Built For Boost

Rich Mehas’ 2,200 HP 1966 Coronet 500

- Eric Geisert

In one sense Rich Mehas is like most any hot rodder you’ll ever meet: He likes a wide range of hot rods, going to car shows, rompin’ on his go-pedal, hangin’ out with his car club buddies (the Old Farts Racing Team), and maintaining a couple of nice rides in his garage.

But Rich has another side: He’s a Dodge guy. If you’ve ever met a fan of Chrysler, Plymouth, and/or Dodge then you know they’re a little different bunch, and proud of it. Growing up in California in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Rich lived through the Golden Age of hot rodding (he graduated high school in 1964) and, to shake off the daily grind over the next few decades, would drive out to the desert with friends, family, kids, and grandkids and ride the sand dunes and beat the snot out of whatever they were in.

One particular couple Rich and his wife, Karen, would meet up with out in the Glamis desert with their ATV, trailers, and buggies was Rocky and Donna Paciulli, who brought their family, too, including a 2-year-old Lang Paciulli, who Rich watched grow up.

As Lang got older, his love of cars took over his life. Even while in high school having a big or fast engine wasn’t enough— he wanted something bigger and faster yet! He dove head-first into turbos and nitrous and by the time he was just 19, he had his first engine/car-building shop.

Street racing was a large part of Lang’s early life, and one of his high school buddies had a rough-looking 1966 Dodge Coronet. Maybe a bit odd looking to start with, for some folks it was made to look worse by the fact it had a paint roller-applied yellow paint job that had been done in the driveway of a farm field.