Tombstone Shadow

1970's Mopar Street Machine Rides Again.

- Scotty Lachenauer

To say that Chuck Fisher grew up in a hardcore, gear-driven family would be an understatement. He was born at the end of the muscle car era to parents who owned a small body shop in upstate New York. They were fascinated by the myriad muscle cars that they repaired on a daily basis, and there always seemed to be one or two hot rides in the family driveway as their daily transportation.

In the mid-1970's Chuck’s parents divorced. Chuck and his mom relocated to Connecticut, where she had grown up. Cars soon became the main focus of their lives, as just about every family member in the vicinity of their new home in Oxford had some kind of cool, old muscle car as a daily driver or grocery getter.

Some of Chuck’s fondest early memories inspired him even more: spending his summers at his grandparent’s small junkyard in Unity, Maine, and driving around in his mom’s armada of muscle rides that she used as the “family trucksters.” His love of high-powered rides would continue as a teen, when he and his mom would spend many weekends at the famed Connecticut Dragway in the early 1980's, watching racers do their thing. As an impressionable youth, Chuck had other people in his life who pushed him in the direction of late 60's muscle. His main influences were his Uncle Joe and good buddy Jim Wisneski, both of whom have since passed away. They were both Chevy nuts, but Uncle Joe also had a soft spot for Mopars (as did Chuck’s mom). To Joe, Mopars were both cheap and serious entertainment. Bang for the buck, nothing beat a good Mopar—period.