WE WERE keen to learn more about Charlie’s long-time love affair with BAD69, so we caught up with him for a chinwag.

This article was first published in the April 2020 issue of Street Machine

We hear that you’ve owned the Monaro for quite a while.

I bought it in 1983, and since then it’s done 3000-odd passes in Queensland, Sydney, Adelaide and just about every track in Victoria. We’ve won quite a few meetings, including the Street Machine Nationals back in 1993. In the Street Car Shootout, we had to run speed-rated T/As, but still did an 11.78. That was with the old motor and cast-iron heads, too. We also went to the Street Machine Nationals back in ’86, and a few Summernats later on.

Tell us a bit about the car.

It’s a 350, with 195cc AFR heads, port-matched Edelbrock Victor E manifold, Dominator carb and Crane roller cam. It made 549hp on the dyno back in ’93. It runs to a Powerglide with a 5500rpm converter and nine-inch with 4.56 gears. Paul Rogers has built my transmissions forever, and he’s travelled the country with me racing. After about 1900 passes on this engine, I put a hole in the block at the Holden Nationals.

Where’d ‘Dodgy Bros Racing’ come from?

When I was 18 or 19 back in 1983, we had a GM-H designer move in across the road. Back in those days we worked on the car with a little trolley jack and used the front tyres as jack stands. One morning he came over to see what all the noise was about, and when he saw us working he called us ‘the dodgy brothers’. Hence, the name was born.

The car’s wonderfully 80s, but have you ever been tempted to change it up?

This same GM-H designer hated the letterbox scoop. He did some calculations one day and told us the power gains if we ran an A9X reverse-cowl instead, but we told him it’s staying. That’s when he put the ‘Dodgy Bros Racing’ sticker on the scoop – he’s the only one who’s ever got away with touching the car! If I changed the scoop or put an LS in it these days, all the guys from the nostalgia club would take me out to a paddock and beat me to death.

What’s your motivation to stick with the same car for 37 years?

It’s a ’69 Monaro – why would I get rid of it? Everything about them is pure muscle. I talk to people who say: “I had a Monaro back when I was young,” and so on. I tell them I’ve still got mine, and they call me a bastard!

Reckon you’ll be back racing this year?

It’s hard to find the time and money to build a new motor when you have kids. Thankfully, both my daughters love drag racing and basically anything with a motor. That’s a victory!