Great cars, great people, and plenty of trophies are what sum up the 35th annual Mopars Unlimited spring round-up on June 5th. Not only was this a car show with well over 100 Mopars of all shapes and sizes, it was a swap meet and it included an impressive live performance by Neil Rush that lasted the duration of the show. One spectator even commented to us that “not only is there good food, but there is real music!”

The spring round-up took place at Mariner High School in Everett, Washington, and even included a performance by the high school band. There were 54 different classes, from stock A-body to best interior, so everyone had a chance to bring something home. The finicky pacific-northwest weather even presented a good, warm day for the show and brought in a high of 92 degrees!

Mopars are well known in the automotive world for their unique color palette. If you see some purple or green muscle while out driving, odds are good it’s a Dodge or a Plymouth. The Plum Crazy Purples, Sassy Grass Greens, and Hemi Orange colors were everywhere; and we couldn’t be happier about it. Not only were those cars dressed up on the outside, the engines were done up to match.

All manner of Mopar were present. There were winged cars, Hemi cars, show cars, commuter cars, and even a fair amount of slant-six power. There was plenty to go around with all of the show classes and everything was organized into their specific area so that you could go look at exactly what you were interested in. That was hard for us because we liked pretty much everything.

After perusing the lot and looking at every car we could get our eyes on, we came up with a few favorites of our own. While nearly all of the cars at the show were worthy of a spotlight, these cars were made of something a little special that brought them shimmering to the top of our list.

Best Race Ready Build – Pat Keating’s 1966 Plymouth Belvedere II

As he pulled in with the blue Belvedere, we could hear it long before we could see it. It has the kind of power that you can feel from 20 feet away. In short, this is one of the toughest cars at the show and it is definitely worth a closer look.

This car belongs to Pat Keating of Redmond, Washington. He bought it 18 years ago for what today is a screaming deal in any condition: $300. That being said, it was no easy project. “It was nasty, rusty, and stinky,” Keating explained. “But I really liked it because it was a little unusual. It’s not a ’65 or a ’67, but right in the middle.”

The premise for the whole project was a little unusual as well. Keating didn’t buy the car with an engine in mind to build the car around, or a custom build style that he was looking to imitate, instead he had a transmission in mind that he wanted to build the car around. He wanted a car with a Lenco 4-speed transmission, and this is the final product. “That’s what the drag cars had when I was a kid, and that’s what I had always wanted,” Keating told us.

It features a nitrous enhanced 514 cubic-inch wedge mega-block engine with a cross-bolt main and 13.7:1 compression ratio. When running on just the engine power it can achieve around 800 horsepower, but when running on nitrous it can make up to 1,100. The engine was built by Ed’s Performance Engines and Machine in Mukilteo, Washington.

Fueled with a four-barrel Dominator carb and freed up with 2-¼ inch exhaust, this car is ready to “Fire up, and burn rubber,” as Keating put it. It’s not hard to tell why we picked this as one of our favorites, it’s not every day that we see this caliber of a build. A lot of sweat equity and time went into this car and it really shows.

Best Restored Bee – Rock Talbot’s 1969 Dodge Super Bee

It wouldn’t be a Mopar show without a selection of Super Bees, and we couldn’t put together a favorites list without one. A Super Bee is a shining example of true American muscle. There are few cars that so well represent the early years of high-performance production cars and the muscle look they bring to the table.

This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee is a beautifully restored example of how a Bee can really shine. It belongs to Rock Talbot of Lake Stevens, Washington, and has been in his possession since 1998. “It’s a genuine, numbers matching Super Bee,” Talbot detailed.

Talbot had a ’68 Super Bee when he was going to high school, so this was a little bit of a nostalgia trip for him. “It took a little over four years to restore,” Talbot explained. “All the body work was done at a professional shop, but the reassembly was done in my garage.” After the bodywork was completed, the whole car showed up on a truck, in pieces.

Left: Kyle working under Talbot's car.

“The entire thing was reassembled by Kyle Erxleben,” Talbot continued, “he was 18 at the time and this was the first car that he had assembled.” Since completing Talbot’s car, Kyle has gone on to rebuild several others.

Talbot’s Super Bee is powered by a 383 cubic-inch engine followed up by an automatic transmission. It was originally a forest green color, but Talbot changed it to the black and orange combination that it is now. We sincerely agree with his decision.

