NASCAR-powered Scraptona is a purist’s nightmare, and we love it

When Michael Hunt and Lee Clayton wanted to make a splash and show off their tire graphic business, TredWear, the two decided that a head-turning project was the perfect strategy.

First, the two brought a neglected 1939 Chevy dirt-track car back to life and back onto the street. After that car spent a year or so in the spotlight, the duo decided a second car was in order and began building this car, the Scraptona, in 2018. (They’ve since built a third.)

Now, the Scraptona is up for sale at Garage Kept Motors with an asking price of $134,900.

The Scraptona started off as a regular ol’ 1969 Dodge Charger that had languished in a field for decades after being dissected for parts. There wasn’t much sheetmetal to start with, as the floorboards and tail panel had been cut out by the previous owner to serve as patch panels, but the roof, cowl, and enough of the quarters were left to serve as a jumping-off point. The car still had its front subframe, but the hood, fenders, and grille were also long gone.

The plan was to build a race car for the street—and Mopar racing aficionados will know that the 1969 Charger race car is the Daytona. Once that idea began to gel, TredWear’s build became increasingly ambitious.

To get the right stance and mount a powertrain befitting a Mopar aero car, a tube chassis was in order. The fact that there was no place to mount the rear suspension—it had all been cut away—was suddenly not a problem.

Of course, that didn’t mean things were easy. A dirt-track chassis donated several parts, including a Winters quick-change rear axle that was mounted with a custom torque-arm suspension. The tube chassis was incorporated into what was left of the Charger’s body and provided a place to mount the rest of the sheetmetal as well as the front suspension, which uses Rocket Chassis control arms.

The front assembly also holds the crown jewel of this Mopar machine, a 358 cubic-inch R5-P7 V-8 built by Petty Racing Enterprises. The engine was built in 2005 for NASCAR use and produces 740 hp at 8300 rpm on race fuel. (With 11.5:1 compression, pump gas just won’t cut it.) It’s mounted to a Tremec TKX five-speed manual, giving the car just a hint of road manners. After all, if it has overdrive, it’s not a race car anymore, right?

A set of Coronet fenders were sourced from eBay and Auto Metal Direct supplied quarter panels that were mounted on top of the existing ones to widen the body five inches in total. The extra width was necessary to fit the massive rubber that was planned for the car, 15-inch-wide Mickey Thompson SS Street radials mounted to a custom set of 20×12-inch wheels.

The front was widened a similar amount by cutting the fenders and welding in wedge-shaped additions. A reproduction wing was added to the rear deck, and a nosecone from a 1970 Plymouth Superbird tuned up the fascia, as it was more shapely than the 1969 Charger Daytona’s.

Finally, the tunneled rear window was filled with a custom bit of metalwork that bridged the C-pillars and a louvered polycarbonate rear window was fabricated to fill the void. The result is a car that’s wider and more aggressive than an original “wing” car, with far more power. It can also be driven with less delicacy, thanks to its rough-and-tumble exterior that is rather forgiving of rock chips.

Each car that TredWear has churned out has been a bit rough around the edges, prioritizing neck-snapping performance over concours-worthy detailing, but that’s fine by us.

With the Scraptona up for sale, we’ve got to assume that another wild build will soon be in the works, if there isn’t one brewing already. We hope it can deliver the same kind of wild style as Scraptona and that whoever ends up with this stripped-down Mopar enjoys it to the fullest.

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