Steve Lisk Hemi Challenger

Anyone know of any former owners of the "Sudden Death" Mustang II? I know it was sold by Joe Ruggirello to someone in Florida, but I haven't been able to uncover any info on who that might have been.

I know it was sold in 1995 here in Florida when seen for sale at Gainesville Raceway. Its believed that buyer may have the original rear suspension components removed from the car.

It also spent some time in or near Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It still has a decal on the drivers door from a place called "Vital Wax" detail shop in Ft. Wayne, IN.

Guy I got it from is from New Jersey, so maybe someone else in NJ owned it before him?

Just trying to see if someone out there knows someone who owned it or come connection for a former owner. I'd even pay a reward to information leading to contact with a former owner or old photos of the car in its prime!

Thanks in hopes someone can help me with the missing history on the car.

Tom
 
I did get that address info. Haven't had time to follow up. Wonder if anyone still works there that worked there back in '95-2000. Took the car out today for a bit of tuning. Still a couple of bugs to work out, but weather was too good not to go out!

The hood/scoop turned out great. I used all the original articles/photos to duplicate what they did when building it.

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Found a photo today of the car that I hadn't seen before. Taken the same day as the "Sudden Death" photoshoot, January 1977. Turns out this photo was published in the July 1998 issue of Hot Rod!

Looks like Jack is having some fun behind the wheel!

Location is Farmington Road near the old Livonia Cemetery.

RoushDrivingSD1977.jpg
 
Hi there! I'm new to this forum as I just got the urge to look up these old Sudden Death rides from when I was in high school. I grew up here in Boise, Idaho and in the mid to late 70s, these guys from Detroit were gods to us. We had our own local super street pounders but we all aspired to enter the heights of the Sudden Death participants. Our strongest local street killers were a; 70 Z28 with 433/T400/5.13 combo-ran 11.70s-11.50s, a 69 Nova with a screamin HI-RPM 327/4spd/6.38 combo-ran mid 11s also, and a 70 GTO with 454Chev/T400/5.13 combo-ran 11.80s. One time, a local kid that was the nephew to Nitro FC racer Twig Zeigler brought out his 70 or 71 Challenger (forgot which) that they had stuffed one of Twig's old racing hemis into. They detuned it a bit to run on the street. I can't remember if they tried to run the injector hat or go carbs. It wasn't a very good install. It was quick and nasty. It used a 727 and stock 8-3/4 rear end. Not enough gear or tire, either. Their intention was to beat the 70 Z28 out at one of the 4 local midnight dragstrips of "public" operation. The whole cruise population went out to watch and that Challenger went up in tire smoke. All that power and no way to get it hooked up. It was quite a show.

We had a local guy that was inspired by Lisk's Challenger so much that he wanted to duplicate it with his own 70 Challenger. He had a 426 Hemi and alot of parts collecting up. I never got to see his car but a friend of mine (who had a super nice 70 Challenger of his own) said that he had 8 13:1 pistons & rods hanging on his bedroom wall, waiting to be installed into the killer motor. We was gonna do the T-ram (I think) like Lisk too. I don't recall if he was going to try a Lenco, but I know he was doing a Dana 60 with deep gears. Anyway, it never got finished. Something happened and the poor guy passed away at a young age. Total bummer. I sure would have liked to see him finish it and run the Z28.

Anyway, thanks for this thread guys. It takes me back to those awesome, fun times : )
 
This thread is way too good to die!

As a Tennessee teenager I read the October 1976 Car & Driver Brock Yates article "Back to the Streets, Mother" article (still have that issue) with great envy for the guys participating in and witnessing the Motown monsters in action. My first trip to Detroit years later just had to include Woodward, Telegraph, Gratiot, and others.

Anything new with the Lisk Challenger or Ruggriello Mustang since 2011?
 
Oh yes, since 2011 the Gapp & Roush, Ruggirello Mustang II restoration is finished just this past January. Although, I'm even now continuing to go after tiny things to improve it even more.

It was on My Classic Car TV show this past month

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoW3X6rx9MQ&feature=youtu.be

Here is my restoration thread on this forum, so you can check out progress as it went.

http://motownmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?144139-Joe-Ruggirello-Gapp-and-Roush-Mustang-II

My next project is to get the car up to Detroit to share with all of you! I'm working on it.
 
I still think its pretty cool & crazy what a small world it is. I bought my first trans rebuild kit for a TH400 from Randy back in 88. I should have just let him rebuild it, what a mess I made lol.
 
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I remember being at Milan about 40-ish years ago and seeing Lisk and this car rip off mid tens. It was billed as the fastest street car in America at that time. (Just realized that's probably been mentioned several times already in this post).
 
2fastforU92 said:
Saw that as well, it would be cool to get that car and the Ruggirello Mustang side by side again.
Click to expand...

Lisk Challenger wouldn't stand a chance , original Hemi and Lenco long gone , and Rug's Stang still has the same set up as raced back in the day - But it would be fun to see ! :3gears:
 
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