Hemi Help Us!

Everyone Loves A 265 Hemi, But They Love A 426 Even More, And That’S Exactly What Makes Frank Pana’s Stunning VH Charger 770 Get Up And Go

- Boris Viskovic

TO GIVE you an idea of how long this 770 Charger has been in Frank Pana’s life, he bought it well before he was old enough to hold a driver’s licence – and that was back in 1981. You gotta wonder how a teenage kid managed to get himself a roadworthy car – but Frank was clever. He worked as a pump jockey at a local servo and then went halves with his older brother. “We bought it together and then he got married two or three years later; I gave him some cash for the balance of the car and had it ever since,” he says. “At the time it was a built Hemi-six, modded with a four-barrel, headers and four-speed with the factory 770 trim.”

Of course, the car didn’t stay this way for long. As with most car-mad teenagers, Frank soon found the weak links in the driveline. “I drove it around with a hot six for a while, blew numerous gearboxes – as you do. When we first got the car it had a clapped-out factory BorgWarner auto that lasted two weeks. Then we sourced a three-speed, which lasted a few months, then another three-speed, which jammed up on me in the middle of Clayton Road and we had to drive it home in reverse at 2am in the morning. Good memories, eh?”

Eventually, Frank progressed to blowing up four-speeds, before selling the motor and ’box around 1988. That’s when the car came off the road. “I put a small-block and a 727 in it, tidied up the interior and put a nine-inch in it,” Frank recalls. “I mini-tubbed the car and moved the springs inboard at home with a mate.”