ROMPER STOMPER

JOE BAUER'S 3000HP DODGE CHARGER TOOK ON STREET MACHINE SUMMERNATS 36 AND EMERGED AS GRAND CHAMPION

- SIMON MAJOR

STUNNING looks and a great personality? Yep, such a combo does exist, as evidenced by Joe Bauer’s Summernats 36-stomping, Grand Champion-crowned Dodge Charger. With a body worthy of a supermodel and an extremely persuasive 3000hp emanating from its blown Hemi heart, Joe’s Charger rocks beauty and brawn in equal measure. “I wanted to build an iconic American muscle car to an elite level,” Joe explains. “I also wanted to incorporate the performance and handling usually lacking with cars of this calibre.”

Given the swag of trophies the Dodge picked up at ’Nats 36, along with the car’s performance in the Grand Champ driving events, it’s fair to say Joe well and truly achieved his goal. Joe’s a long-time second-generation Charger fan, so it’s no surprise that a 1968 example caught his eye while he was scouring the ’net for a suitable base for his build plans. “I only had photos to go off, and the car looked to be in reasonable condition,” he recalls. “Once it landed here and was nestled in the garage, I stripped it down and sold off pretty much every part that bolts to the car before having it sandblasted. There was not one panel on it that wasn’t rusted or damaged.”

Joe knuckled down and got on with the job. “I spent the next 16 months building the car at home to a fully driveable mock-up stage, starting at what felt to be the most logical step: cutting out everything from underneath the car and from the firewall forward, then starting fresh.”