Early on Sunday morning, as Haley and I were packing up Angry Grandpa for the long drive back to Kentucky, few cars remained from the MSHS group that we had been hanging around with all week. One notable exception was parked on a trailer behind a Dodge truck, and as we finished putting the final items into the Chrysler, the owner of the SubLime green Charger Daytona was still musing over his decisions of the last couple of days. “I need to get a new tire,” he said. “The last time I rotated them, I forgot to rotate out one that I had roasted earlier…it’s now down to the cords.” That’s not to be doubted, because this Charger had been roasting tires just about everywhere we had seen it. Milan, it was abusing it’s race gear. On Woodward, it joined in the effort to repave the turn lane in front of the MSHS lot. And that’s where we are willing to share where this 2007 Dodge Charger R/T Daytona signed it’s autograph…

Patrick Zabst is the owner of this Charger, and hearing that he annihilated another set of tires isn’t that big of a stretch. From the moment his Indiana license was in his hand, a 1972 Dodge Charger with big-block power was in his hands, and you don’t need to rack your brain to understand just how well-used that Charger was during those years. In his own words, “Most of my early speed career involved going way too fast between the corn fields, almost losing control and shitting my pants, then spending the next few hours trying to figure out how I cheated death.” Don’t judge, quite a few of us learned high-speed car control using that method. Speeding around in a big-block B-body worked until the late 1990s, after his discharge from the Navy, when he went to the Mopar Nationals with his friend and mentor George Baatz. Zabst crewed for him and picked up quite a bit of knowledge, and had acquired a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T as well, but neither of the old-school cars were safe enough, in his eye, to take racing.

The Daytona came about shortly after he rode in Eric Erman’s 2006 Charger Daytona. Zabst is six-foot-seven, and he was comfortable. When you’re that tall, comfort is paramount, and since the car hauled the mail well enough, the hunt was on. His first search turned up this exact car, the same color as his 1972, and the purchase was made…after he managed to get himself locked in the parking deck of the dealership where it was at while he was snooping a look at the car. Patrick’s car is #498 of the 1,500 car run in SubLime Green, but other than that it was a well-optioned, low mile 5.7 car that he tried to keep from heavily modding. But as time went on the typical LX pieces started to trickle in: a 3.91 Getrag rear unit, valve springs, a cam, cutouts for the exhaust, and other items. Then the 6.1L swap came and went, and suddenly traction became an issue. Then, a year and a half later, the 6.1 spun a bearing and that’s where the current build comes into play.

The Daytona’s 6.1L-based 440 stroker build was done by Jerry Best and Mike Rhoton at Global Performance Motorsports in Raleigh, North Carolina and is based on an engine by Modern Muscle in Martinsville, Virginia. The camshaft is a custom designed unit courtesy of Dave Weber at Modern Muscle, and other items from them include a fully ported intake manifold, a 90mm throttle body, and ported 6.1L heads. The transmission is a Paramount Conqueror Series NAG-1 automatic sporting a Pro Torque 3800 stall converter and a custom TCM programmed by AJ Berge. A one-piece The Driveshaft Shop aluminum four-inch driveshaft feeds into the Getrag limited-slip rear (which has been fortified with an upgraded clutch kit from Enhanced Transmissions/BFNY Performance) and out to the rears.

The brakes are SRT Brembo units at all four corners, and StopTech brake lines were fitted to guarantee that slowing the Charger down was not going to be a question. SRT coils are fitted at all corners, with Lakewood 90/10 shocks up front and 50/50 shocks in the rear. And the Charger barks out through JBA long-tube headers that are fitted to a custom 3-inch mandrel-bent exhaust system fitted with QTP dumps just after the headers and DynoMax VT mufflers, courtesy of RJ’s Custom Piping in Raleigh, North Carolina. With the cutouts closed, it just sounds a touch more aggressive than a standard Charger R/T. With them open…it’s a beautiful noise.
As a unit, the Charger is a solid driver’s car that can go out and spank on the strip. With a personal best of [email protected] at Virginia Motorsports Park, and the Charger risking going even faster than Patrick would like (he normally runs in the 11.5o bracket class for Modern Street Hemi Shootout), there is still the possibility that more could be coming down the road. I’ve already called dibs on that 440 stroker, should he choose to step up further. Or, at least, I’m 95% sure I heard him agree to that.

No one car goes together without help. He’s made a lot of friends within the East Coast Moparts/Modern Street Hemi Shootout group, and has a strong backing of friends and family that have helped him keep it together in the nine years that the Charger has been around. When I asked him if he had anyone he’d like to thank, he sent a list: Andy and Jen Wagner, John Burleson, Jon Sipple, Ron Polidara, Lorie Boroday, Chris Conner, Elizabeth House, Brad Roberts, and Ann Tyer compose the East Coast Moparts/MSHS race family and he thanks them for helping to keep the car moving forward and to keeping his spirits up…either with dark and disturbing humor or legitimate spirits. He thanks all of his local North Carolina and Indiana friends for helping out and for keeping him sane. And for their help, involvement or support of the car, he thanks Dave Weber, Stephen Dixon and all of the guys at Modern Muscle, TC Anderson and TC Anderson, Jr. and all of the folks at TC Anderson’s Car Wash in Durham, North Carolina, Erik Storms at BFNY Performance, Dan VanHorn for MSHS, Matt King at SRT Parts, Nick Perricone, George Baatz, Eric Erman, Wayne Harvey, Elec Browning, Richard Erman, Rick Fetter, Don Blose, Bobby Franke, Mike Pritikin, Ron Skorupa, Sean Stonham, Tony Todaro, Jon Chapman, Jerry Best, and others that he may have left out of the list.

Editor’s Note: I’ve lined up against Patrick more times at MSHS events than any other car, and while he will soundly spank the Chrysler every round, Zabst has been a great competitor and sportsman. And he’s also the fine line between being a responsible adult and being the demon on my shoulder within the group, as well. Here’s to seeing the “other” SubLime Charger as it gets faster and faster!