Well yesterday was just another Friday afternoon to get my Dodge minivan washed to beat the late Friday crowd and lo and behold what I saw behind me. A beautiful Charcoal gray Dodge Viper pulled in behind me and a couple of seconds a 6.1L Hemi Orange Challenger was 2 stalls over.
As I am talking to the Viper driver it turns out the Challenger driver owned both cars and was in from Houston to a central Texas Viper car meeting and he wanted his cars to look good before he got there.

I found out later than the reason the Challenger went through the car wash but not the the Viper was because the rear wheels are too wide for the wash track and the car is too low.

He later told me the Challenger had a Vortech supercharger installed by Fastlane in Houston and also had Magnaflows. He also said he had a Paxton supercharger (640 HP to the rear wheel) in his Viper. That while the Viper had a linear smooth acceleration with the supercharger that the Challenger when it hit 3200 rpm it had a major spike in power. He could get 570HP to the rear wheel but backed it down to 540HP since it was his daily driver. The Viper on the other hand was more setup as a track car and was lower to the ground.

He also said that it was because of our website that he got educated about the Challenger. In all for the 25 minutes I was at the car wash (with a drooling look on my face I am sure) I had a great time talking about those cars.

 

Wow! Sounds like you had a good day. Happy to hear about a well of Mopar/Challenger fan who loves not only the cars but the site. Thanks for sharing that Jeremiah!

 

Mmmmm... That had to be a great day!
The best thing i've seen at a carwash was a Porsche 911. Good looking car, but I much rather see a Challenger or Viper.

 

Two entirely different cars but both are an absolute "hoot" to drive ! (IMHO, the best that MOPAR has ever delivered!!)

Somehow, though, I just can't ever make myself take any of the Vipers to a car wash. They've all been treated with loads of TLC and often dusted with a California Duster rather than washed. When washing needed, I use a spray bottle with 1 part Ethyl Alcohol and 4 parts distilled water ( it gets tar, bugs, grime, etc. off without taking the wax off) and dry with microfiber towels. For tough front end bugs, etc., a moistened Bounce sponge (yes, the Bounce fabric softener dryer sponges!) works wonders without harm to the finish or wax.

The Challenger does well in the car wash, but still gets lots of TLC as well.

Just my 2 cents

 

Remember he is 200 miles from his own town getting ready to take it to a car fest. He did have them do the TLC on the Viper because it wouldn't fit and the Challenger was hand dried and cleaned after it came out of the soft fabric car washer.