The Family Mopar® Garage Part II
We met Conny Welin in Part 1 of this Mopar family’s garage tour series. So what does his story look like? Welin’s passion for Mopar® vehicles began early – around age 14 – though his general interest in American cars started even earlier. He remembers vividly how he used to ride his bike to visit two friends in town. He lived on the outskirts of Mariehamn – Åland’s only true city. And there it was, suddenly. Parked along the curb. A red 1968 Dodge Charger R/T with a black vinyl roof.
Wow. What a car, Conny thought. He had never seen anything like it. The car felt like it came from an entirely different world.
“We walked around the car several times and admired it. We read the emblems, trying to figure out what they meant,” Welin says, shivering slightly at the memory.
Welin’s teenage years were soon filled with local street racing on Åland. Cars arrived from both Finland and Sweden to race on the islands between the two countries.
“There were wicked ’Cudas, Challengers, Chargers – and more. It really left an impression. Especially a local 1969 Plymouth Road Runner that raced in the Stock class here in the Nordic countries. It belonged to a guy named Holger Karlsson. I loved that car – the burnouts were insane. There was also a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T convertible here in Mariehamn that I fell for.”
But Conny’s first American car ended up being a 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a big 455-cubic-inch V8. He bought it at age 16, and since he didn’t yet have a driver’s license, his mother had to handle the driving. After that came a couple of GTOs, a LeMans and a Trans Am. All Pontiac. Mopar vehicles were already expensive back then, so it wasn’t until 2013 that Welin managed to buy his first Chrysler product. He had actually been hunting for a convertible, but he caught wind of a 1968 Plymouth GTX in the Swedish region of Dalarna.
“It didn’t feel right, so instead I went to Stockholm with my partner Jennie and my in-laws – of course. We looked at a black 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda with a 440, shaker hood and a four-speed manual. The car had been imported to Sweden the year before by a guy named Karl Tyrén, shipped from California as part of his household goods. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted it. The ’Cuda has stayed with me for years now, and I’ve made a few changes and improvements over time. So it’ll stay with us for a good while longer,” Welin says.
He adds that the 1969 Dodge Charger he owns together with Jennie – well, that story is hers to tell. And the former black-widow infested home has already been covered!
Does Welin have any dream cars? Easy guess. He wouldn’t say no to a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona or a Plymouth Superbird. An E-body in one of the High Impact colors would also be fantastic – as perfect as a baseball cap or a fat lip.
“And on the modern side, a Dodge Challenger SRT® Demon 170 wouldn’t be bad at all. I’ve actually had the honor of driving one – in Plum Crazy – owned by a car buddy from Sweden,” Welin says.
So what’s the star of the garage, according to Welin? That would likely be Jennie’s 1971 ’Cuda convertible – the mighty HEMI® engine-powered car with a four-speed. With accessories like a shaker scoop, go-wing rear spoiler and billboard stripes on the quarter-panels. The beautiful color combination – purple with white interior – is loved by the entire family.
“Right behind it is our 1969 Charger. But honestly, they’re all stars in one way or another,” Welin says.
Before passing the baton back to his father-in-law, Ralf Hellström, Conny explains that collecting Mopars also includes more than four-wheeled vehicles. He’s deeply into memorabilia as well, owning a sizable collection of literature and other Mopar-related items.
Now back to Ralf Hellström – the man who opened the garage doors a few hours ago. Why did he fall so hard for Mopar vehicles in the first place? A bit hard to answer, the elder Hellström says. After all, he began gently with GM and Pontiac – Firebirds and GTOs.
“Mopars are by far the best-looking cars from 1968 to 1971 – especially the Plymouth ’Cuda. Now in my later years, B-bodies feel better, and they’re certainly more spacious. They suit me better now that the body has stiffened up a bit. When you’re at car meets or shows with a mix of makes and models, you easily walk past most of them – but at a Mopar, you stop and admire,” Hellström says.
He also has a hard time choosing a favorite in the garage. He likes them all. Though maybe the Road Runner – the black convertible, the one with the custom paint – stands out. The one I promised we’d return to earlier in this feature.
“The Road Runner is definitely something of a favorite. Maybe because it was so ‘hard to buy.’ The owner and his partner in Malung – in Dalarna, Sweden’s most Mopar-dense region?! – didn’t want to sell. Four years passed from when we first saw it at Power Big Meet in Västerås and asked if it was for sale, until the day the owner finally contacted us,” Ralf Hellström says.
The former owner had performed a thorough restoration – a rebuild that made the whole family deeply attached to the Road Runner. He also had a friend who painted the artwork associated with the model – the Road Runner mural. Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner from Looney Tunes.
Ralf’s Road Runner is a true Triple Black car – and that’s not something you see too often. The engine currently installed is a 440 with a Six Pack – three two-barrel carburetors. Originally, it left the factory with a 383.
“The hood that’s on it now – the Air Grabber hood – also wasn’t installed on the assembly line. But it is an original hood from another car, and it has been on this one for many years. The Road Runner has had many owners, and several of them left their own mark on it. It has been white too – painted in an ’80s style with gold and glitter. This past summer, we had a visit from a Swedish pensioner from Sundsvall who owned the car from 1980 to 1982. It came to Sweden already in 1974,” Hellström says.
As often happens, I’m reminded that muscle cars – or cars in general – are never just about the machines. They are about the people who drive them, own them and love them. And nowhere is that clearer than here, in Åland’s most spectacular Mopar garage.
If you’re an Ålander, you’re quite likely working with something related to the sea. Ralf Hellström, for example, is a former fisherman, and Conny Welin works as a ship’s cook – at times responsible for feeding as many as 1,700 people.
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