Most Impressive Winged Car – Dave Eklum’s 1969 Daytona Charger

There was a line of winged cars, all of which were stunning and a rare sight. When we saw this blue Daytona Charger, and what it had as a power plant, it was a clear choice as favorite. We weren’t the only ones that thought so either, Eklum’s car won the trophy for Best Winged Car. It’s always a good feeling when your opinion is validated.

This Daytona Charger is powered by a 426 cubic-inch race hemi, 4-speed manual transmission, 3.54:1 ratio Dana 60 rearend, and dual four-barrel carbs with an impressive tunnel ram system. This is the real deal, by the way – an original 4-speed, race hemi, Daytona Charger.

Out of everything this car is, we asked Eklum what his favorite thing about the car was: “It’s got to be the four-speed,” he explained. “I mean, it’s a Daytona with a four speed, what could be better?” And it’s true, really, what could be better?

Part of what makes Eklum’s car stand out from the rest in the winged class is the stunning blue and black paint scheme. On top of that, the red-line front tires and road-slick rears really blew us away. The other really great thing about this car is how cool the tunnel ram system looked mounted on the dual carb powered, hemi engine.

One of a Kind Custom – Darren Kleisath’s 1969 Dodge Charger R/T Convertible

An original, numbers matching, 1969 Dodge Charger R/T is a rare enough find, but how about a convertible? Didn’t know they made convertibles? Well that’s because Dodge never did! This is a custom job that looks like a factory-made car.

This incredible custom car belongs to Darren Kleisath of Arlington, Washington. Originally a standard, two-door hardtop 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, this car has had a long and probably very interesting life. “Someone did a convertible job on a perfectly good R/T Charger,” Kleisath explained. “It was seafoam green and needed interior work, but all the stuff was there,” Kleisath has had it since 1996.

Over the two decades he has had the car, Kleisath has done an immeasurable amount of work to it. Before he could even start restoring it, he had to get everything to work so he could start the restoration process. As a custom job convertible, nothing lined up right and the body needed a lot of extra support before it was going to be drivable.

The first thing he did was getting it driving and stopping. “Going forward and stopping is a good thing,” he said. Then he went on to the more tedious work like redesigning the top mechanism and tearing into the body.

“It was originally a California car, so there was no rust,” Kelisath explained. “But there was a lot of bodywork that needed to be done. Lots of bumps and dings, and the old repair work was mostly tape, tar, and Bondo.” He used a rotisserie for a lot of the work and said that doing this without it would have been impossible.  When it came to paint, he was having a hard time picking the color, until his wife told him he could paint it any color except for red. He said “That made it really easy.”

This Charger convertible is powered by a 440 cubic-inch engine and a 727 transmission with the R/T specs. The engine also has ported heads, a roller cam, and roller rockers, but the drivetrain is finished out with 2.92:1 highway gears. “It has really good manners, even on the highway.”

Clean Cool Optioned Challenger – Roy VanWinkle’s 1970 Dodge Challenger RT/SE

A 1970 Dodge Challenger is rare even as a base model, but the R/T and SE variants are rarer still. How about a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE: a car that is both performance power and luxury grace.

This uniquely optioned 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T SE belongs to Roy VanWinkle of Stanwood, Washington. “This is a rare car because it was originally sold with both the R/T and SE packages,” VanWinkle explained. Only 2,076 cars were produced in 1970 that included both packages, so there aren’t many still on the road today.

When VanWinkle bought the car in 2007, it was a driver and only had 88k miles on it. “There was rust in the quarters and the trunk that I had to fix,” he detailed. “But the rest is original steel.” The painstaking restoration shows the amount of effort that was put into rebuilding this car. VanWinkle placed mirrors so spectators could even see how clean it was underneath.

It’s powered by a 383 cubic-inch Magnum engine with a 440 crank, roller rockers, and aluminum heads followed up by a 727 Automatic transmission. The engine is dressed up to look totally stock, but has actually been totally reworked.

This ground-up restoration is clean inside and out and the stunning green color makes it stand out among the rest. It’s a stunning example of an original restoration done right, and it was a perfect car to go with. Not only is it a rare vehicle, now VanWinkle gets to enjoy the luxury options as he drives his high-performance Mopar muscle.

They say the show only gets bigger every year, and we can’t wait to see what happens at the 36th Spring Roundup. If you are in the Seattle area, make sure you keep this club in mind and make the effort to head out to the show. We can tell you from experience that it’s fully worthwhile.