For the first time, I casually demonstrated this custom car in an article about the movie Car: The Road of Revenge, just by inserting a couple of photos in the middle of the article. I really liked this Chrysler. However, now that I’m writing for the site regularly again, I decided to insert photos of other cars into the movie review, and write a couple of lines about this 300C in a separate order. There is too much information about him written on the Internet – given that it can be difficult to find about most cars and a couple of paragraphs, it turns out that it is simply wrong to ignore such an interesting and rich story, which for once literally begs to be picked up.
So, the story begins with the fact that Matt Leischer from Phoenix, Arizona, purchased a used 2006 Chrysler 300C in 2007. It all started out pretty innocuously: standard spare parts from stores, nothing more. Especially while the warranty period lasted. But when the factory cut loose, Matt became bolder. By 2012, Laisher had already built his own cold air supply system, exhaust system, shaved off the handles from the rear doors, lowered the suspension, rebuilt the engine, and changed the discs…
And one day Matt was looking at the official photos of the 300C model from some press release and photoshopped a classic supercharger onto one of them, thinking how cool it would be to pull something like that off. And the more Comrade Laisher looked at this photo, the more he thought: but surely you can do that, if only you do it like this. And then like this. And like this. And eventually, in September 2012, Matt came up with enough theoretical solutions, at least to convince himself that such a power plant could actually be built.
“It was my birthday when I decided to start this project. My wife asked me what kind of gift I wanted, and I answered in one word: boost.”
The project was kind of meditative. As Comrade Laisher himself describes, when he came across the fact that the spare parts needed for further construction did not exist, he faced an obvious choice: either change his plans or start manufacturing the required parts in the garage.
“It often just came down to weighing the time and effort I was willing to spend on one thing or another. And it kind of guided my path right along the way, which was fascinating in itself.”
The GMC 6-71 supercharger was found on eBay. However, finding such a thing in America is the easiest part of the job. But getting it to work with a modern engine is the very test that makes such projects possible to count almost on the fingers. One of the very first problems, of course, was the electronics, which especially did not want to work with two throttle valves. At first, Matt tried to come up with a mechanical solution to the problem, but nothing sane worked out, and he had to return to software issues.
“The signal couldn’t just be taken and split, each flap had to independently send and receive a signal from a computer. I set out to make the controller for the second throttle myself by teaching myself the programming language for open source microcontrollers on something called Arduino. This thing is everywhere in the world of amateur robotics. And it worked, but not as well as I would have liked. That’s when I found OZMO in Australia, which produces dual throttle controllers for LS motors. After all, that’s exactly how I adapted it.”
Nevertheless, the first generations of neo-retro cars of the two thousandth years had an exceptionally correct design. The 300C is no exception, and certain body lines are damn well chosen. It's a pity that all this won't last long and subsequent changes will ruin everything very quickly.
However, even with this solution, there were problems.
“Due to the fact that the controller was running both throttles in parallel, some nonsense was constantly happening. So I wanted to find a solution that would allow the chokes to work sequentially, sort of dividing them into primary and secondary. No electronic solution worked that way, so I started thinking about some kind of mechanical device again.”
Laisher never managed to come up with such a thing, but in 2015, Dodge began producing the Challenger Hellcat model, on which something similar was installed. Matt got spare parts from the Hellcat, disassembled them, studied the motor and mechanical connections, and then began to simulate the situation in CAD, trying to figure out exactly how to reassemble everything and which parts needed to be changed so that both throttles on his power plant would open completely simultaneously and without delay. And only after brainstorming, making appropriate changes and installing the resulting mechanical part did the supercharger finally work in full, years after construction.
I love unusual bug traps. With three shutters, this is, of course, a classic, but it's too worn out. After all, this thing can be absolutely any shape and with absolutely any number of shutters - unlimited scope for creativity, capable of emphasizing the individuality of the car. This is what this 300C successfully demonstrates.
And long before the end of the fight against electronics and throttles, there was still a problem, for example, the banal installation of supercharging in the not particularly spacious engine compartment of the Chrysler 300C. For this, for example, it was necessary to move the radiator slightly forward, which only sounds simple. And besides, Matt decided to convert to E85 fuel – it’s such a tricky thing with an ethanol content of 85%, and regular gasoline is only the remaining 15%. Such a thing is famous, in particular, for its good cooling properties and increased resistance to detonation – the latter was very necessary for the reliable operation of factory supercharged pistons. In Russia, such fuel currently costs about 3,700 rubles per 20 liters in 2025, by the way.
