We’ve got something for you that every Mopar guy will want to own but will have trouble explaining to his wife. It’s called the 1969 Dodge Charger “Scraptona”, a name that denotes this Daytona impersonator looks like a bunch of scrap. But underneath the patina and multiple paint shades, you’ve got a $150,000 machine.
The Scraptona has a very interesting story. It’s a build started many years ago to answer a simple question: What if a bunch of rednecks took a competition chassis, skinned it with a 1969 NASCAR body of a Dodge and created a race car to compete at the 1972 Le Mans. What I wouldn’t give to watch that movie!
It was put together by a company called TredWear out of Alabama, which specializes in custom tires that look old but have good, modern tread. The project start off with the shell of a Charger 500, which had been cut up for another project and was sitting in a field for years. It couldn’t be restored, but it looked the part.
For NASCAR high-speed performance, the Charger got turned into Daytona, as you probably know. However, the Daytona has a little grille right on the nose, so what’s going on here? Well, this is the nose of a Superbird, the other famous winged car.
The front fenders are from the Coronet, and they’ve been chopped up a little. Above the wheels, we see vent pods which are actually made of old motorcycle tanks. This car looks like it’s seen a lot of battles, and to make its armor more easily replaceable, the rear quarter panels are held on with Dzus quick-release fasteners. Durable polycarbonate (with louvers) for the rear window and the headlights helps sell this era of racing but in a junkyard/demolition derby kind of way.
Even the hood is polycarbonate. Originally, this 69 Charger was a slant-six, the most basic of basics. But now it’s got what’s basically a racing engine, the 2001 Winston Cup R5-P7 Richard Petty Motor. It only displaces 358 cubic inches (5.86 liters), but produces 740 horsepower and runs on 100-110 octane race fuel.
The motor is hooked up to a Tremec TKX 5-speed manual with a custom Tilton NASCAR bell housing and Mantec two-piece flywheel. Thanks to Wilwood Superlite 6R brakes with 13-inch rotors, she stops as well as she goes. And can you believe all this is a road-legal car, with no wipers, headlight buckets out of a BMW E30, and the tiniest of mirrors? Alabama has some pretty relaxed laws.
The 1969 Charger Scraptona has a pretty rich history: 2018 SEMA Show car, 2019 Power Tour, 2021 Hotwheels Legends Tour, 2022 Autorama, 2022 Gridlife. A couple of years ago, Cleetus McFarland said he was going to buy it, but now the rat rod of Le Mans racers can be yours provided you’re willing to pay Garage Kept Motors the $149,900 they’re asking. As we said, good luck explaining this purchase to your wife!
