CHARGING INTO RETIREMENT

RUSS SCOUGALL WON'T BE SLOWING DOWN WHEN HE QUITS THE NINE-TO-FIVE; HE PLANS TO GO FASTER, CHASING EIGHTS IN THIS TWIN-TURBO V8 CL CHARGER

- GLENN TORRENS 

RETIREMENT. For many, it’s the opportunity to slow down a bit, take it easy. Maybe buy a four-wheel drive and a two-storey caravan for a leisurely road trip, getting in the way of truckies on the way to somewhere like Birdsville or Broome.

Or, if you’re a car nut like Queenslander Russ Scougall, you could use your impending retirement as the motivation to build a twin-turbo Valiant Charger capable of chasing eights at Drag Challenge!

The appeal of Chrysler Australia’s coupe has been with Russ for a long time. “I was 10 years old when the Charger came out in 1971,” the plasterer explains. “My uncle was a flamboyant sort of fella; he was a cane farmer and he bought one new. My dad collected it for him, and for a month before my uncle got it, I was the coolest kid in town!”

Childhood influence lasts for life, eh? “It’s been a bit of an obsession,” Russ agrees. “I bought a Charger from a car yard in 1990. Unfortunately, I had to sell it, but later, when I turned 40, my wife surprised me with a Charger R/T – a genuine E38.” Happy birthday!

“It was a great car,” Russ recalls. “It had won a few trophies; it was a concours winner the first time it was shown. But after a few years, I began hankering for a bit more power and fun than the six-cylinder, so I sold it.”

The CL Charger you see here is its replacement, bought from an acquaintance as an unfinished project a few years after the birthday R/T was sold. “It was in boxes,” Russ says. “It was cheap. But we built it up and put it back on the road with a naturally aspirated motor.”

The result was trophy-worthy; the Charger scored a Top Aussie Coupe gong at a Mopar Sunday back in the day. Then the almost inevitable chase for power began.