This ’64 Belvedere wagon had all the cool stuff — Bright red paint, arrow-straight body, old-school Center Lines, and older-school Max Wedge-fed dual quad powerplant.

The matching red interior had all the basics in place. The stock wheel and bench seat seamlessly blend with the tach and shift-light atop the dash, and the extra gauges in vintage-style chrome housings mounted underneath it.

Gasser style is super hot right now! Nose-high attitude, grille-mounted fuel tank, crazy paint, exposed engine, and fenderwell headers work with this nicely-lettered ’62 Plymouth to nail the look.

With so many new Dodge Challengers on the road, it was really refreshing to see so many classic early ’70s versions lined up together. The lively paint colors are all factory offerings from back then, too. That Plum Crazy T/A with the white interior on the end was our favorite. The Panther Pink car next to it was great too, and while we dig Panther Pink, we like it better on other people’s cars…

This might be the nicest ’73 Charger in existence. We all know that horsepower was winding down by ’73, but style-wise, the Charger was still carrying the torch. How cool does the stripe package look from this angle? The basic white looks super clean on this car, which came down from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, for the show. Credit goes to owner Raymond Howes for this beauty.

Under the hood, Howes’ Charger packs about as much punch as was possible then, with the 440 four-barrel engine in place. It’s nicely detailed with lots of new parts and plenty of options. That A/C setup means it’s comfy cool on hot summer days!

All of the cool trim pieces are still in place, and the car wears simple steelies with dog dish caps. The rear wheels have been widened a bit, but the car is overwhelmingly as-delivered. We don’t normally notice these later cars, but this one commands attention.

The swap meet at the Mopars in the Park show is pretty extensive. It was super cool seeing all of the bits and pieces, and trying to identify the year/make/and model they came from. This vendor had a wide range of exterior trim pieces, and all of them looked to be in ‘good, used’ condition. We prefer seeing parts like these over brand-new reproduction parts, and they always seem to fit right too.

In case you don’t know, we’re engine guys. Seeing a wide range of traditional Mopar engine goodies around the swap meet was great. Small-block cranks, B/RB big-block heads, and 426 Hemi intake manifolds were all over the place. This stuff is still as dreamy to me as it was 30-years ago.

Super-rare cars are always cool to see, but it’s rare to see them in unrestored “as-found” condition like this. According to the posters surrounding the car, Plymouth only built four Road Runner convertibles with the Hemi engine in 1970. This car is claimed to be the only one made in Plum Crazy. It’s also the only one exported to Canada. Obviously, it was repainted blue, and according to the story, it’s been in an accident and repainted red before, too. After leading a pretty rough life, it’s now headed for a complete restoration. Well deserved, we think, and hopefully we’ll see it back here next year (or maybe the year after) when it’s finished. Honestly, it was kind of nice to see that it wasn’t being offered for some insane price…at least not yet.

Time for more honesty — I used to have a ’69 Charger R/T. As a result, I’ve got a genuine soft spot for the ’68-’70 models. Mine was never as nice as this ’70 model, and it wasn’t purple, either. This beauty has all the right stuff- and the license plate should be a clue that it’s got some horsepower underhood too!

The 440-Six Pack was immaculate too! Nicely detailed, these engines still look show-ready when dressed in their original colors! There’s only one thing that could make this car even cooler…

…and that would be a pistol-grip-shifted four-speed manual transmission! Yes! The full-length console, (simulated) wood-rimmed wheel, and complete gauge package make this car very well-equipped right from new. This is why these cars (and others like them) are so legendary.

Compare the previous Plum Crazy Charger with this black beauty. The 17-inch wheels on this one are far from factory, and emulate the style of the original Magnum-style wheels. Both cars are 1970 models, but this modified car has more updated goodies under the hood.

It’s urged on by another 440 engine, but this one has a single four-barrel EFI setup atop an aftermarket intake (although it’s been painted in the original orange color). The valve covers are a dead giveaway that it’s not absolutely restored, but then you see the upgraded ignition, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, and new aftermarket air conditioning, and you realize that it’s been breathed upon a bit to suit the owner’s taste. Nice work all the way around. Cole Seepersaud of Rosemount, MN, owns it, and he should be proud.

