TWIN-TURBO CHARGER
In 1988, Graham Schild’s VJ Charger ran a twin-turbo V8 long before it was cool
HIgh-end Mopar feature cars were thin on the ground back in the early days of Street Machine, so Chrysler-philes rejoiced in our story on Graham Schild’s twin-turbo VJ Valiant Charger in the March ’88 issue. While turbo V8s are common these days, they were a rarity in that era.
“The turbo thing came about when someone told me that I couldn’t do it,” says Graham. “That was it!”
At the time, Graham was a 24-year-old maintenance fitter for Coca-cola, and he built the suck-through-style turbo set-up from scratch. “The turbo pipes were made from heavy-duty exhaust pipe, with brackets on the heads to support the weight,” he says. “The internal-wastgate turbos came from AIT. We reasoned that if one of their units was enough for a 4.1-litre six, two of them would be fine for a V8. They were probably a bit small, but it made the car very driveable.”
Each huffer was fed by a 600 Holley and sent 12psi through Graham-fabbed stainless intake pipework and plenum. The 340 V8 itself was built by drag racer Jeff During using all the best bits of the Direct Connection catalogue – and a set of boost-friendly 7.1:1 TRW pistons.
Backed by an ever-trusty 727 trans and nine-inch diff, the quality finish and innovation of Graham’s Charger –
not to mention its SUX746 number plates – made it one of our most memorable Mopar feature cars.
“It’s a bit slow off the mark, but on the open road it runs amok – it’s wild,” Graham told SM back in the day. “If I want to stun somebody, I take ’em for a blast on the open road. Even with a 3.89 diff, it’s good for about 140mph.”
At the time of our story, Graham had run a best of 12.9 seconds in full street trim and was planning to sell the Charger and purchase a four-speed/440-equipped 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda – but things turned out a little differently. Graham did buy the ’Cuda, but ended up sticking with the Charger, too.
“I kept racing the Charger and got it down to running flat 11s at 125mph at AIR on pump fuel,” he says. “I kept updating the car, including a ladder-bar set-up that incorporated the leaf springs. That worked well; it really hooked up. Of course, I wanted more, so we redid the engine with more static compression. First time out, it went 8500rpm in the burnout and lifted the nose two feet in the air on the launch. The meeting ended with two rods out of the block, so I sold off the turbo gear and built it up as a full drag car.”
While the revamped Charger is yet to turn a wheel in anger on the track, it is ready to go when inspiration strikes.
And what about the ’Cuda? “Yep, I’ve still got that one,” Graham confirms. “It turned out to be a matching-numbers 440 six-pack car!”