Mopar® Crazy, Indy-D!

The Indy Mopar® Club has grown from 25 to 90 members in just seven years—with no signs of slowing down.

Words: Darren Jacobs

Founded 10 years ago, the Indy Mopar® Club boasts a diverse membership encompassing owners young and old and a rainbow of cars spanning multiple eras of Chrysler Group LLC’s heritage, from priceless classics to modern Mopar masterpieces. The thread connecting all members is a common passion—cut them and they bleed Mopar blue!

“So many people not only have an older Mopar, but their daily drivers are the newer Mopars,” said Dave Watt, Communications Director for the Indy Mopar Club. “Everybody’s wearing Mopar gear while driving their Ram or Dodge Charger. It’s Mopar or no car.”

Other officers of the club include Tom Kelly, President; Mike Leyes, Treasurer; Ronda Cherry, Vice President; and Jessica McCormick, Secretary. The club has 90 “membership families,” according to Watts, with most based in central Indiana, near the surrounding areas of Indianapolis. Formal club meetings, held the last Thursday of each month in the Indianapolis area, often feature a mix of members ranging from Gen X to the Greatest Generation.

“We have people that are in their early twenties, all the way up to retirees that are in their sixties and seventies,” said Watt. The club holds three large events each year, usually a car show at a local Chrysler Group dealer. Other regular club events include cruises, drag racing nights and even putt-putt golf.

Indy Mopar Club members have another trait in common—many have inherited the Mopar gene from their forebears.

“We do a monthly newsletter and in each issue we ask a member to tell a story about how they got hooked on Mopar,” said Watt. “It’s funny, because it usually seems like it was the generation before that got them into Mopars. It’s kind of interesting to hear second generation people talk about how their family always bought Chrysler products and now they do too.”

Club members also direct their love of Mopar to help others, using the club car show events to raise money for the Indiana Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. “We’ve donated thousands of dollars over the years,” said Watt. “That’s one of the reasons we put on our car shows is to try to raise funds for the research. That’s one of our high marks.”

The club’s passion for Mopar also extends to Mopar parts—every member seems to be in the midst of an upgrade or modification to their Mopar ride. “People in the club are always doing upgrades to their cars with Mopar parts,” said Watt. “There’s a lot of it going on.

The club’s camaraderie has proved contagious—its rolls have increased by leaps and bounds in just a short span.

“Our club has grown a lot over the years,” said Watt. “We had 25-30 members back in 2003. We’ve been able to attract more people and it’s really grown. We’ve tripled the membership in the last seven years.”

You can count on even more enthusiasts getting bit by the Mopar bug in the Indianapolis area—with a little bit of help from the Indy Mopar Club!

Think your Mopar club deserves to be featured in a future Mopar Nation column? E-mail us at editor@moparmagazine.com with information and photographs about your group. Your organization of Mopar maniacs might just be featured in an upcoming issue of Mopar Magazine!