Chatsworth- Sweltering heat didn’t stop hundreds of car enthusiasts from showing up in Chatsworth for the 2nd annual B&M/Hurst Car Show. It certainly didn’t stop SCC either. The group made a definite impression by showing up with fourteen cars between members and guests. SoCal Challengers came away with two awards at the event. Richard and his “ChallengeHer” dragster won the ”Best seen on the Strip” Trophy and SoCal Challengers as a group won the “Best Club Participation” Trophy.

It was a morning of meeting places – there were three before arriving at the show. It was fun watching the line of cars from place to place get bigger and bigger. By the time we made it to the last meeting place, we had fourteen cars to arrive at the show with. That was pretty damn impressive. Thank you for everyone’s help in getting from place to place and finally to the show itself. Once in the show, we had to jockey our cars around quite a bit to park. The Hurst volunteers did an excellent job getting us lined up. We looked sharp once all of our cars were shined up and our banners were in place. We were here! Thank you to Dan and James for the banners, easy-up, and chairs. I think we would have had a collective melting or a mass spontaneous combustion without the shade. It also gave us a central meeting place to hang out and be together.

There were a wide variety of cars to see from older original classics, to full-on hot rods, to complete custom street and race cars. The Hurst Challengers were the centerpiece of the show and were absolutely stunning. There were two original Challengers there; a beautiful Hemi-Orange 1971 that a gentleman had brought and a yellow 1970 that was at the Hotchkis booth. Jay Leno stopped by the show and brought his “Tank” as he called it. He came by our group and took a few pics with us. He also let Chuck’s son Charlie sit in his “Tank” and be photographed and gave his own raffle tickets to Chris’s kids. Jay is a super nice and down to earth guy with a true love for cars. We’ll get him in our group sooner or later, it’s just a matter of time. Hear that Jay?

There were two highlights of the day for me. First was when I was sitting under the easy-up during the show as a gentleman walked by and said to me, ”Nobody can say you guys didn’t come out in force!” That was great to hear that we had made that kind of impression on the folks at the show. Second, was when we were announced as the winners of the “Best Club Participation” Trophy. To me it was a representation of all the work so many of the members had done to this point. It was fitting that we received a group trophy. Dave, my fellow Co-President, was a class act as he went around and congratulated all the members that were there. It was their award. We all took individual pictures with the trophy and our car. Thank you all for participating. Chris drove all the way out from San Jacinto. Chuck came up from San Diego. That’s participation. I’d also like to thank our guests, Dean and Lindsay, Art, and Mike and Kristin. It’s a rule of Dave and I that if you’re one of our members or our guest you will be taken care of. Hopefully we took appropriate care of you and you’ll join us again. And finally, thank you to B&M/ Hurst for inviting us and putting on a first-class event

March 28^th was a great day for SCC members. It was the fourth annual Spring Fest in Irvine, Ca. Although all of us that registered got a goody bag to take away from the event, some of us came away with a little more. Our SCC member Chris, aka “SparkChicken” was one such person who left the Spring Fest with something, well, “Super”.

Word got around at the Festival that Techco, a vendor at the event, was looking for a Challenger R/T equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission on which to do their first in-house install of their 3.0 liter Supercharger. One SCC member talked to another SCC member and eventually Chris and the team from Techco met each other and discussed the project. After looking at Chris’s car and talking dollars and cents, Chris’s Challenger will be Techco’s first in-house install on an R/T 6-speed. His vehicle will be pictured in the install brochure.

Chris dropped off his Challenger at the Techco shop in Anaheim, Ca. on April 1^st. “I miss my car already” Chris told me when I spoke to him just two days later. Those of us that ordered our Challengers definitely know the feeling. “I spoke with Carlos at Techco, and he told me the car would be ready on April 18^th so I’ll be able to take it to the Hurst show on the 19^th, ” remarked Chris. We can’t wait to see it. The supercharger will add to Chris’s mods he’s already done to his R/T. These include a Zoomers exhaust, a Techco CAI, and a Diablo sport tune. When I asked Chris what was next for his Challenger after the supercharger he told me, ”Tires and brakes, but I’m gonna burn these up first”. That’s just what I expected to hear from you Chris, just what I expected.

also spoke with Carlos at Techco. I found him to be extremely knowledgeable and friendly. I originally called to set up a phone interview for this article and his reply was, ”How about we do it right now?”  I appreciate him taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with me. Techco, based in Anaheim California, started in 1997.  Techco’s staff, which comprises much of the team that designed the S7, the S281 Mustang, The Parnelli Jones Limited Edition Mustang, and the S331 Sport trucks for Saleen, now works out of a 150,000 square ft. facility that houses Dynamometers, a CNC machine shop, a CMM lab, a Fab shop, SLS prototyping, CAD/CAE workstations, an R&D lab, a component subassembly shop, a customer install shop, and also a race team. I asked Carlos, Techco’s Sales Manager, what a supercharger setup from Techco would produce in terms of horsepower on an R/T, “Somewhere between 400 and 460 horsepower depending on the specific setup done” he replied. “The base kit is 5.5lbs. of boost. We can go up from there if that’s what the customer wants”. Carlos made mention that they build their superchargers entirely in-house and also made a point to say, ”We are the only supercharger manufacturers who do that in the industry”.

