with a lot of custom car builders, who, once they’ve finished with a project, you’re hard pressed to tell what the car started life as. One look at Delaney’s latest triumph and there’s not even a moment’s hesitation that you’re dealing with a ’71 Hemicuda, but aside from the kinda’ expected appearance of this little Plymouth, there’s nothing about it that we would’ve called, “expected”

Shortly after completing their Challenger convert cruiser with the new-age injected 395 Mopar Performance Hemi in it, Matt and his partner Marcus Wren turned their sights on doing a ’71 Hemicuda hardtop. This one had to be a higher horsepower machine, be capable of being driven daily and on long road trips and , it had to handle like a new SRT and ride like a new Hemi 300 Sedan. As and additional challenge, they wanted the car to consist of relatively simple bolt-on parts to showcase what the average enthusiast could do with existing parts. In other words, they wanted to take off-the-self parts available to all us and see how far they could go, keeping in mind that all the mods could be done by someone at their own home. Those were the basics, the rest they would work out along the way. In the latter part of 2005, the right car for the project rolled in Matt and Marcus’s shop, and after some long stares and few calculations, pieces started coming off. The starting point was a very rough ’71 340 four speed’ Cuda body. Before all you purists out there start screaming foul, this was a completed dog a ‘Cuda by anyone’s standards with no drive train and holes everywhere. There was no fender tag left, no broadcast sheet, so ding a “correct” would not only have been impossible to begin with, it certainly wouldn’t have been economically feasible. This was a situation where you either parted the car out or built a hot rod – Matt and Marcus chose the latter course. After disassembly, what was left of the car was treated to numerous patch panels. A significant amount of sheet metal replacement was required; little of the original body survived the rebuild. As with all of Matt’s cars, the frame rails were pulled out from under the car and beefed up with 1/8” plate steel, the replaced. Matt’s a firm believer in a firm car, so while this adds a little weight, it makes a phenomenal difference in the rigidity of an old Mopar. Frame rail connectors from U.S. Auto Tool gave the ‘Cuda a GM Style full frame to rest a top of. Best of all, the U.S.Auto Tool connectors are legitimately tailor made for the average guy, so these can be installed by just about anyone in a matter of hours.

A Shaker hood was ordered from Harms Auto with the Shaker and other components coming from Ben Snobar at Northwest Performance. After about three months of bodywork, trail fitting components, blocking and sanding, the ‘Cuda was ready for the paint booth. Mike Harris with Delaney Auto Design applied the striking PPG Ferrari Red and used gloss black for the painted look three feet deep. After the paint was dry, Matt and Marcus set to work on the mechanical aspects of the ‘Cuda. A 472” Hemi crate motor was finished by Direct Connection (doesn’t it feel nice to say that again?) and spiced up with a Comp Cams hydraulic roller retro fit cam, which was recently released with short enough lifters to actually fit Hemi. This marks the first time ever that an over-the-counter roller hydraulic cam assemble has been produced for the Hemi, so watch for a lot more of these cool assembles coming soon to a neighborhood near you. Next, a Mass Flo EFI system can be installed right out of the box with not tuning or modifications at all. If you’re looking for EFI efficiency and performance on an old-school Hemi, here’s a hassle free installation that really works.

Supporting the heavy Hemi, you’ll find and AlterKtion front suspension, which was supplied by Reiley Motorsports. Flaming River contributed the rack and pinion, the steering column, the cool steering wheel, and one of their state-of-the-art cruise control systems, all which makes for a great handling E-body with creature comforts Plymouth never dared dreams of Air Ride Technologies supplied the front and rear shocks, as well as the triangulated four-link system for the stock 8 ¾” rear end. This gives a way comfortable ride as well as the ability for the tires to hook up like a drag car. A Direct Connection Aluminum and a DC Sure Grip unit, Shaffi Keisle sent over on of his TKO 600 five speed five speed transmission for the perfect gearing. This gives the Hemi both hole shot and high speed cruising ability with decent gas mileage. And again, the Keisler TKO tranny is a bolt-in unit you can install in your own garage.

