Any of you call me Francis, and I'll kill you.

Cause my name is actually Paul.

Jim Greene suggested I sign up here so blame him.

In September of 2012 I did something I swore I'd never do again. I purchased another Chrysler product.

My previous one was a shiny new 1999 Dodge Dakota that sucked gas like a Chevy Suburban and accelerated like a Ford Fiesta. But it did LOOK NICE for the 18 months I had it before trading it in for an actual Suburban.

The Challenger had been catching my eye since they relaunched it and when I decided to add a third ( fun \ leisure \ MY! ) car to our family I decided that's what I wanted. I spent a fair amount of time making sure it was a car that drove as nice as it looked. However, I quickly grew frustrated by the absolute dearth of new six speeds SRT8s available in the Chicagoland area. I was all set to buy a new automatic one ( damn now my wife will drive it ) and had the car I wanted picked out, and the sales rep convinced he had a sure sale. On a whim the night before I was going over to the dealer to finish the deal I checked out the carmax website. On it, at the Schaumburg location, was a 2011 six speed GWE SRT8 with 1800 miles on it. Frankly I'm wary of buying used cars, especially manual transmission ones, but I called up there and told them to hold it till the next day when I could look at it. It definitely wasn't in pristine condition, but it was in pretty good shape, the transmission didn't sound like it was about to fall onto the street, and lot less money than the shiney brand new 2012 that wasn't totally what I wanted cost. Needless to say I grabbed it. It was stock when I bought it and I didn't have big plans to significantly update it, but then I made the mistake of joining some online forums for challengers.

Since then I've been on a total modding/repair bender with it. I simply can't stop, can't help myself, can't control myself. I belong in rehab (preferably the one Lindsey Lohans at) for my problem. I don't have a list of my mods, I have a spreadsheet of them. I haven't been trying to turn the car into a racing machine, I don't race. Just doing a lot of work on it to turn it into mine.

I've gone to a few meets and greets and shows this spring and intend on going to a lot more with my boys. I was at Mo Power Madness at the fairgrounds this past sunday and may have talked with some of you there although the heat kept me from socializing as much as I wanted to. I was the guy hiding from the sun under Jim's E-Z up. Gotta get me one of those!

Other interesting tidbits about me. I'm 45 years old, originally from the bay area in CA. I have three kids and my boys love my new obsession and going to the car shows and meet and greets as well. My daughter and wife have not had as much enthusiasm. I own two mastiffs and have danger signs on the fence of my back yard warning about elephant eating dogs. I'm a software engineer by profession and have worked as a private contractor with the department of defense since 2005. Prior to that I spent all of my career with Sun Microsystems. I'm an old man that seriously plays World Of Warcraft. I'm the GM of a guild that raids heroic 10 mans four nights a week. I have a tendency to race my engine at stop lights when I'm next to mustangs and camaros and then sitting still and laughing as they floor it at the green light expecting a race. That seems to annoy them for some reason as they give me a lot of one finger salutes afterwards.

Anyway, looking foward to reading everything here and perhaps becoming an active member of the community.

Paul

beautiful car and it sounds like you will fit in just fine. welcome to the site!

Welcome to CAMM. Thanks for signing up. GWE's everywhere.

Welcome from Elgin I remember seeing your car at the show, I was checking out your Kermit wondering who's' car this was. It is a great obsession.

Francis aka "Paul"

Glad to see you found the site, I know your computer skills are kinda limited.....

Welcome to CAMM... I think this crew will welcome another old guy with a cool Mopar like they did myself a year or so ago.

Hello and welcome! Nice ride.
Amazing color. And great intro. Minus the rev your engine and then not race.
Good thing I don't own a Camaro or Mustang.

welcome to CAMM.... Francis...

Welcome to CAMM from NW Indiana.......Jim. Sweet green Challenger!

And wait wait wait a WOW player? I'm a videogame nerd but not a WOW player. Cool

Welcome to CAMM from NW Indiana

Sweet color and I'm sure you'll feel right at home here

Welcome Francis, love the color of your car, I was checking it out at the show. I dont see may Chally's in that color.

Welcome. Beautiful car Francis. By the way Crystal is our big toe.

Welcome!

Welcome to CAMM!! Beautiful car!!!!

Tom C wrote:

Welcome. Beautiful car Francis. By the way Crystal is our big toe.

Wait why am I a toe?

Welcome to CAMM!

Great into Francis, and by the way, if you touch my stuff I'll kill you.

Welcome to CAMM!!!

Thanks for the welcomes.

I see you guys are heading down to Indy in a few weeks. I would have loved to have gone along on that but not enough lead time now. I probably will come to the picnic in July, and anything else I can cram in this summer.

moaugust88 wrote:

Lighten up Francis, lol
Sweet Challenger Welcome!

Stripes fan, chevy suburban or Urban assault vehicle?? lol

eviltrycycle wrote:

Tom C wrote:

Welcome. Beautiful car Francis. By the way Crystal is our big toe.

Wait why am I a toe?

Because Sgt Hulka (in the GIF) was the big toe of the platoon in Stripes - Classic movie!

Welcome from Naperville, I haven't seen you around town would not forget that color and shaker hood!!

If you ever upgrade wheels I've got dibs on the cast offs I put 2010 Chally SRT8 shocks, struts, springs on my Charger and couldn't be happier. The 2011+ stuff is all different and supposed to be even better.

Mike