The history of the Charger....

Since Car and Driver said the 2011 Hemi Charger R/T was one of the best performance buys out there, I thought I'd go over the car's heritage. The Charger was introduced in 1966. It had wild fastback styling, hidden headlights, and a unique 4-bucket seat interior. The standard engine was the "Old" 318 which has nothing in common with the later "LA" or "Magnum" engines. The 383 and the 426 Hemi were optional with a 4-speed or the excellent Torqueflite 3-speed automatic. 1967 models were the same. Although these years have a bit of "Cult" following now, they didn't sell very good when they were new. 1968 brought an all-new bodystyle-and Dodge engineers hit it out of the park. We all know what a hit this bodystyle was. Charger sales increased something like 300% that year, and that was before "Bullitt" was released with the epic chase through the streets of San Francisco with Steve McQueen driving a Mustang and stuntman Bill Hickman driving an ominous black Charger. The standard engine was the "LA" 318, but options included the 383 and 440 4bbl V8s and the vaunted 426 Hemi. The new Charger, especially the R/T, was, to paraphrase George Thorogood- "Bad to the Bone". It looked mean as hell just sitting still, and it had the power to back up the image. A big 440 inch Charger had little to fear from a 396 Chevelle or a 400 GTO. 1969 brought minot changes-a split front grille, and two elongated taillights instead of four round ones, but otherwise the sexy body remained unchanged. Engine choices were the same except for a big midyear introduction-the 440 Six-Pack. Engineers simply took the 440 Magnum, added a bigger cam, and an Edelbrock aluminum manifold with 3 2bbl; Holleys. This was one of the great street engines of all time; driveability was excellent and even with the automatic, the car launched cleanly on the center 2bbl. When the end carbs kicked in, look out! The buff magazines raved, and the Six-Pack actually outran the vaunted Hemi in drag testing, with the stock 3.23 or 3.54 gearing.. However, we all know running a Hemi with a slushbox and 3.23 gears is like running with one flat tire; give the Hemi a stall converter or a 4-speed and some 4.30 gears, and it's a different story. People don't realize the Hemi was designed to win NASCAR races on long tracks like Daytona and Talledega. The "Wedge" style 383 and 440s made much better STREET engines. Which, coupled with the high price, is why not many Hemis were built. ( A 440 Magnum was like a $200 option, the Hemi was like a $1300 option ). This year NASCAR also influenced two rare special editions the Charger "500" had a flush grille, exposed headlamps, and a flush rear window. The Charger Daytona had an Aero nose and a tall rear wing. Chrysler had to sell 500 of them to race them, which they did, but survivors are rare, and often bring six figures. 1970 saw no changes to the engine line-up, but they went back to an unsplit grille and put a chrome bumper around it. In my opinion, Chrysler really blew it in 1971 when they changed the bodystyle. Why? Chargers had been selling in record numbers since the body debuted in '68, so why mess with success? GM didn't- the 2nd generation Camaro / Firebird lasted 11 years-1970-81, and the C3 Corvette-which was based on the 1965 Mako Shark show car lasted from 1968-1982. The Porsche 911 was basically the same from it's 1963 introduction to well into the 1990's. After a string of hits-besides the Charger, Chrysler also had the Road Runner-which outsold the Pontiac GTO in 1969, the Super Bee, the Duster and the Challenger / Cuda line, they stepped on their dick big-time changing the Charger after just 3 years. It wasn't that the car was ugly-far from it-in fact-the new body was so aerodynamic that Richard Petty won races with it clear up until 1979 when it was outlawed for the 1980 season. ( NASCAR rules stated that bodystyles could be no more than 5 years old, and the last Charger of this style was built in 1974. ) It's just that people couldn't beleive they'd changed from the beloved 68-70 style so quickly. The 383, 440 4bbl, 440 six-pack and 426 Hemi were still available, and to combat high insurance rates on big-inch musclecars, for the first time the high-winding 340 V8 that was previously onlu available in the Dart and the Challenger was optional in the Charger. For this one-year only, the Super Bee package was offered on the Charger instead of the Coronet. It was basically a graphics package, but the 383 Magnum was still standard, with both 440s and the Hemi optional. 1972 was when things really took a dive. Compression ratios were lowered and emissions standards tightened, and this was the year that the SAE switched from gross to net horsepower ratings, so it looked like power had dropped off more than it actually had. The Hemi and 440 Six-Pack were gone, leaving a 440 4bbl with 280 net hp the top engine option. 1973 and 1974 were basically the same, although the 340 was dropped after 1973 and replaced with the 360 for 1974. In 1975, Chrysler really shot their foot off as far as the Charger nameplate went. The racy 71-74 style was gone, you couldn't get a manual transmission anymore, and the body was a re-badged Chrysler Cordoba!! Yuk!!  Further, the advent of catylitc converters really took a bite out of performance, and the 400 V8 wheezed out about 175 hp, the 440 barely 200. Chryslers "Lean Burn" electronically controlled ignition / carburator setup caused the emasculated engines to run even worse. In comparing "Personal Luxury Coupes" Motor Trend wisecracked that a 400 Pontiac Gran Prix could tow a 400 Charger faster than it would run. From 1979 through the mid-1980's Chrysler really added insult to injury by putting the legendary name on various front-wheel drive, 4-cylinder Omni versions. Mercifully, they dropped it until 2005 when it returned with a vengenance. Some purists griped that it was a 4-door with no coupe option, but with 340 snarling Hemi horses under the hood and a Mercedes E-class chassis-( Courtesy of the merger with Daimler-Benz) enthusiasts had car that not only kicked butt in a striaght line-5 second 0-60 and low 14 second 1/4 mile times, they also handled good enough that drivers didn't have to take crap from BMW owners on twisty roads either. Soon the SRT8 option was introduced that included a 425 hp Hemi, Brembo brakes, and a more upgraded suspension. Mopar Muscle was no longer something spoke of in the past tense. The buff magazines raved-touting BMW 5 series performance for half the price. A Super Bee graphics package that copied the '60's style was revived. They remained basically unchanged through 2010. For 2011 the body was made swoopier, the base Hemi pumped up to 370 hp, and the SRT8 to a whopping 465!!.  Long live the Charger!! Let's hope Chrysler doesn't kill it again or do something stupid like make it a front-wheel drive or a diesel or a hybrid.  Mastermind