The Fikse “Pro-Fil 13” wheels help to create a high-end luxury sports car look and, combined with the Air Ride suspension, give the ‘Cuda a unique modern stance. For a car that’s capable of cruising at 150 mph, you gotta’ have stopping power. This was obtained with six piston Wilwood disc brakes, combined with a Hydratech Hydroboost system tied together with pre-bent lines from Fine Lines (yes, you read that right, Fine Lines makes pre-bent lines to connect HydroTech’s Hydroboost system to your car). The massive brakes, combined with the sticky rubber of the Nitto Extreme 555 radials (front 225/50/18 and rear 295/45/18) makes for awesome stopping power. To let the dust cover competition know they’re stopping, Matt and Marcus used the fantastic new LED tail inserts from Hi Tech LED products.

All the weatherstripping came from Soff Seal, while the rest of the restoration parts were sent by the ever-reliable crew at Year One. TTI made the exhaust system real easy to install by sending a 3” exhaust system, pre bent kit form, from the ceramic coasted headers to the exhaust tips. The entire system, headers to tips bolted on with no welding or bending!

In the engine bay, a Billet Specialties, serpentine pulley a system including a/c compressor, power steering pump, and alternator, adds just the right touch to the Hemi. This is simplicity itself and greatly cleans up the north end of a Hemi. With one wide belt snaking nearly around the front, this eliminates a tremendous amount of clutter and make for an ultra sanitary engine. An aluminum radiator and fans from Flex-a-lite keeps everything cool.

Creature comforts on the “Cuda include a very cool (literally) Classic Auto Air a/c system and a Kicker stereo system that can bust concrete apart but is still clear as a bell while doing so. If the screaming of the Hemi isn’t enough to make your ears bleed, the CDs in the deck and the amps located aft can destroy your equilibrium in short order, should you be foolish enough to seal yourself up in this thing and peg out the volume. As you can see, this is hardly a stock repro interior. No matter what you do, the stock style of the E-body bucket seats just don’t do a good job of holding you in place or providing much comfort on a long trip no matter what you do to them. Knowing there would be long hours behind the wheel, Matt and Marcus chose custom Corbeau leather front seats. These wider and more body-fitting seats hold you in place on the corners as well as make for a comfortable ride.

Another very different and interesting part on the ‘Cuda is the billet and stainless custom fuel tank make by Rick’s Hot Rod Shop. The large fuel cell-type gas tank contains an internal electric fuel pump and, interestingly, the tank is so well insulated that you can barely hear the pump buzzing away inside. The high volume pump pushes an enormous amount of high-octane unleaded up front, but you’d never know it were it not for the frequent gas stops and the wonderful sound of the throttle body gulping tremendous quantities of air to mix with that fuel whenever the long pedal on the right is pressed to the floor.

Ready for the big shocker in this whole story? As has become the custom with Matt Delaney’s customs, the car’s construction wound up taking grand total of four months. Start to finish, everything you see was completed in the span of four months. The ‘Cuda made its big debut at the Power Tour, blasting along the route at speeds well into the triple digits. In fact, it lost a piece of windshield moulding some where around 250 mph, but thankfully, the shiny stainless didn’t do any damage and was easily reattached!

As with all of Matt’s cars, this one’s built for moving as well as showing, so it will serve over the coming years as a rolling showcase of what the boys from Shreveport can do. Watch for this on to a major Mopar even near you soon. And as we say at the completion of article we’ve ever done on one of Matt Delaney’s cars, we can’t wait to see what he’s going to do next. Knowing him as we do, we guarantee he’s already planning the next one.

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Perfect 10

by: Jim Koscs

Photos by: Jerry Heasley

"Buh-klang!" Recognize that? It's the sound your B-body trunklid and hood make when you shut them. Matt Delaney really hates that sound. So, for his 1968 Charger, he had his body man drill out all spot welds in the hood and trunk panels, take them apart and squirt the gaps full of body caulking before welding everything back together. Now when Delaney closes the hood, it makes a nice solid "thunk," like his Mercedes E500.

The fact that he's closing the hood over a Viper V-10 is, of course, no smaller matter. But trust us-banishing the "buh-klang" is one of the biggest clues you'll get to the level of detail Delaney lavishes on his project cars. Your second big clue is that Mopar Performance was so impressed with this Viper-powered Charger that they made it part of their exhibition at this year's SEMA (Specialty Equipment Marketing Association) show in October. Delaney is even advising MP engineers on how to make V-10 conversions easier. His car is that good. (Good and expensive.)

