It’s official, it’s gone. As of yesterday afternoon my ownership of the 1983 Imperial that we dubbed Project Raven has officially ended. The car was sold to someone who is just as infatuated with them, who has a parts car at the ready for whatever he’ll need to fix on it, and he’s fully versed in where the car has been since I took ownership of the big gray battle cruiser back in 2012. I loaded him up with spare parts and stuff that’s been sitting around the shop, helped him load the car onto the trailer, and watched as he pulled away.

And after a moment, I sighed, turned and went into the house, and that was that.

The Imperial came a long way from the day I first saw it parked next to a horse barn on some farm property in southern Arizona. I never intended for the Imperial to go as far as it did. I just wanted an old driver to tool around in to pair off with my late-model daily driver, but the Imperial wasn’t going to return to life that easy. The 323ci small-block that was transplanted from the SuperBeater Mirada fought me for a couple of months with electrical demons before it finally fired off in February 2013, and through November 2014 it fulfilled it’s role as a daily driver nicely. I drove it everywhere I could. I drove it across the country. And during that time period, my list of failures were small: a headlight switch shorted out on the move from Arizona to Kentucky, the coil inexplicably failed dramatically while driving around Bowling Green, and then there was the one loose wire in the starting system that earned the car’s infamy on a 30-second blurb of Roadkill. Many friends got their chance to spin wrenches on the J-body, from Ryan and Wally being present the last time an engine backfire turned the EFI plate into an impromptu wok, to Alex coming up and helping with the engine swap and his heroic assistance when the steering linkage nut went AWOL one night. Chris has had the joy of helping with the header install and engine install when the 367ci engine got put in, and Billy was present to make sure the cam break in didn’t turn into a thermite grenade party in my front yard. Friendships were forged over the Imperial. The car came to be my calling card, just like the Mirada before it, just like the Diplomat before that. Too many people heard stories about that car. I know many were hoping to see it driving once again, be it on Power Tour or at a Ratty Muscle Cars race. 

The most interesting thing about the Imperial leaving my stewardship, however? It’s the first time since 2005 that I’ve been without an FJM Mopar in my portfolio, and it’s the end of a string of projects that date back to the 1987 Dodge Diplomat ex-cop car that started me on this kick in the first place. There were previous cars…the beater Plymouth ex-WSP car, the 1978 Chrysler LeBaron that I drove in high school…but the Diplomat was the start of a continual run of cars that seemed cursed in some way, shape or form.

There really isn’t much else to say. The Rough Start Fox Mustang is taking the place of the Imperial in the BangShift Mid-West line-up as my project car/hot rod for now. I’m not abandoning Mopar projects or the brand…the 300C is still here and isn’t going anywhere. I’m not even saying that I wouldn’t do another FJM project in the future…I would do a boat-tail 1978-79 Chrysler LeBaron if I found a clean one, but I need a break from the platform. I know it seems like screwed up timing that just as the Imperial started to come together, that I unload it and send it down the road. But this should not have been a surprise. I haven’t been over the moon about Raven in years, and it was supposed to have been sold back in 2017 before a buyer backed out. I built my first engine with this car. I did just about every ounce of internal transmission work I’ve ever done with this car. I put tens of thousands of miles on a car that had been left for dead for many years in the desert, I gave it a new life and, oddly to me, a new legend, and it’s now in the hands of someone who is genuinely excited to take it further, who I hope introduces himself and keeps us updated on the car’s progress. It’s been a good run, and it’s been an abusive relationship. It’s time for me to move on.

Farewell, Imperial.