Bonnie Charron of Webster, SD, brought her ’70 Super Bee out to the event. That “Go Mango” Orange paint is lively, and the white stripe make it look even brighter! It runs a 383ci big-block with a four-speed stick, and has rare factory A/C too! The car was well-detailed, top and bottom.

Seeing three fastback Chargers all lined up doesn’t happen too often. These early Chargers were really interesting, style-wise…especially inside. The fold-down rear seat and console running all the way to the rear seats was a pretty radical departure from convention. The roofline was distinctive and teamed with the full-width taillight, it made the cars very easy to spot.

Our favorite car at the Midwest Mopars in the Park event was this street/strip style ’63 Dodge Polara 440. The more we looked it over, the more cool stuff we saw. Rich Rydberg of Cumberland, Wisconsin, is the owner, and he did a great job putting this all together. The straight body and flashy chrome work grabbed our attention right away. Hey- is that a rollbar? Those rear tires are pretty fat, too..!

It sure is! The stock wheel is still there, but those seats look like they’re out of an A100 van. This was a popular move back in the ’60s, since the van seats were really lightweight. Where’s the shifter? There’s nothing on the floor and nothing on the column. Those push buttons on the dash to the left of the wheel control the gear selection. Super clean work, everywhere inside.

The dual-quad 426ci Ramcharger (Max Wedge) V-8 looks like it’s an all factory setup, but it’s common to use 440 bottom ends in these when they hit the street. The factory engines had 12.5:1 compression and solid roller camshafts- pretty radical stuff for 1963. It’s impossible to tell what’s happening inside this particular engine, but odds are it’s a hard runner.

The smaller, lightweight A-body Dodge Darts were great little drag cars. When optioned with the pricey 440ci V-8 in the rare GTS model, they were among the sleepiest of the sleepers. This is a 1969 model, owned by Wayne Klemz and sporting it’s original (numbers-matching) 440, backed by a 727 automatic and a 3.55:1-geared 8-3/4-inch rear axle.

We must give credit to Dodge for bringing an awesome display of new cars that appealed to lovers of classic muscle, like us. They had the newly-unveiled Demon on display in a pretty blue color we hadn’t seen before. Based on the crowd around it all weekend, we’d have to say they’ve managed to get everyone’s attention. They also had examples of all the SRT family for enthusiasts to inspect.

In addition to the new cars on display, Mopar also gave rides in their fastest cars to anyone willing to sign up and wait their turn. These rides were spirited affairs, including full-throttle blasts down the straight line and a 180-degree turn at the end. As impressive as the rides were the fact that the entire fleet of Vipers, Challengers, and Chargers ran non-stop, all day, without any issues or overheating. With air temps in the 90s, this was quite a feat. The engineering of these new cars is clearly first-rate.

There were plenty of race-only cars on display in addition to the hundreds of street machines on the grounds. Historically, the Hemi-powered Plymouth ‘Cudas have commanded the most attention from collectors and racers alike. We really like this particular example, since it was improved for maximum acceleration without being modified beyond recognition or painted like a circus wagon. Jerry Stellrecht of Goodhue, MN, is the owner, builder, and driver of this impeccable example. While it has been a quarter-miler for many years (running deep into the 10s), Jerry is about to bring it back to the street with some real handling capabilities.

This is Jerry’s new 540-cube Mopar Performance-equipped Hemi, which made 800 horses on the dyno with 11:1 compression on pump gas. It will soon be backed by a Tremec 6-speed manual.

The “Ace of Spades” is Dave McDade’s ’65 Dodge Coronet. Taking cues from the altered wheelbase cars, the Ace stands tall with a high stance and an octet of injector stacks.

Those stacks feed a healthy Hemi engine with the modern advantage of electronic fuel-injection control. The engine is super clean and fits wonderfully in the wide engine bay of the ’65. Lots of chrome in a black engine bay just makes us smile.