A long-time Mopar big block devotee, Delaney has been converted to the V-10 religion. "It's the ultimate street motor," he says. "Coming out of the gate, you just drop the clutch at 1,600-1,800 rpm to make the car come out as hard as a Hemi car would at 3,500 rpm. But with the V-10, there's no violence, no clutch slip. The back tires just barely come loose and it rockets."

Of course, the ladder-link rear and massive rubber help with traction, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.

It's not just raw power that Delaney seeks. With an engineering background, he can't help but admire efficiency-as in getting 25 miles per gallon while cruising at 80 mph with the a/c on in a car capable of easy and consistent 11-second quarter mile blasts. And instead of a fancy power-adjustable lumbar support like his Mercedes seat has, Delaney relies on V-10 torque to press his lower back against the seat.

Air conditioning and torque, in fact, were among Delaney's big reasons for building this Charger. He lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, so sweating in his expensive cars is not an option. He could afford a Viper, but it doesn't have room for his wife and son. And besides, everybody's got one! However, after test-driving a Viper, Delaney knew that it would forever be his benchmark for torque. He immediately bought a Viper crate motor for a 1968 Charger body that was supposed to be a parts donor for a Hemi Charger restoration. He did all the homework and paid for all the hard work, and now you can learn from his buildup.

Part 1: The Engine

Not much to say here. It's the Viper crate motor, period. The engine is stock, needing only reshaped headers to fit in the Charger. The custom-made exhaust system uses an x-pipe and AeroChamber mufflers, a setup Delaney figures gives him 20-25 horses up on a Viper. He had the whole system ceramic-coated inside and out by Airborne Coatings in Oklahoma City.

Electronic hookup in the pre-computer era muscle car was a snap-literally. The Viper crate motor comes with the computer, wiring harness, and a detailed schematic. "You just add two oxygen sensors and fill it with oil," says Delaney. "It fired up and ran perfectly on the first shot."

A dyno test showed 442 horsepower at the rear wheels. Delaney had just finished the car the night before we photographed it at the Nats, so he hadn't run it yet. The Moroso Power/Speed Calculator says it should be good for a low-11 second ride.

Part 2: Setting It Up

Delaney had Brad Emmons of B&M Performance in Bossier City, LA install the V-10. The first trick was figuring out how to make the long, tall motor fit. After lots of study, Emmons moved the firewall back 2.5 inches. He then crafted custom engine mounts and a K-member to go around the oil pan.

Delaney wanted BMW-like handling to go with the Viper-like acceleration, so the torsion bar/leaf spring undercarriage got the heave-ho. In its place, Emmons used Magnum Force upper and lower control arms and coil-overs in front. In back, he built up a ladder link setup with a diagonal link and coil-overs. Dual-adjustable (compressions and rebound) shocks from Strange allow suspension fine-tuning. After trying different combinations, Delaney settled on variable-rate springs front and rear (650-lb. front, 400-lb. rear). He's got the shocks adjusted 60/40 front and 50/50 rear.

The rear has been narrowed and the wheel wells widened by 2.5 inches to accommodate the massive rubber (more on that later). A custom aluminum driveshaft connects to the Mopar Performance 8-3/4" aluminum rear that houses 3.91 gears.

Emmons braced the unibody with subframe connectors to add the rigidity that Delaney expects from a modern car. "If you put the car on four jack stands on an uneven surface, one corner should come off a stand. That's how stiff the car should be," says Delaney.

Part 3: "Minor" Details

Pedals presented a minor obstacle. For an accelerator, Delaney says an E-body pedal with a one-inch extension works perfectly. Using the original brake and clutch assembly required sectioning out two inches and welding it back together to keep the pedals in the stock position. there's less clutch travel, but with a hydraulic clutch, you don't need much anyway.

Delaney loves the look of the Mopar pistol grip shifters, but not the feel. So he had Gunslinger make a custom pistol grip for the B&M Ripper shifter. "I now have the shortest-throw pistol-grip shifter in the world," he says. "You just have to flick your wrist to shift." The emergency brake now resides in a custom floor console.

Part 4: Roadblocks

Delaney wanted power steering but could not find an aftermarket power rack and pinion setup that met the specs. The Viper engine is so long, that chassis builder Emmons had to mount the rack in front of it. "That presented interesting geometry problems," he says. The new setup needed seven inches of travel, and all the aftermarket kits Delaney could find provided just five and a quarter. Then he found BRT in Reddick, Illinois, where the proprietor named Jay said "no problem!" Delaney got his custom-made rack for under $600.

