Man Flies Halfway Around the World for a 1970 Dodge Charger That Sat Parked for 36 Years

A Mopar car hid in the same makeshift garage in some yard in the United Kingdom. A holy grail of muscle cars. A dream project. It may sound like a story that is out of this world. Sam has to see the car with his own eyes even though he is aware that there might be huge issues with it. The 1970 Charger has been sitting in the exact same place for the same amount of time he has been alive. That is 36 years!

The owner, Tim Cummings, built a wooden garage for it to protect it from the elements. He received the second-generation Charger as a birthday present from his father, but it was in bits and pieces. He took on the project, and put all the pieces of the puzzle together and had the car working. He says he has driven it, but it wasn't completely legal. He just couldn't stay away.

The car has been in his possession for almost four decades. It is registered in the United Kingdom and has all the necessary documents to drive there. Sam wanted this car so bad! Back in 2019, he started on a dream road trip across America in a NASCAR-powered Dodge Charger.

He had been involved in the build, heart and soul, time and money. Then, he covered around 15,000 miles in the company of his best friends and with his dad in the passenger’s seat.

Then, that Dodge was on display at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas. He had to sell it to buy a home for his family. The car ended up in a museum in Austria. So when he saw the car from the UK, he just had to have it. The model has no wheels, and many of the components haven't even been installed. So he had no idea how he was going to take it to the trailer that was too big to fit in the driveway.

But first things first. The car needs wheels to roll out of the makeshift wooden garage it has been sitting in for over three decades. A set of wheels from a 2015 Dodge Charger Police Interceptor should do the job. Luckily, they fit.

Sam takes to the trailer two doors, three boot lids, a fuel tank, and a Mopar 440-cubic-inch (7.2-liter) V8 engine. The Dodge has a 440 out of an RV or a motor home from the United Kingdom, which doesn't really look that great as rust has eaten bits of it.

A bundle of colourful wires looking like spaghetti will be kept for who knows what. The 1970 Dodge Charger has its speedometer and odometer in kilometers, which is quite rare.

The seller, Tim, also gives Sam two steering wheels to choose from. One goes on board the Dodge to help with steering the car around the yard, the other one goes into the trunk.

Pushing the car to the trailer that does not fit in the driveway is a headache. Because apparently, the Dodge Charger doesn't fit either. New parts of the house have probably been built after the car was locked inside the wooden garage, and taking it around the corners is way more difficult than they expected it would be.

Sam confesses that, over five years ago, he went to England to buy the grille surrounding. Now, he went back there to buy the car. Tim tells him that he hasn't touched the Dodge for a while.

He simply abandoned the project that he was so enthusiastic about almost 40 years ago. Now in his 50s, he just wants a car in which he can just turn the key and go.

Back then, the Dodge had a 383-cubic engine, but he swapped it with 440 from a 1968 Dodge Charger. Restoring it should not take ages and should not cost a fortune. Even though it sat parked in the same spot for over three decades, it has been protected from direct sunlight and rain.

Tim wanted to paint it metallic green, but his friend, who was responsible for that part of the project, said he couldn't do metallic and asked Tim to think of something else. Tim saw a yellow Charger on the back of a brochure and thought it looked nice. So, he eventually went for yellow. He kept that brochure until today, and he still has the photos that documented the painting procedure.

The new owner, Sam, hopes that one day, he is going to take Tim on a joy ride in his good old Doge and put a smile on his face.