CHALLENGING PURCHASE

that he figured he could sort out the broken car’s problems. As he learned more about the G3 aftermarket, he called the Arrington shop, as there were some unique items like the custom upholstery with Arrington’s name prominently showing.

“I asked if they had built this Mopar supercharged car, and the guy said, ‘well, what kind of supercharger?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know, it looks like this, and it’s got this Mopar M on it.’ And he goes, ‘wait, is that a blue Challenger?’ I said, ‘yes,’ and he says, ‘how’d you get that car?!?’

Indeed, there were even pictures of the first build still on their website, and, as the chat continues, Ed realizes he now knew who would get the engine back together for his project.

“Oh, I wanted it to be a 426. After all, Mopar and 426 means a lot, and then I could tag it that way, too. So that’s what I wanted, I sent them the car, got it built, got it back, and a month later, I caught my wife cheating on me!”

Ouch.

That discovery and the subsequent fallout delayed the process of getting serious about the car’s potential for a while. Ed did street drive it, but he is a racer at heart, and that meant tires. Sticky ones. And that meant parts. Broken ones.

“You got to do a little, find the weakest link, and I couldn’t write the checks for all of it at once,” he says. “Arrington warned me that the 426 would be a lot for the transmission that was in it. It lasted a year. First, I bought axles, then I bought a driveshaft. Then I went through two transmissions. So finally, I bought a Paramount, which is in now.”

The Paramount build is a factory 5-speed reworked for the environment, with a 2800 stall PPP converter and the OEM diff with 3.08 rear gearing and the G-Force axles. Suspension changes out back are Lakewood Demon Killer springs. Lakewood also supplied the front shocks, but the rest is pretty much stock. The topper was the set of Hellcat-type wheels with M/T Factory car came new with 5.7, now skinnies up front and beadsports Arrington 426 CI with custom locked 305/45/17 M/T drag Magnuson huffer and one-off intake. radials at the back. Pump gas engine is actually close to “That was funny,” says stock, with stroker bottom end, Hell- Ed. “I’m cruising around a cat cam and blueprinting. Boost is 12 car show at Indy with my pounds, 10.7 quarters are the result. cousin, and we come up on this Hellcat. I tell him, ‘Hey, those are the exact wheels I want!’ The guy with the car hears me and says, ‘those wheels are for sale, dude.’ He gives me a price and so I came back the next day and bought them right from him. Solved that problem!”

The paint was already done, with the stripes applied over the factory 2011 pigment; Ed added the 426 identification once the engine was upgraded. The interior likewise had been customized before he bought it. Ironically, when first bought, the Challenger was set up more like a road racer. Once back at their shop from

Ed, Arrington focused on the quarter-mile with a mill that pushed 697 ponies on the dyno with 12 pounds boost. Internals inside the 392 now include the forged stroker crank and assembly, a Hellcat cam, and blueprinting the rest of the OEM parts package underneath the one-off intake. Corsa handles the exhaust. Ed admits the supercharger size is now the weak link with the increased displacement, though the car has clicked off 10.70s at 130 MPH at his home track, Edgewater Raceway near Cincinnati. He drives it there and back when he races.

“For me, more blower would maybe be a Whipple 3.0, or

Kenne-Bell 4.2, but I might lose my hood scoop with that, and

I like the way the car looks now,” he says. “Of course, I’d like to get it to 9-seconds, 1000 HP. This racing deal is like a super drug, though, and you gotta control it!”

Thanks goes to daughter Brooke Cresap for help on the car, and Ed’s car first caught our attention as we were walking through the staging lanes of the Mopar Action-backed drag program at Holley Moparty in 2021. The hood was up…

“Hey, I know what that is! What is it?”

Nice interior is also close to stock, with Arrington name stitched into Katzkin seat backs. Factory shifter works built Paramount Performance Productsbuilt tranny. Potential future 9-second will mean it’s cage time.