Wheels, of all things, threw up another road block. Delaney wanted wheels that looked like those he'd seen on Viper road race cars. But he found that once you go past 12-inch width on an 18-inch diameter rim, you're down to five wheel manufacturers. He says nobody offered the four and four and a half bolt pattern-nobody but Kinesis in California. That is, who offered to drill any bolt pattern for their three-piece wheels. "You can't even consider using the Viper six-lug pattern unless you're also thinking of grafting on Viper suspension," says Delaney, suggesting the insane expense and work involved with that option.

Delaney wanted the 18 x 12s both for handling and to give the car the "proper" stance. (He's as particular about a car's stance as he is about stiffing the rattles.) The big wheels allow huge 345/45/18 Michelin Pilots on the back and 245/45-18s on the front. Delaney-who's owned enough new hardware to know-figures his Charger might pull in the neighborhood of 0.8-g in handling. We'll put that claim to the test once the Mopar Action skidpad has been repaved and the sheriff takes the padlock off the front gate once the back rent has been paid up.

Part 5: Diet

Like any engineer, Delaney sees weight as the enemy. The result is a V-10 Charger with a/c that tips the scales at 3,450 ponds-more than 500 off a stock big block Charger.

The aluminum Viper engine with accessories weighs 550 pounds, a substantial drop from an iron Mopar big block. The new front suspension, Wilwood disc brakes and custom K-member chopped off 125 pounds. Then there's the aluminum driveshaft and aluminum rear. The Viper motor's a/c compressor weighs about one third of the Charger's original, and the Vintage Air a/c box inside weighs 30 pounds less than the original piece. The new seats from Scat reduce weight from the originals. Also helping to cut poundage, the body was acid dipped before painting.

Despite the focus on the weight reduction, Delaney admits he could have knocked off another hundred pounds if he hadn't put in so much Dynomat insulation. But then, he wants the a/c to work right-and you already know how much he hates rattles and those maddening "bluh-klang" sounds. Everything's been undercoated for sound absorption and rust prevention, too.

Part 6: Body & Interior

Delaney chose not to alter the classic Charger design. The Charger had perfect quarters but needed new floors, a trunk and roof skin. Our bodyman, who specializes in getting those subtle (and not so subtle) Mopar character lines just right, did all the metal work.

All exterior trim is NOS, expect for the original wheel lip moldings. The car has been rust-proofed throughout, including the braces under the roof skin and the insides of the rocker panels. Eagle Paint and Body painted the car Viper silver with a Viper-red bumblebee stripe.

Automotive Custom Specialties in Shreveport brought the interior closer to Delaney's more modern cars. They redid the back seat to match the front seats and built the custom console. Velour carpeting (like a Mercedes) helps to raise interior quality, too. All the original knobs and switches have been restored and all work as new (maybe even better). The custom gauge panel is stuffed with AutoMeter gauges and sports a high-tech graphite face from Precision Auto Trim in Rhode Island. With the foot-operated emergency brake moved, there was room for custom kick panels that house 6.5 inch main speakers and tweeters.

Conclusion:

After all that money and work, Delaney says he'll probably sell the car and build something else for next year. Hint: it'll probably have a Viper motor-and then some. In the meantime, Mopar Performance seems committed to making these conversions easier so they can sell more engines. And we're committed to writing about it so we can sell more magazines.

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Charger GTS by: Randy Holden Photos by: John Armisead

Matt Delaney is one of the most imaginative guys in the Mopar hobby. In our January 1999 issue, we featured his amazing fuel injected retro – modern 1970 Hemicuda on our cover. With that car, Matt pushed the limits of modern technology and muscle car good looks to a new height. But, unbeknownst to us, Matt was already planning something to eclipse that machine even before the issue was released.

As Matt’s Hemicuda project was nearing completion, he took a trip to Vegas and rented a Viper while there. According to Matt, the car absolutely ruined him! He came home to Shreveport, LA , and couldn’t shake the desire to own a Viper.

But, there’s something you should know about Matt in case you haven’t already guessed. Matt doesn’t like going along with the crowd. He realized that while he wanted a Viper, he wouldn’t be happy with one because there are too many of them running around. With one of the most creative brains existing, a plan quickly formed.