It sounds like Techco is doing a lot of things right. We at SCC are excited to see what you create under the hood of our brother’s R/T. I have a feeling this chicken’s gonna wake everyone up and bite hard!

If you’d like to reach Carlos, please phone him at (714)408-9550 ext. 123 or email him at cduran@techcointl.com. Techco’s main web address is www.techcointl.com

think anyone having a car event should invite SCC. Of course I’m biased, but look what you get when you invite us: Stunning Challengers lined up row after row, an outstanding group of enthusiasts with superb attitudes and great weather. How can you beat that? Well, I can’t control the weather, but we’ve nailed that so far.

Dave and I had the challenge of coordinating the Challengers at SF4. It was an unveiling for us of sorts. We were going to have our uniforms for the first time. It was the same scenario with our banners. Our members Dan and Jon kicked some major butt and got these two things done in time for the show.  Dan got the shirts done in time for the show and built the banner boxes himself. Jon re-configured the banner file so it could be done on a banner. They worked together extremely well. Co-President Dave also rushed and got our business cards done for SF4. Dodge execs were going to be there. It was important to Dave and I that we looked sharp. A lot of people in our group really stepped up for this event and got things done. People that get things done have my utmost respect. Thanks to all of you who did what you did to make us look absolutely competent at SF4.

We had two meeting places setup for the show; One for people from the north of the show’s location and one for the out-of-towners and people who were coming from south of the show. It was a trick to reach the out-of-towners and tell them of our plans. They were on forums other than Challengertalk in a lot of cases and they certainly didn’t know who we were…YET. Dave had talked to the organizer of the show and arranged preferential parking for us. We got in early and got to park in the first two rows. It ended up all going pretty much like clockwork. I had the group from the north’s meeting place. It was great to see six Challengers besides mine. Gene and Maria came all the way from Bermuda Dunes to ride in with my group. It was great having an SE in the mix. We haven’t seen too many of those as of yet. At 8:30 am, we rolled to meet at the Chrysler building where the other group was waiting for us. After a little pow wow with SCC and the out-of-towners, we lined up to go into the Festival. After stopping my car and getting out I got to see how long that line of cars was behind me. It was a great sight to see. I never did a final count, but I think total we had between thirty and forty Challengers in that line. That, gentlemen, is how you bring it.  It was an honor to lead that line into the Festival, an absolute honor. In Dave’s car behind me we had member BJ and his dad William as passengers. BJ was having engine work done to his car by Stack Performance and his car wasn’t available for the show. There was no way we were letting him miss the ride in. I posted to him on Challengertalk to get himself and his dad to the Chrysler building so he wouldn’t miss riding in with us. It was great to meet his dad William and have him with us.

When I pulled in the entrance, I was greeted with, ”We’ve been waiting for you guys” in an impatient tone. I looked at the clock. It was 9:02a.m., two minutes after we were supposed to be there.  I said,”Well sir, WE ARE HERE”. “Where do you want us?” After we were parked it was time to shine and show and enjoy the Festival.

Stack Performance had a booth right next to us. It was fitting because Stack has been such a huge supporter of SCC. It was cool to see that several members had their cars at various booths around the show as well.  Dan’s SRT-8 was at the Corsa exhaust booth. He was sporting his new wheels which looked stunning. Jon had his Challenger at the Dodge exhibit. James was filmed by the T.V. show “Whipnotic”. We’ll be looking for you on the tube James. I was envious, but I guess having a license plate that phonetically spells the word “Heinous” on your car doesn’t make one attractive to the television folk. Seriously, James and his car have a great story. It’s one all of you should take the time to know. The ChallengeHer dragster was there too, along with its pilot. I saw picture after picture being taken of that dragster. It was definitely a hit. New cars were unveiled at this event. Dodge unveiled the Rally SE model. It seemed to garner quite a bit of interest. Hurst also unveiled a new Challenger that looked absolutely evil. Sam Hubinette was there with the Challenger drift car, too. There were so many great things to see.

At the end of the show, Dave and I got to meet Eric Munk, who is Dodge’s Marketing Manager for the West Business Center. It was great meeting him and better yet that he was meeting us. He told us he had seen our website already and liked it. Loved hearing that. We also met Ron from Hurst. We can’t wait to be at the Hurst show in just a few short weeks. I started to realize about then that my SPF 45 sunscreen had failed several hours before and lobster-man had begun to set in. It was time to go home.

Thank you to everyone who participated and made this such an exciting event for all of us. We will be even bigger next year. You were here at the beginning, always remember that. You were here.