In March 2017, one of our favorite builds, a Chrysler 300 SRT-8 from Arizona many know as “A-bom” (read: abomination), the pet monster of “Mad” Matt Leischer, wound up with improv rhinoplasty after a drowsy driver caused an incident that forced the Chrysler off of the road and into a phone pole nose-first. The situation was not pretty. The matte black Mopar had taken a hell of a hit directly to the grille, with the radiator, air conditioning condenser, and pretty much ever bit of sheetmetal in that general area taking a huge punch in the teeth. When we asked him then what the situation would be, he told us that the car would be returning with a hell of a new attitude…hard to grasp, considering that when we first heard about the car, it was repaving a section of Arizona canyon road as if creating Australian-levels of tire smoke was Leischer’s job and it paid well with benefits.
We’ve seen bits and pieces here and there of the work, but late last night we got to hear the new setup alive and idling for the first time. See if you can come up with an initial reaction that doesn’t involve a four-letter word, I dare you. I’m sticking with “countach!”, the name of a famous Lamborghini. Why that word? Because in short terms, the rough translation equals a surprised and impressed take on “holy shit!” There is a ton of work here, which we will get to because dammit, I’m going to shoot this car once it’s rolling again if I have to drive to Arizona my damn self. Meantime, if you want something to wake up to, enjoy that idle. Sounds like a f-ing locomotive warming up after a cold start, doesn’t it?
Well this is insane, also thinkin’ this might be McT’s favorite vehicle on the planet.