Years back, Matt bought a “68 Hemi Charger. During the restoration of the Hemi car, he obtained a relatively plain “68 Charger with a stuck 383. While the Hemi car restoration got sidetracked for other projects, the parts car remained at his brother’s farm along with rest of Matt’s ever-growing collection. Having always been a fan of the Coke bottle bodied Chargers, Matt decided to create the world’s first Viper with a B-body skin wrapped around it.

To get the project underway, Matt ordered up a Viper Crate Motor and six speed transmission from Viper Connection in Atlanta. While awaiting the arrival of the powertrain, the Charger went on Matt’s rotisserie for its initial disassemble. Once the engine and tranny arrived, the fun really began.

Matt has remarkable talent for visualizing the finished product, and is doubly blessed with being able to figure out how to make things look exactly right. He chose the Charger body because he liked the body style and because he thought the long hood meant the engine bay would be more friendly to the long Viper V-10.

When the engine was pulled from its plastic crate, Matt realized this wouldn’t be as easy as he had thought. For those of you don’t have one of these things lying around, a V-10 is significantly longer and taller than a big block V-8. The V-10 wouldn’t fit between the radiator core support and the firewall, and what’s more, it became readily apparent the Viper motor wouldn’t sit on the stock K –member without sticking up several inches past the hood. This was not what Matt had in mind.

Matt’s friend Brad Emmons Built a custom stand for the engine and transmission, then the boys ripped the entire chassis out from under the Charger and positioned the body on jack stands over the engine. The firewall was cut out to allow clearance for the engine’s length.

With the Charger literally lowered into place around the engine and transmission, Matt worked with the stands to get the body sitting at just the right height and with just the right stance. Finally, he liked what he saw, and then he and Brad, along with Gary Medders of B&M Performance in Bossier City, studied the situation for a solid month to figure out how to get the Charger to look like what Matt had envisioned.

No street rod company or aftermarket source had a front K-member that would support the V-10 and allow it to sit at the proper height. This was a major obstacle. Finally, the boys decided to use Magnumforce upper and lower control arms for the front suspension, then Brad and Gary welded together a custom made tubular steel K-member that resides in front of the oil pan. To handle steering chores, Matt reworked a power rack & pinion systems from BRT. The rack has 7 inches of travel which allows it to move in front of the oil pan as well.

The firewall was relocated almost 3” aft of its original location and the side facing the engine was smoothed off to leave a clean looking piece that looks deceptively stock. To keep this subtle move even more subtle, the inside of the firewall remains stone stock looking.

Even with relocating the firewall, very little room was left under the hood. To free up a few more inches, the radiator was moved to the outside of the radiator support. This allowed the V-10 to finally rest easily between the front wheels.

The six speed tranny is considerable larger an 833 four speed. The stock floors were cut out donated to a friend’s Charger restoration project. The newly fabricated floors feature a taller and wider transmission tunnel, while keeping the floor and seat mounting heights at stock levels.

For the rear suspension, the Charger went to B&M Performance, where they fabricated a unique ladder-link system hooked to a pair of adjustable Strange coil-over shocks. The frames were rigidly tied together, and the bars which link the suspension could double for something off a panzer tank!

Matt wanted the Charger to handle like a Viper. He knew the secret to this was in making the underbelly rock hard. The car’s rigidity became an obsession. The rear wheel houses were cut away and a set of min tubs installed, then a narrowed 8-3/4” rear was hung with 3.91 gears in an aluminum Mopar Performance chunk.

To finish up with the Charger’s suspension, Wilwood disc brakes now reside at all four corners, worked by a Mopar Performance master cylinder. As for the more than impressive wheels and tries, Matt wanted them to look like the ones on real Viper GTS-R Trans Am cars. He contacted Kinesis and asked if a set of the wheels could be made with the standard 5 on 4.5” Chrysler bolt pattern.

Intrigued by his project, the crew at Kinesis custom made these three piece wheels for the Charger. Out back are a pair of 18x12” rims, and the fronts are 18x8s! The rubber in the back consists of 345/35/18” Michelin Pilot Sports (actually one size bigger than what comes on a Viper) and the front rims hold 245/45/18s. This is some extreme high speed rubber!

