Challenger Saved From The Wrecker Garners National Interest

Don Roy
May 6, 2011
Image: Deseret News

Randy Weaver has been designing and building cars for years at his shop in Sandy, UT, south of Salt Lake City. A couple of years ago, he found a ’70 Challenger in the town of Logan – almost two hours away – and was smitten, despite the fact that a tree had fallen on the car.

“It was in a field; just a 1970 Challenger lying in the dirt,” Weaver told the Deseret News recently. “I could visualize it,” he said. “You know, it’s like an artist. They can ‘see’ it.”

Six months of work restored the car to better than new and so Weaver entered it in the local Autorama show, where he took Best of Class. After this, his friends encouraged him to take it to the Las Vegas “Mopars at the Strip” event, where he entered it in the Modified class.

The entry presented a problem, however, when it caused the judges to be deadlocked over three cars – including this one. The Head Judge had to force a tie breaker by asking, “If you could drive one car home right now, which one would it be?” The decision on that was unanimous and so Weaver took home the iron for both Best in Class and Best of Show.

The Challenger is now a sought after commodity by car shows and national magazines alike. Sounds like there’s a busy season ahead for this ride.