Video: Roxanne Is A 1969 Charger RT With A 1,000 HP Blown 572 Hemi

Meet Roxanne. She's got a 572 cubic inch Hemi somewhat under the hood. Screenshot from video.

This is Roxanne. Isn’t she gorgeous? Whe’s a completely custom-built 1969 Dodge Charge RT equipped with a 572 cubic inch Hemi engine topped with an old school roots-style blower. According to Keith over at AK Rods & Customs in Londonderry, New hampshire, Roxanne’s Hemi puts out a conservative 1,000 HP, and that’s with just 14 psi of boost.

Roxanne’s Hemi is all aluminum from top to bottom, and all of that aluminum is polished and painted by hand. On top of the blower, they put two custom-built Holley 950 double pumpers that are also hand polished and painted. Check out the butterflies on the blower scoop – see the skulls with glowing eyes?

True Mopar freaks can see the subtle changes the builders made to her body. Screenshot.

True Mopar freaks can see the subtle changes the builders made to her body.

The owner of the car, Bob Dahlinger, told AK Rods & Customs to make the Charger as badass as badass can be, but still retain much of the Dodge roots. So they fabricated their own fender wells, and tucked and straightened the firewall. They kept the bumpers mostly stock-looking, but did cut and tuck them just enough to be noticeable.

Keith said that he hand cut and shaved the hood to get it to fit around the blower and still retain most of the stock lines and feel of it. Out back, in order to fit better with the cut and tucked bumpers, they added half an inch to the rear fascia to accentuate the lines along the trunk a little better. Next, they stretched the wheelwells out by three inches so that the monstrous 33-inch by 22-inch Mickey Thompson tires mounted on custom 20-inch by 16-inch wheels would fit.

A shot of Roxanne at a car show, highlighting her blown all-aluminum 572 cid 1000 HP Hemi. Photo courtesy ASK Roads & Customs-Facebook.

A shot of Roxanne at a car show, highlighting her blown all-aluminum 572 cid 1000 HP Hemi. Photo courtesy AK Rods & Customs-Facebook.

Another cool mod is the chromed dual cooling fans up front to help keep that 1000 HP engine at operating temperature. She’s also got disc brake all around, with slotted and vented rotors front and rear. The door handles were also shaved flush, but they still operate somewhat as the originals did by pulling the flushed handle outward to open and pushing it flush again to close. That’s a pretty neat touch they added.

The Dodge Ram logo plays heavily in the design of the car, too. Like a true show car, all of the nuts and bolts are fully chromed and the bolts are trimmed so only three threads show outside the nuts. To top that off, all the bolt heads are chromed and laser etched with the Dodge Ram logo.

The LED-lit Ram logo taking up the backseat doubles as a speaker box. Photo courtesy ASK Rods & Customs-Facebook.

The LED-lit Ram logo taking up the backseat doubles as a speaker box. Photo courtesy AK Rods & Customs-Facebook.

Instead of the original equipment rear bench seat, a big Ram-lit box occupies the rear passenger area of the car with a big Dodge Ram’s head logo lit by red LEDs. The OEM turn signals have also been converted and placed in the lower and outer edges of the grille. Of course, they’re also lit with red LEDs. Apparently Bob’s a big fan of the band The Police, hence the name “Roxanne” and the red light theme.

Roxanne has won a few awards since she was unveiled at the 2013 Detroit Autorama, including a Rodder’s Rep Pick at the 2014 Goodguys Meet in Charlotte, North Carolina. Come on, admit it. As soon as we told you this Charger was named after the song by The Police, you started singing “Roxanne – you don’t have to put on the red light.” Can’t get enough of Roxanne? We couldn’t either, so here’s a short clip of her coming off the trailer at Detroit.

About the author

Mike Aguilar

Mike has been wrenching on cars since the early 1970s when he worked at his dad's auto repair shop. By the age of 14 Mike had built his first performance suspension, and by 16 he had built, and was racing cars in several sanctioned events in the San Francisco bay area.
Read My Articles

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