Mopar_® Muscle Storms the Windy City

When the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) blows into the Windy City, it brings with it a wide variety of hot rods, barn finds, classic iron and an opportunity for the faithful to reconnect with old friends. While virtually all makes and models of Detroit’s fabled high-performance machines occupy every inch of the massive Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, it’s the rare, unique and somewhat historical Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars blazoned with scoops, spoilers, stripes, wild graphics and retina-burning bright colors that really steal the show.

For over a decade, the team of passionate car enthusiasts led by Bob Ashton have gone to extreme lengths to keep the MCACN show fresh. By scouring the country and unearthing rare cars, they get invited to this event. Many have rarely been seen by the general public in decades. Part of MCACN’s ‘Red Carpet Invitational,’ this year’s event once again raised the bar to new heights. Gathered along the main entrance was a congregation of 1966 to 1970 Dodge and Plymouth B-body (that’s Mopar_® speak for their intermediate line) HEMI^® engine-powered convertibles. Talk about rare! We’re looking at production numbers that you could literally count on one hand. While these pavement-pounding machines literally put the wind in your hair, only a few managed to survive ravaging decades of abuse from reckless owners and unforgiving weather.

These cars, with their high-compression engines and finicky carburetors, did not adapt well to the changing times of the mid-1970s, which introduced unleaded gas. They were left for dead, rotting in fields or stuffed in garages with an old mattress on the roof or boxes filled with holiday decorations stacked on the decklids. It was the HEMI engine’s inherent poor fuel mileage, combined with the gas crunch of the 1970s, that eventually drove a stake through these fabled muscle cars that had given their owners the true meaning of E=mc² just a few years earlier.

One of the prime examples of the droptop HEMI engine-powered vehicles at the MCACN show was this stunning 1970 Plymouth HEMI Road Runner, currently owned by Joe Jordan from Wisconsin. He commissioned Dave Belcarz in 2023 to restore this rare Mopar car. In a small but highly organized shop aptly named ‘Michigan Mopar Works’ just outside Detroit, Dave went to work. Like many of these old cars, it was a basket case and needed a complete top-to-bottom restoration, but for Dave, it was well worth the effort. “Having my work displayed front and center at MCACN is a dream come true,” said Belcarz. “It’s a pretty incredible feeling to have a car I spent over a year restoring on display at MCACN. It’s now starting to sink in what I was able to achieve, but I’m already working on another cool Mopar project for next year’s MCACN show.”

While the MCACN show is jam-packed and oozing Mopar muscle cars, this year’s event raised the bar even more. For seasoned automotive journalist Diego Rosenburg, he’s covered the MCACN event for almost a decade and knows a great deal about the evolution of the American muscle car. “The first time you experience MCACN, it’s always an ‘Oh, I just soiled my pants’ moment because it’s mind-boggling how awesome it is,” laughed Rosenburg, who is also a bit of a historian on these classic high-performance machines and writes for ClassicCarsJournal.com. “Every year, the show gets better and better, and we always ask, ‘How will they top that?’ Then, after visiting the following year, you realize there’s a consistency of quality and interesting cars. This event is that good, and this year’s show was no different than before.”

The MCACN show also acknowledges the car’s significance and allows members of the media, celebrities and VIPs the opportunity to pick a vehicle and award the owner. For Diego, his ‘Celebrity Pick’ was a “F6” Bright Green 1969 HEMI Coronet R/T convertible. “I chose this car ever since I first caught wind of it after reading about the Supercar Showdown Race in Muscle Car Review magazine. There was no picture or anything in the article, but I loved the 1969 Coronet R/T’s tail lights and knew about the car’s rarity. Several years later, it appeared in the book of Otis Chandler’s collection. Perhaps 15 years after that, I met Anatol Vasiliev, the former owner who raced it years before. While at MCACN this year, it was my first time seeing the car in the flesh, and it’s as spectacular as I imagined when I was a high school freshman,” said Diego.

There’s also an international flair about MCACN as the love of muscle cars knows no borders, and that was very obvious by the collection of Canadian Mopar vehicles rounded up by Cliff Guinand of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Cliff has been in the Mopar hobby since he was 14 years old. “I attended the MCACN show four times, with the first time being in 2022 when I was invited to bring my ’72 Dart Swinger 340 Special that was built only for Canada. I also help organize the Maple Leaf Muscle Invitational, which is sponsored by the Canadian publication Muscle Cars, Bone Stock & Modified magazine,” commented Cliff. “I look for Canadian muscle cars scattered across the Western Canadian prairies and write features of them. As for this year’s Maple Leaf Muscle, Bob Ashton of MCACN reached out and asked me to help out in sourcing 15 or so Canadian spec’d muscle cars. One of these Canadian anomalies was Joel Cooper’s ‘Y1’ Yellow 1972 340 Special Dart Swinger.”

Cliff went above and beyond in rounding up cool Canadian Dodge and Plymouth muscle cars at MCACN. “We had seven Mopars that we invited, along with the aforementioned ’72 Swinger 340 Special, we had Citron Gold 1966 HEMI Charger owned by Gord Nelson of Alberta. We had Brad Bakken bring his 1970 Plymouth HEMI ‘Cuda all the way from Regina, Saskatchewan. The long-distance award went to George Pappas from Vancouver, BC, who brought two vintage HEMI racecars from the Vancouver area, one of which was the ‘Mr. Kite’ 1970 HEMI ‘Cuda Super Stocker still in its original race trim from the 1970s. He also brought the Doug Seal 1966 HEMI Satellite, which was also campaigned as the ‘Mr. Kite’ back in the late 1960s. Jim Mizener from Northern, Ontario, brought his unique Canadian-built 1964 Dodge Max Wedge Fury that has a combination of Dodge and Plymouth trim components. Finally, Chuck Annable trailered his gorgeous ‘EV2 Orange’ 1971 V-Code 440 Six Barrel Road Runner from Medicine Hat, Alberta.”

So once again, the MCACN show was a massive success, and if you didn’t make it this year, shame on you. Here’s some photos that’ll get you motivated for the 2026 event, which is scheduled for November 21 – 22, you better be there!