Moving indoors, if there is ever a four passenger Viper built, this is probably what its interior will look like. The front seats were made by Scat and were chosen because they very closely resemble factory Viper seats but still sat up high enough to allow for good visibility in the larger car. Automotive Custom Specialties recovered the stock back seat to match the new high tech front buckets, likewise, the console is a custom fabricated unit which copies the console found in Vipers and even features a comfy cup holder! The Pistol Grip Shifter handle is attached to the six speed via a B&M Ripper shifter thanks to the efforts of Gunslinger Performance. The door panels are stock 1970 Charger panels and the headliner is a stock Charge unit as well. The carpet in this one wants to make you drive barefooted! For floor covering, Matt chose Mercedes velour/pile carpeting! The dash is absolutely state-of-the art. The dash face itself is made of composite graphite supplied by Precision Trim of Rhode Island. Silver faced Auto Meter Ultralite gauges stare the driver in the face, while just to the right reside the controls for the Vintage Auto Air A/C system.

An Aiwa CD/MP3 player is tied into 700 watts of amps and pushes sound to Soundstream speakers and subwoofers strategically placed to deliver magnificent concert quality sound. This is not a boom-boom car; Matt’s not into that. The sound system in the Charger delivers sharp and clear tones that must be heard to be appreciated.

Originally a vinyl top car, the Charge’s roof had some serious rust problems, so early in the project the center of roof was cut away and re-skinned with clean sheet metal, And , as with most Mopars, a new trunk floor plan had to installed to rust woes aft. It is in the area of the bodywork, however, that Matt’s attention to detail (dare we say fanaticism) really shines. Everything inside and out of the car, top and bottom, was stripped with a good dipping then paint or rust proofing materials covered every inch of steel. While it was on the rotisserie, hoses were inserted into the car’s frame to coat the inside of the frame rails with paint! To quote Matt, “this one will never rust again.”

All Muscle era Mopars are rattle traps to varying degrees; there’s nothing wrong with them, that’s just how cars were built in the 1960’s. Matt didn’t want rattles. To remedy two common sources of rattles, they drilled out the factory spot welds which held the deck lid and hood skins on their framework, then reattached the skins with solid welds after installing insulating material between the frame and the sheet metal! That’s attention to detail!

Eagle Paint and Body in Shreveport sprayed the Charger overall in Viper silver metallic top and bottom, then installed a set of red 1968 R/T stripes. Amazingly, this one is just a basic base coat/clear paint job, but it looks like the paint is six feet deep!

Then, of course, there were a number of conventional restoration techniques followed. As far as the chrome and trim on this goes, if it’s not NS, it’s neat mint original piece. Knowing he had created something unique once more, Matt chose to call his creation a “Charge GTS”, and the emblem between the taillight lenses generates a lot of comments.

The most amazing fact of all is that the Charger was finished in just one year! While Matt never considers any of his cars truly finished, the Charger made its show debut at the Mopar Nats in Ohio, and promptly won the overall People’s Choice award – no simple feat at the nation’s largest Mopar event with over 3,000 cars attendance!

There are a few more plans in store for the Charger, but as of this writing, Matt’s Charger GTS is seeing some serious street use. The silver modern missile tips the scales at 3,450 pounds and delivers 440 horsepower at the rear wheels (dyno-proven). Yep, it’s blindingly fast. Matt reports the Charger lays into corners like it’s on rails and handles better than a lot of new Corvettes he’s driven. So, once more, Matt has captured the best of all worlds-old school good looks and modern super-car performance and handling.

As magnificent as this piece is, we are assured by Matt that his next project will put this one to shame! What is up to no? He’s not saying but when that one’s finished, rest assured, you’ll see it here first too. In the meantime, a new standard has been set, it’ll be interesting to see if this one starts a whole new trend toward muscle car restifications.

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The Goal: Bring the Hemicuda Into the 21st Century

by Randy Holden

Matt Delaney of Shreveport, LA, is no stranger to the Mopar hobby. In our August, 1995, issue we featured his B-1 powered Duster, which is now running 9.80s!

Ever since he was a youth though, Matt's had a fetish for 'Cudas. He blames this on watching "Mannix" episodes as a child. For years he's searched for the perfect Hemicuda to no avail. Having owned several 440 'Cudas before, he wanted the step up, and looked at three restored Heicudas before realizing he didn't want a restored car. They were more museum pieces than drivable cars, and that's not what he wanted.

