When the Dodge Challenger returned for the 2008 model year, Mopar fans who wanted two doors and rear-wheel drive were lined up around the block salivating, and Sam Uthman was right in line with them. Well, not at first…the initial run of Challengers were all automatic SRT-8s painted in either Hemi Orange, Bright Silver or black. But by 2009, the R/T model had appeared and so did the six-speed manual transmission, and the color palette had opened up fully. After seeing a Deepwater Blue six-speed Challenger R/T on a dealer’s lot and falling hook, line and sinker for the car, Sam went to buy it on the spot. Unfortunately for him, because of a dealership miscommunication, the car he had found was already sold. Frantic, he found a perfectly matching Challenger in Mississippi, made the deal and drove fourteen hours round-trip to get the car home that weekend.
At first, the typical bolt-ons were enough: Hurst shifter, big brakes, exhaust and a Pedders suspension were applied as Sam started road-racing the car. After breaking a couple Hurst shifters, a delrin and billet throw rod modification performed by his friend Larry in Michigan got the Challenger up to par. After a while, the 5.7’s power wasn’t enough, so an Arrington-built 6.0L Hemi based on a 5.7 VVT block was built up with a Magnuson supercharger, and the clutch was upgraded for severe duty. Around 2010, a deal was struck between API, the company that had tuned the “Dodge by Petty” Challengers and Sam, Jay “Speedy” Orrand and Richard Wamser for a group modification purchase that API’s Martinsville, Virginia shop handled. A.J. at API performed the tuning and according to Sam, was the reason why he drove 1100 miles to Martinsville for the upgrade. The upgrades were wrapped up within a week and Sam drove the car home.
About this time Sam’s Dodge started heading for straight-line racing instead of road-coursing…although it had been fun, the Challenger had become something of a handful on the roadcourses. The Challenger made its first land-speed racing showing in October 2010 at the Texas Mile, where the blue beast stepped out to the tune of 172 miles an hour. Hooked on LSR, the 6.0L block came out and in went a 392 stroker based upon a non-VVT 6.1L Hemi block, which allowed for a good cam…and a little bit of nitrous just to make sure those last few ticks on the speedometer were reached. A six-point rollbar went in at this time as well. The Challenger became the first six-speed car to run 10s at Lonestar Mopar Fest in 2011 with this combination. After some experimentation with nitrogen-assisted nitrous oxide and water/methanol injection, cooling configurations for the Magnuson supercharger, and more heavily built six-speeds. The transmission became a sticking point for a while, because they were in uncharted territory for a while with the power levels on the Tremecs. Sam managed to get a 195 MPH pass at the Texas Mile by spraying through the blower, and realized that another step was needed if he was going to cross the 200 MPH barrier…mostly because the 6.1 had managed to turn itself into a bunch of small pieces.
That’s when the decision was made to move to twin turbochargers, and to upgrade to a ten-point roll cage. The current setup is a 406ci Seidle Motorsports aluminum block with Thitek heads, an AGP turbocharger kit that A.J. and “HellBent” customized for the car. The car was converted to an automatic and now sports a Rossler-built 4L80E with a ProTorque converter. The Driveshaft Shop was tapped for the 4″ aluminum driveshaft, nine-inch pumpkin, and halfshafts, and A.J. stripped out and re-did the wiring under the hood for a neat and tidy appearance. Lots of the previous tuning equipment was ditched, adding up to an 18-pound weight savings inside the car.
A build of this magnitude takes help from friends, and Sam has plenty of them to thank, including A.J. Berge and his crew at Hemituner Performance, Jimmy at TrueStreet Performance, Frank Rehak and his team at the Driveshaft Shop, Jason Hensley at AGP Performance, Andy at East Coast Moparts, Chris Seidle at Seidle Motorsports, Craig at Thitek, Karl Schello, John Burleson, and Doug Bell, along with many more friends and supporters.
With the days of turning six-speeds and stock blocks into dust behind him (hopefully), Sam now has a streamlined, turbocharged monster on his hands. ChallengerFest 7 and the Modern Street Hemi Shootout was it’s first run on the new combination and after working out some issues with the transbrake (and turning the boost ramp up to an aggressive setting), Sam was rewarded with a [email protected] on what was a wild run against the “Black Widow” Charger in the video below. Yes, the Charger breaks loose, but around the 60′ mark, so did Sam!
Oh, and one other thing: He currently owns the standing mile record:
