Matt Delaney
Builder of the first Mopar resto-mod
This is the story of a man that totally baffled and astonished the automotive industry by winning every major award for automotive engineering and design. His creations competed against builders with their own TV shows. Builders with large operations that designed signature lines for Ford, Dodge, etc. This man had no staff, no large shop with state-of-the-art equipment, and not a lot of time to put into it. He created his designs as a hobby on the weekends.
When asked how he was able to pull this off, Matt will tell you that he has friends with exceptional talents that are always willing to lend a hand. He gives special thanks to Mike Harris, Ross Helverton, Robert Stachowicz, Bill Riley and David Gunn.
Matt and Robert receiving the “Most Popular” award at the 2001 Mopar Nationals.
Matt’s story begins with his revolutionary redesign of a 1968 Charger.
These cars were built to romp and street race. In doing so, most of the engines and other crucial original parts were compromised. People were always building them back but without the original numbers matching parts they were not considered valuable.
Everything changed after a trip to Las Vegas. You know those "Rent-a-Sports Car" lots on The Strip? Matt took a Viper GTS for a quick spin in the desert, and his automotive interests were changed forever.
He absolutely, positively had to have a vintage Mopar that accelerated, handled, and had braking like that Viper. Nothing else would do. Matt didn’t like some aspects of the Viper. The small, cramped car itself was a large problem. The Charger was the perfect body, but everything had to be created custom. There were lots of problems to overcome. The front suspension had to be totally redesigned and the fire wall had to be relocated, for the Viper motor to fit. His new design included some subtle improvements to the look of the car, like painting it Viper silver. Everything on the car, including the interior, was custom. This car was unveiled at the 2001 Mopar Nationals and created quite a sensation. The car won top honor by the 50,000 attendees, Most Popular, competing against roughly 3,000 vehicles. It was also the first ever Resto Mod.
Resto Mods quickly caught on and lots of builders jumped on board.
But miraculously, Matts cars continued to win the nations top awards. Matt attributes this to Mopar Performance picking him as their builder. As their official builder, they expected Matt to crank out a car every year using their performance parts. Matt quickly discovered that if Mopar didn’t offer what he needed, other parts manufacturers were also willing to send him parts. Matt had to work 24/7 to keep up the pace that was necessary to build a from the ground up custom vehicle and have it ready to hit the show circuit. All this while continuing to work his day job. Mopar would pick up his creations and take them as part of their Mopar display to all the biggest auto shows in the country.
Matt quickly established himself as one of the top custom builders in the country.
He would attend a couple of shows a year and Mopar would sit him at a table signing autographs and answering questions about his cars. Sadly, everything comes to an end eventually. With the bail out of the auto industry, all this came to a screeching halt. Mopar laid off most of their people and because they had all become close friends, this was a very sad day.
In retrospect, this was a blessing in disguise.
During the 11 years of working with Mopar, the stress that these deadlines created were taking a toll on Matt. His leaky aortic valve was worsening, and his aorta was swelling. His energy level was getting weaker. Eventually, he was sent to Houston for a complete rebuild… of his heart. We were blessed that our long-time friend, Dr. Blaine Borders, a cardiac surgeon, had the surgeon that developed this surgical technique on speed dial. Blaine called Dr. Coselli’s mobile and lined Matt up as a “walk-on”. Dr. Coselli is still very involved in Matt’s on-going care, years later.
