The original, rusty 70s muscle car gets a carburetor rebuild minutes before heading down the strip to make a quick pass.
Viewers familiar with YouTube channel Vice Grip Garage and their exploits will already know that the team are prolific in their endeavors to entertain and showcase some awesome cars. From Lewisburg, Tennessee, the channel provides regular, original entertainment for gearheads.
They describe themselves as ‘Budget builds, rescues, and how to’s for the common folk’; budget builds like the Vanishing Paint Challenger muscle car.
It’s a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, bought from Roadkill Garage some time ago – now owned by Vice Grip Garage – and the car is at day 2 of Sick Week down at Bradenton Motorsports Park to make maybe one quick pass
There’s no time for any tweaking, but that doesn’t stop our host from taking apart a carburetor just before they get the call to go to the strip.
The 1970 Vanishing Paint Dodge Challenger R/T: Speed And Patina
At the start of the video we can see that the sun is shining and there are a ton of cool muscle cars around at this, one of the most important events for gear heads and cars like this Challenger.
It needs some tweaks and is running rich, but there’s no time for changes now including to the timing, as it’ll be one hit on the strip and then back on the road.
Despite this, the team decide to take apart the carburetor just before their class gets called to proceed, and we witness our host changing the jets on the carburetor for smaller ones in order to get it running better – and it’ll be making this hit without an air cleaner on as well.
There are also a couple of friends along for the ride including one in a Chevy Camaro which will be making some quick passes for Sick Week.
The Vice Grip Garage Vanishing Paint Challenger Makes A Pass
Named after the ‘Vanishing Point’ Dodge Challenger from the feature film, this one has vanishing paint and exhibits some wonderful patina, in contrast to shinier, polished motors.
Once it’s go-time, the muscle car makes a burnout at the starting line and shoots off, making that iconic V8 sound and culminating in a 12:92 quarter mile time.
A 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T like this one is worth an average of around $118,000 according to Classic.com’s auction history aggregator, and the Challenger R/T originally came with a 6.3-liter V8; a 7.2-liter, and desirable 7-liter Hemi V8 were also available.
It will be interesting to see how the team at Vice Grip Garage further improve the Challenger for next time, and we look forward to seeing an honest 70s muscle car return to make some quick hits down the quarter mile.
Like most automotive YouTubers, it’s hard to know exactly how much they make, but various sources estimate that Vice Grip Garage makes between $10-20,000 month.
