1984 Mid-engine Hemi Rampage Restomod
The idea of a powerful mid-engine project was always on Mike Copeland's mind. But the subject vehicle wasn't always the quirky '80s Dodge Rampage.
Rampage
For most of us, when thinking about legendary Mopar vehicles of decades past, the '80s Rampage isn't exactly the first model that comes to mind. As aggressive as its name would paint it out to be, the little pickup's 2.2-liter 4-cylinder motor was only good for 97 horsepower.
Photos and story: Hot Rod
Outside the Box Idea
Understandably, the Rampage wasn't Mike Copeland's first car of choice when he conceived the idea of building a V8-powered mid-engine track car. But the seeds have been planted for nearly 2 decades leading up to this angry beast's world debut at SEMA in 2019. And the story of how Copeland came to take on this particular project basically started as a joke.
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Source of Inspiration
The idea was initially centered vaguely around an LS swap, which is appropriate considering Copeland was working for GM at the time. But things started to shift years later when Copeland had just purchased Arrington Performance and was in the process of moving the company from Virginia to Michigan. In his many trips back and forth, he would often stop at a restaurant mid-trip, where a beat-up Rampage was left at an abandoned auto repair shop.
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A Facebook Joke
This sparked the concept in Copeland's mind to do something no one had ever done before with the forgotten little Dodge. And although he didn't exactly go after the rusty old shell from the abandoned shop, he did eventually find one to use as a donor for the gnarly project, and there's a funny story there. Dave Chapelle of Dirt Every Day found a Rampage for sale on a used car lot and posted a photo on the Facebook page of a mutual friend of Copeland's as a joke. Copeland saw the post, and immediately expressed his interest!
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Donor Car Found
He contacted the seller, who initially had trouble grasping the idea that Copeland wanted to buy the car without ever seeing it in person. Eventually, he got them to agree to the deal and the car was shipped back to him. With just 13k miles, it was in pretty darn good shape and served as a great starting point for the project.
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Building for SEMA
From there, it was an intense few months of work to figure out how to make everything work together properly. The body was sat on a Factory Five GTM chassis, and 6.4-liter HEMI was configured along with the Mendeola transmission. Corvette suspension parts were used to give the car great handling capability as well. Given the fact that nothing like this had ever been done before, there were numerous challenges that Copeland and his team had to overcome.
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All Show and All GO
As tight of a schedule it ended up being, they managed to put the finishing touches on the car just as it was about to be transported to Vegas for SEMA. And as amazing of an engineering feat as the build called 'Outrage' is, it's just as successful from an aesthetic standpoint. And it drives amazingly well, according to Copeland, who took it racing immediately after SEMA was wrapped up.
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