Don’t let this ’69 Dodge Coronet R/T’s sleek, factory-appearing exterior fool you – there’s a 2000hp, twin-turbo 572ci Nelson Racing Engines Hemi lurking under its snorkelled hood. Owned by Chris Retzos and built by Shane Rowe and the team at Southern Rod & Custom, the Dodge was crafted from the outset around that head-kicking engine, but there’s much more to this car than its character-defining mill.

First published in the July 2024 issue of Street Machine

The Coronet has been in the works for 15 years. It was all but finished 10 years ago, not long after we featured it in bare-metal form in the February 2013 edition of Street Machine. When Southern Rod & Custom relocated from Deniliquin to Shepparton, the car went into storage with only the partially finished trim left to be finalised. SRC then got very busy, and Chris was sidetracked by work and other projects, pushing the Coronet further down the schedule. But after nearly a decade, Shane and Chris decided enough was enough, and an unveiling at Meguiar’s MotorEx 2024 became the new line in the sand to finally have the car completed.

Shane recalls how it all began. “I was buying an A12, lift-off-hood Super Bee out of the US, but I had to take this Coronet as part of the deal,” he says. “It was very rough, but it was a genuine R/T Hemi car – B5, which means blue pearl paint – with a four-speed, white interior and a vinyl top.”

Now, before all the purists go busting a valve about cutting up a classic, the car was also a total basket case and wasn’t worth restoring to OEM spec. Fortunately, Chris was able to look past all that when he spied the sad hulk languishing in SRC’s workshop. His imagination was fired up and he saw the Dodge as the perfect canvas for a mega Mopar build. Ryan Carter of Stylemaster Designs whipped up some super-cool concept drawings, and it was all full steam ahead.

The whole lower portion of the car was more swiss cheese than Detroit steel, so it was completely de-skinned to address any hidden cancer. Then every new panel that was available was purchased, with a host of unavailable and custom pieces hand-made from scratch. The only remaining factory sheet metal in the car is the bootlid and bonnet, as repro versions weren’t available back in 2009 (read more below).

To hold up to the 572’s brutal torque, the wimpy factory chassis was reinforced with a pair of beefy 100x50mm rails running from front to back. They tie into the original chassis as well as the body-hugging, removable six-point rollcage, which is made from Reynolds tubing to full ANDRA spec. All of this made the ’69 Dodge much stiffer in order to handle 2000hp.

After a few modifications, the complete reproduction floor was mounted back in, but three inches higher to accommodate the beefy new rails and full three-inch exhaust. This way, nothing hangs down, enabling the R/T to sit on the deck while remaining 100 per cent road-friendly.

Helping keep things in control is an all-alloy XV Motorsports front clip. Its forged-aluminium double A-arm suspension is based on C6 Corvette architecture, augmented with coil-overs. The set-up is light years ahead of the Coronet’s original torsion-bar arrangement. Out back, the factory leaf springs have made way for a custom-designed Chassisworks Australia four-link with alloy control arms, Watt’s link and fully adjustable coil-overs.

The Nelson Racing Engines sledgehammer shoehorned between the front rails is the stuff of legend. It’s one of the company’s 2000hp street monsters boasting mirror-image turbos, twin blow-off valves and a signature Alien billet intake. But what makes this extreme mill just that little bit extra special is the fact that it was NRE’s first Hemi, with all the company’s previous mills being big-block Chevs. Chris and Shane flew to NRE’s headquarters in Chatsworth, California to watch the beast strut its stuff on the dyno. After some extra upgrades requested by Chris, the Hemi had no problem swinging the needle past the 2000hp mark.

Power that prodigious needs a mega driveline, and in the Coronet’s case, a custom-built 727 Torqueflite got the nod, with a Gear Vendors overdrive bolted on behind, effectively giving the Coronet six forward gears. The overdrive has been upgraded with special 300M steel shafts to handle the 2000 neddies. A monstrous four-inch tailshaft sends all the stonk back to a Strange Dana 60 rear end.

Recently, Stix from QuickBitz upgraded the ECU to a Haltech Elite system and got it all tuned up. “It’s a pussycat to drive – it’s just like driving a Commodore,” says Shane, though he admits that no one has yet been game enough to give the throttle a big stab.

The ’69 Dodge Coronet is one of the best muscle car shapes to ever come out of Detroit, but to give Chris’s example some extra attitude, the rear quarters were subtly pumped two inches per side, with the front guards similarly widened. Maintaining the car’s factory-looking theme, the widened rear wheel tubs were made from two replacement inner tubs that were cut and spliced together for a wider yet factory-like result. As with many other mods throughout the car, they’ve been so deftly executed that you’d need to take a second look to realise they’re not stock.

The Coronet’s centre-lock wheels are pretty special. “I gave EVOD Industries in the USA some rough sketches, and they sent back some 3D models,” Shane says. “It was the first 3D model I had ever seen; it was quite impressive for the time. We went back and forth a couple of times before heading to the CNC machine. Chris and I are both really happy with them.”

Like the car’s exterior, the cabin has a factory look and feel about it, although nothing could be further from the truth. SRC custom-made the entire dash and dash fascia, which is filled with Auto Meter Cobalt gauges, and also machined the stylish billet dash knobs. The handmade rear seat is trimmed in stark white leather, as is the rest of the interior. The redesigned door trims incorporate a hydrographically printed woodgrain insert, accented with a custom TT logo, and matching inserts have been judiciously integrated throughout the interior.

Although now more than 10 years old, the B5 blue paint came up nicely after a good buff. In fact, the whole car still looked fresh at its MotorEx 2024 debut, which goes to show what exceptional build quality, along with a couple of months of intensive detailing by Andy of SRC, can achieve.

“Chris and I were both worried the car might look a bit dated,” says Shane. “It even surprised me when the covers came off – phwoar, what a great looking car! I never expected to win Top Engineered at MotorEx, and I’m glad someone looked at the car close enough to realise what’s in that build.”

You know what they say: good things come to those that wait. And this Coronet is a very, very good thing.

HEART OF THE MATTER

Nelson Racing Engines’ 2000hp ‘street’ motors are now the stuff of legend. However, when the prodigious 572-cuber in Chris’s Coronet was ordered back in 2009, it was actually NRE’s first-ever Hemi!

Its ability to remain streetable while churning out insane power is largely thanks to the ‘Octane on Demand’ fuel system. At low boost, the mill runs on 98 PULP, but as boost increases, it switches to methanol via a second set of injectors and a completely separate fuel system replete with a tank, pump and lines – a full two of everything!

As big as the Coronet is, neatly packaging all this stuff was a considerable challenge for the Southern Rod & Custom team. A Top Engineered award at MotorEx 2024 indicates that they did a pretty good job.

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CHRIS RETZOS
1969 DODGE CORONET R/T

THANKS
Shane and the Southern Rod & Custom team; EVOD; Tom at Nelson Racing Engines; Ryan Carter for design work; Mick Carter at Mick’s Custom Interiors; Craig at Option Auto Interiors.