The interior remained, for the most part, standard, except for a layer of dust and a pressure gauge instead of a clock.
However, when everything was installed and covered with the Scott Fuel Injection air intake, which is very rare in photographs, Comrade Laisher was extremely pleased with the result and began to drive a car on a daily basis. By 2015, there were 300 thousand kilometers on the odometer! The car was definitely not a show car, which had certain consequences. The first of which actually happened in the already repeatedly mentioned 2015.
Since the engine-apart from the Inertia Motorsports camshaft-was essentially standard, Matt knew full well that his time in this world was very limited. Nevertheless, his hands never reached the full-fledged engine bulkhead, and therefore, on a sultry Arizona summer, when Laisher pressed the pedal to the floor, overtaking a tractor on a two-lane highway, the exhaust valve fell out of the 6.1-liter Hemi.
“And all the radiance of glory poured out. The likelihood that the engine would need to be rebuilt or changed was extremely obvious, but I generally expected it to fall apart much sooner. And exactly how it all happened was a surprise. I thought the piston would fall apart or the connecting rod would fly out, but not the exhaust valve.”
Apparently, when the engine almost gave its soul to the God of Engines, Matt decided to change the bug trap at the same time. I'm not sure which option I like more - both are very good and original.
However, it was also a surprise that Matt’s mechanic declared the engine completely alive: despite the fact that the first piston, in fact, disintegrated when the exhaust valve plopped down there, nothing broke or cracked anywhere. All that was needed was a small bore and a sleeve. Well, since everything was disassembled one way or another and the engine was removed from the car, Comrade Laisher finally engaged in a complete bulkhead of the power unit.A sportier Bullet camshaft, a forged K1 crankshaft, Molnar steel H-shaped connecting rods and an extremely specific set of pistons were installed.
“I contacted Wiseco, and they were super involved in my project. We thought of some nice ideas that could be tested on my engine, and the result was very good pistons.”
Matt also changed the heads to a different set from the same engine, only this time he personally ported them. If the engine produced about 500 horsepower in the factory configuration, then with a new set of parts and with a slightly increased volume to 6.5 liters, it should have produced about 650-700 hp. However, the car did not last long in this form, and already in March 2016, fate made new adjustments.
For a while, Matt thought about scrapping the car and starting a new project, but… the frame was not damaged, and the entire filling remained intact. So Leischer changed what needed to be changed due to the accident- mainly the front, which now had a factory-made radiator grille and fog lights styled like Gatling guns. All of this was repainted black, and since the car suddenly looked much fresher, other small things were added to the exterior, such as the return of chrome discs… but, in general, it was still the same Chrysler 300C.
I personally liked the first option better. Although, of course, after such an accident, the main thing is that the car, in principle, remained, by and large, intact.
By 2018, the car was still on the road, and Matt was planning further alterations.
“The engine is built for a thousand-plus horsepower, if only there is enough air and boost. So I’ll install an intercooler that will definitely cool down all this safety power for. But I think that in this case, the limiting factor will be the amount of air that is supercharged, so either I will need a more efficient 6-71, or I will need to go up to 8-71…”
Nothing seems to have changed much under the hood, but some new buttons and toggle switches have appeared in the interior, plus the pressure gauge no longer stands neatly in place of the watch... if connected at all. However, specifically in these photos, the car was just being assembled after the accident in a very short time in order to make it to the auto show, so perhaps the work was simply not completed to the end.
The intercooler, apparently, was indeed installed. Supercharging is unclear. The available videos show that Matt decided to install two superchargers, but the lower unit seems to be more decorative – the belt barely touches the pulley and clearly does not actually turn it. Although, perhaps, the video shows only a sample of the pen, and at some point, Comrade Laisher’s 300C really became a representative of a rare breed of cars with two working superchargers.
It doesn’t make much sense to find out for sure anymore, since in 2022 Matt dismantled his Chrysler for spare parts and started a new project. Exactly why this decision was made is unknown, but what’s done is done, and that’s how the 16-year history of this magnificent Chrysler ended. What exactly Comrade Laisher is going to build instead of the black 300C is not yet known, but God willing, in a year or two we will see exactly where the 6.5-liter Hemi has moved to.
