When looking at Kent Lobb, it would be easy to think that he’s one of those guys with all the luck. At just 29 years old, he holds the keys to arguably one of the toughest Dodge Chargers ever built in the country — a car packing a twin-turbo Viper V10, with tough looks to match. It’s been a wild ride getting there, though; there was no silver spoon or big chequebook behind the build, but countless hours of thought, effort, and wheeling and dealing. So, sure, he’s got all the luck, but he’s worked damn hard to get it.
The ’68 Charger was purchased back when he was just 23 years old when he found it online in Tennessee. With a tunnel-rammed 440 big block in it, Kent says that the car was cool, but not Viper V10 cool, although at that point in time the V10 wasn’t on the cards. That came about much later in the piece, after Kent went through the wringer with the car’s bodywork. He tells us the long tale of woe: “It was matte black andI wanted, so I stripped it back to bare steel in preparation for a full panel and paint job. At this point, it was obvious that half of one of the rear quarter panels had been replaced in the States. So I decided to bring in two new quarter panels and repair it properly. I took it to a repair shop in Mosgiel to have the old ones cut off and the new ones fitted.”
