The Escalantes '70 Challenger R/T "EL HEMI"

[el hemi]

Hello everyone! Great website. What an amazing number of great cars and owners I see here at YENKO.NET. Here is a story I’d like to share with you.

Today is a very special day for me. It marks the 40th anniversary of the day my father (RIP) took delivery of what has become a permanent fixture in the ESCALANTE family, A 1970 Dodge Hemi Challenger R/T (EL HEMI).

It was a Friday morning December 12, 1969 when my father went to Northwestern Dodge in Detroit to pick up the car he had ordered a few weeks prior…..an orange with black stripe machine and a HEMI in between the fenders. This HEMI, the motor he had sworn to one day own after hearing one outside a restaurant in Venezuela was now his!

My dad was 27 yrs old and I was 4 when EL HEMI came home. What he did not realize when he bought the car was that it would also become the greatest source of bonding with his two sons and grandsons. Any time you expose kids to kool cars, awesome sounds, and speed, a bond starts to form. In our case it surely did….a bond between our father, ourselves, and this kool car. A recipe that continues to work as my brother Gus and I use it to pass along grandpa’s passion for DODGE MATERIAL among other things.

There are numerous stories and memories we want to share with you. One such story was dad’s drive from Detroit to Chicago in late winter to have the car Dyno Tuned at Mr. Norms. The frequent visits he paid notorious speed shops in the Detroit area where he spent every dime (according to my mom) on the car, were all documented as he kept every receipt for the purchases.

For now…let us pay tribute to an awesome father-grandfather and car enthusiast……Jose Escalante. A good friend of ours convinced us to put our story on a website for people to see and friends and family all over the world to keep up with this kool car we all call EL HEMI. We just updated our website. Check it out. http://www.elhemi.com

“Son….rev it up..c’mon keep it alive…don’t let it die!!!” Dad’s words as I was learning how to drive EL HEMI. I was 14. I am now 44. I can still hear his words when I start the car and occasionally wrestle with the cold natured elephant!

Here is the FAMILIA picture. I am the one in blue jacket

With my brother Gus


Daytona 1972 - DAY TWO LOOK


Tail end of its resto




My father's last visit to see his baby - 3 months after this picture was taken he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Lasted just enough to give me time to jump on a plane and be by his side until his last breath.


There is more at http://www.elhemi.com

[Ngtflyr]

Let me be the first to say, Welcome Aboard! Lot of closet Mopar enthusiasts here. Very story, great to see it stay in the family. Love the El Hemi moniker.

[TDW]

Great car and story! The old pictures are just so cool! I will check out your web-site.

[njsteve]

Awesome!

Welcome to the site.

[m22mike]

Welcome Juan
WOW.. ...cool story, cool vintage pic,s, very neat websight, and there is a little closet Mopar in all these Chevy guy's....
Sorry to hear about you Dad, my dad just passed at 88.
Oh Yea...we love pictures, anymore old stuff..

[Charley Lillard]

I hate Mopars..... :-)

[mmcporter]

Love the car and story of El Hemi. So sorry about the loss of your dad - I too lost a father who died way too young due to pancreatic cancer - a cruel killer.

[JoeG]

Your DAD looked real happy in that photo.......I don't blame him...........

[el hemi]

[ QUOTE ]
Love the car and story of El Hemi. So sorry about the loss of your dad - I too lost a father who died way too young due to pancreatic cancer - a cruel killer.

[/ QUOTE ]
mmcporter: Sorry to hear about your dad. You are right..of all cancers this one is a tough one to beat.

On a lighter note and for some of my own therapy here is a picture in 1996 of my dad moments before he trailered the car to the port in Venezuela. It wasnt easy to get EL HEMI out of Venezuela and back to the US. The trouble started in 1972 when he imported the car to Venezuela and had the car registered with Vzla's own version of a BMV. A clerk at the BMV in Vzla did not pay attention and mistyped the car's VIN #. Dad never checked it! When it was time to start all the proceeding to bring the car back to the US we found the mistake. It took over a year to get this corrected. If you think BMV is bad in the US you have no idea how BAD it is in other places. You can't see from this picture but while we were going through all the red tape my dad had the car stored at a friend's JUNKYARD. Check out the 1968 camaro in the back.

[Dave Rifkin]

Nice Scrambler too.