EURO VISION
MARIO CIARROCCHI ADDED A TOUCH OF EUROPEAN CLASS TO HIS VH CHARGER
Mario Ciarrocchi’s Charger is a Ferrariinspired, big block-powered masterpiece
THIS modern, European-influenced vision of a VH Valiant Charger may well be one of the most well-thought-out street machines ever built in this country. It might not be the most visually modified or have Ridler Award-winning detail, but in terms of being built with a very clear set of design objectives – and meeting them – few cars come close. A major factor in that achievement is how long Mario Ciarrocchi has had to formulate the ideas in his head – after all, he’s owned the car since 1986.
“My father and I bought the car when I was 17 years of age,” Mario explains. “Thirty years later, he mentioned that he knew that I had an interest in cars and that he’d bought the car to keep me occupied and out of trouble.”
With the help of a good mate, after about twoand-a-half years Mario got the car back on the street with fresh paint, a 265 filled with forged Chevy pistons and triple Dellorto carbs. For the next 10 years or so Mario drove it regularly; then, as his career developed and he started getting company cars, the Charger got tucked away in the garage and sat there for the next 15 years.
Building a family and a successful business took priority, but the Charger was never far from Mario’s mind, and as his business grew, so did his ideas for what the Charger could become.
Being a successful business owner brought more benefits than just being in a stable financial situation, too: “You have to be pretty organised, so I used those skills to build the car,” Mario says. “I don’t mean I physically built the car – I don’t have the time and I don’t have the skill set – but
I planned everything and did a lot of research, which took me about two years.”
All that time doing research led him to a couple of key people who were instrumental in creating the car. The first was Ben Hermance of Hermance Design in the US. “I liked what Ben did because he would get an old car and tweak it and tuck it, but the original design of the car would still be there,” Mario says. “I really liked it, so I just rang him and asked if he would be interested.”
With the designer locked in, the next piece of the puzzle was to find who could carry out the work and make Mario’s vision come to life. It wasn’t long before Mario homed in on Justin Hills from Hills & Co Customs. “A friend of mine had a Mustang built by Justin and he introduced us at Motorex 2013,” Mario explains. “Because he does high-end restorations on a lot of European stuff, I thought this guy would understand exactly where I was coming from. I explained to Justin what my ideas were for the build and in October of 2013 the car was transported to Taree.”
Before the Val was loaded up, there was one last thing Mario wanted to do on the car himself: “I said to Justin: ‘Let me take the engine and gearbox out; I just want to do it one more time, just for the hell of it.’” From that point on, the car was built entirely at Hills & Co Customs, with external help brought in when needed. For six years they worked away on the car without sharing a single thing on social media. That’s a rare thing these days, but it made the Charger’s impact all the more astounding when it was
BUILDING A FAMILY AND A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS TOOK PRIORITY, BUT THE CHARGER WAS NEVER FAR FROM MARIO’S MIND
unveiled at the 2019 Sydney Hot Rod & Custom Auto Expo, catching everyone by surprise and winning Top Coupe and the Austin Arrowsmith Elegance award.
With a build like this, you can run the risk of the car looking dated before it even gets finished, but that’s not the case with this Charger. The modern elements have been seamlessly intertwined while keeping enough of the car’s original design to create a timeless look. Let’s face it, Ferrari Red paint and a fawn interior isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it will never go out of fashion either – and more importantly, it ties in perfectly with the overall build theme of Euro style meeting Aussie muscle.
Mario’s Italian heritage was a big factor in the numerous Ferrari influences in his Charger, but there was already a strong connection between Italy and Chargers from back in the 70s, when Chrysler sent a car back to the Weber factory to fine-tune the Six-pack carby set-up. With Chrysler and Weber both now owned by Fiat, I guess you could say that connection is even stronger.
The modern style with a Euro twist was also carried through to the Charger’s interior. “What I wanted to do with the interior was give it a Ferrari/dodge Viper feel in there,” Mario says. “I said to Ben when he drew it up: ‘It has to have a dash like the R/TS with the six gauges in line, and the other thing I really want is the Daytona stitching like you find in the early-70s Ferraris.’”
Once Mario was happy with the design, the trim job was handed over to Scott Briggs from Trik Trim to work his magic. It was a pretty major undertaking, with handcrafted door trims, one-piece moulded headliner and a full-length console being fashioned. The front seats are out of a Hyundai Tiburon, and two bucket seats were fabricated for the rear. Blending a modern interior with a classic Aussie muscle car is one of the toughest jobs to get right, but they absolutely nailed it with this one.
It’s the same with the exterior; thanks to a wellthought-out and thorough design process, all of the exterior changes complement the original styling. While the amount of work done to the car is pretty radical, the end result is far from it, with the original VH Charger styling shining through. Some of the changes are pretty obvious; the front spoiler and rear diffuser are probably the most easily picked, as is the removal of the door handles. But how about the drip rails? A lot of people would have simply shaved them off, but Hills & Co masterfully reworked them so that they sit a lot tighter to the body, and the parting line between the rocker panel and front guard now extends through to the wheel opening. The sill panels have also been extended and lowered. As Justin Hills puts it: “With the body, although it looks simple and uncluttered, every panel has been worked and modified.”
One of my favourite parts of the car is the bonnet. Reshaped in steel with custom-made scoops, it was then used as a mould and recreated in carbonfibre for rigidity and weight saving – another area that
THE MODERN ELEMENTS HAVE BEEN SEAMLESSLY INTERTWINED WHILE KEEPING ENOUGH OF THE ORIGINAL DESIGN TO CREATE A TIMELESS LOOK
Mario focussed on with the build. “One of the main things I wanted to do was reduce the weight of the car, so instead of doing a 1000hp engine, I’ll go the other way and do a 600-650hp engine and lower the weight, especially at the front,” he says. “The carbonfire bonnet and all-aluminium engine and the Magnum Force front end takes about 150kg out. We haven’t weighed it yet, but I reckon it weighs about the same as when it had the sixcylinder in it – but it’s got double the horsepower.”
By now you’ve probably figured out that the 265 and triple carbs are gone and seen the stonking big-block tucked neatly into the engine bay. Built by Tony Khattar from All Cylinder Head Services, the 540-cuber is based on an Indy block and heads from 440 Source. There’s still a Six-pack, but this time they’re F&B Performance throttlebodies controlled by a FAST XFI 2.0 ECU. Even the engine bay copped some Ferrari styling, with wrinkle finish on the rocker covers and custom-made intake bellmouths. “I didn’t want any bling – it’s an engine bay for crying out loud; it’s going to get dirty,” Mario says. “If you look at a Ferrari or a Lambo, you don’t see a lot of bling. You see a lot of dark stuff, you see all the mechanicals, the engineering that’s there. That’s where your eyes go.”
Proof of how sympathetic the build was to the original design can be found in the comments from Bob Hubbach, the Charger’s original designer, after Mario sent him some photos: “Your car looks sensational in the photos you sent. Did you perchance send these photos to the authors of the Hey Charger book – Gavin Farmer and Gary Bridger? I’m sure they would like to see them and that they would be as impressed as I am.”
“My idea for the car was to keep all the beautiful things about the Charger and just clean it up a bit and make it look more modern,” says Mario. The end result? A classic Aussie muscle car with European styling and Yankee big-block power; a real triple threat – or should that be triple treat?
MY IDEA WAS TO KEEP ALL THE BEAUTIFUL THINGS ABOUT THE CHARGER BUT JUST CLEAN IT UP A BIT AND MAKE ILOOK MORE MODERN