Rethinking his strategy Matt found an immaculately clan 'Cuda body literally sitting on a desk in the corner of a local body shop! The bare shell sat atop an old wooden desk, having been completely disassembled in 1979 and left after its owner lost interest in the car. A 440, 4 speed car, the drivetrain had been long lost. Matt cut a deal in 1996 and the fun began.

Drawing upon his years of experience with 'Cudas, he vowed to correct all the factory's shortcomings with the Hemicuda. Basically, he realized that E-bodies rattle too much, were generally not well assembled, and with a Hemi up front, they handled terribly. In other words, he wanted to take a 28-year -old 'Cuda and make it feel like a brand new tight 300M.

To call Matt obsessive would be an understatement. The body was put on a rotisserie and he and his friend Robert Stackowitz pressed, poured, and forced paint into every crevice on this sucker. The frame was beefed up to help prevent flexing, Magnumforce tubular upper control arms were installed to help handle the weight to come.

A clad plated sway bar was added, a Firm Feel rebuilt T/A steering box was used, all polyurethane bushings went everywhere, Cordoba 12" front discs were installed, and a skinner B-body Dana 0 now sites on factory springs moved inboard 3". This allows maximum rubber under the stock wheel wells.

To kill rattles and make this thing tight as a drum, the passenger compartment was coated with Dynamat to deaden the sound and eliminate squeaks. Practically every bolt is Teflon coated. Above the headliner is a layer of silver insulation to deflect noise and heat. The inside of the doors are coated, and 1974 "Cuda windows and power mechanisms were used. Matt says they're more heavy duty and rattle less! This boy did his homework! Even the console is filled with the padding and insulation to keep heat an d noise sway. Slamming the door sounds like slamming the door of a new LH sedan. It's just a solid whump rather than a tinny clatter.

Legendary Interiors custom made the seats. Those are 1971-style gray houndstooth inserts with black leather over new foam front and back. Note that the dash pad doesn't have the Barracuda name in it. This is a rare late 1070s NOS factory pad. By that time, the factory was selling just one dash pad for both Challengers and Barracudas and made them without the names embossed.

Practically everything is NOS, including the Pistol Grip shifter. The leather wrapped steering wheel is a Grant unit perched atop a billet aluminum spacer custom made by Grant themselves. When told their generic adapter didn't work right with the E-body steering column, Grant fabricated the piece and only charged him $14! That's service!

The engine is a technological marvel. The block is a new Ray Barton 528" unit with Barton ported and polished aluminum heads. It uses Manley rods and JE 10:1 compression flat top pistons. The 'Cuda thrives on pump gas. DLI stainless roller rockers reside within the wide valve covers, and hydraulic Competition Cams .530 lift cam moves the valvetrain around. Then things get rather high tech.

A well known problem with the Hemi is that it tends to bog off the line, developing most of its power on the top end. To solve this, being a fast boat junkie as well, Matt knew what to do. Rance Fuel Injectors was called upon to build a custom fuel injection system, using all the Hemi's specs. Matt's only concern was that a stock Shaker scoop would be able to fit under the hood. The Rance injector uses a custom made Cutler throttle body and sits atop a reworked Indy aluminum intake. Dual fuel rails sit above either side of the intake and are fed by a high volume electric fuel pump. The works is controlled with a stat-of-the-art Acell lap top computer which plugs into a module in the glove box.

The computer allows the flow of the fuel to be manually programmed and changed every 400 rpm and monitors a host of other factors. It works with the oxygen sensor to ensure the engine is never leaned out and will shut the electrical system down in case Matt misses a shift and the engine starts to over-rev. When driving normally, the computer operates the fuel injection system in an economy mode that nets Matt about 14 mpg on the highway. At over 30% throttle, this computer automatically shifts into a performance mode and ups the gas to the preset gulping specifications! With this arrangement, matt gets the ultimate in driveability.

Matt and his friends David Gunn and Robert Stackowitz finished the 'Cuda about six months ago, On a chassis dyno, the "Cuda recorded 518 horses and 570 lbs. of torque! And remember, this thing gets great gas mileage, idles smooth, and is as dependable as a new Viper. It runs low 12 second quarters with ease and cruises lazily at 80 mph with 3.54 gears. Matt's putting about 500 miles a month on his purple cruiser. One further detail. As we go to press, a custom A/C system is in the works.

Can you really have it all in a muscle car? Can old and new technology live in harmony? After seeing this machine, we've gotta say, absolutely!

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