What the heck did Ross do to get that Challenger in the 9's???
All the new Dodge commercials
- Thread starter detmatt
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70NPORT
Old Man with a Hat
5.7 This or SRT that...whatever modern marketing name they try to use to sway people...it will never be the same Dodge Charger. 4drs completely blows it out the water...I don't care if it does 9's off the showroom floor. It'll never have the same persona granted, but Chrysler didn't even make an effort to try and capture that. No, they took a 4dr pedestrian family sedan and slapped graphics all over it and promptly tried to sell it as the NEW "Dodge Charger". They don't try to recognize the heritage. All things change but don't try to stuff an imposter down our (Chrysler enthusiasts) throats. The "NEW" Charger is a poser.
A FAST poser. LOL!
patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
Let's see, what cars have carried the "Charger" nameplate...
1) 1966 - 1967. Slope-backed glass, a Coronet from the doors forward, and the entire floorpan. Same engine choices, from 225 - 426 (+440 in '67).
2) 1968 - 1970. The Coke-bottle cars. For whatever reasons, the "I gotta have this!" car. Most famous for various car chase scenes (Bullitt, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry; Dukes of Hazzard). There are five times more Charger R/Ts running around these days that were originally built by Dodge.
3) 1971 - 1974. The stretched Coke-bottle cars. Not as popular as the '68 - '70 cars. 1972 - 1974 cars choked by more smog crap, no Hemi or 440+6 after '71. Are these "real" Chargers???
4) 1974 - 1978. Smog city. The era of 145hp 440 engines. Attractive cars, but no real performance connotations. People didn't seem to mind the Charger name on these, though.
5) 1982 - 1989. Front-wheel-drive (horrors!) and a four-cylinder 2.2L engine (the world ends!)...Dodge hot-rodded a few in '83, then Shelby got involved with the later cars. People didn't seem to mind the Charger name carrying on with these, either...hmmmm?
6) 2002 - present. The four-door Charger! You'd have thought Chrysler had lost their minds! Four doors! Let's look at performance and overall driveability...these are hands-down, better cars than ALL of the older Chargers, period! Four doors...so what? What gets raced around the world? Four-door "saloons", not the two-door versions of various cars.
Chrysler will NEVER build another '68 Charger. Ever. Even the new Challengers are far and away better automobiles than ANY of the "E"-body cars ever were. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen a four-door Challenger, just to watch heads explode.
You want a two-door Charger? Go find one and buy it! It probably is NOT going to be your daily driver. A new one will be, and be a much better car.
1) 1966 - 1967. Slope-backed glass, a Coronet from the doors forward, and the entire floorpan. Same engine choices, from 225 - 426 (+440 in '67).
2) 1968 - 1970. The Coke-bottle cars. For whatever reasons, the "I gotta have this!" car. Most famous for various car chase scenes (Bullitt, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry; Dukes of Hazzard). There are five times more Charger R/Ts running around these days that were originally built by Dodge.
3) 1971 - 1974. The stretched Coke-bottle cars. Not as popular as the '68 - '70 cars. 1972 - 1974 cars choked by more smog crap, no Hemi or 440+6 after '71. Are these "real" Chargers???
4) 1974 - 1978. Smog city. The era of 145hp 440 engines. Attractive cars, but no real performance connotations. People didn't seem to mind the Charger name on these, though.
5) 1982 - 1989. Front-wheel-drive (horrors!) and a four-cylinder 2.2L engine (the world ends!)...Dodge hot-rodded a few in '83, then Shelby got involved with the later cars. People didn't seem to mind the Charger name carrying on with these, either...hmmmm?
6) 2002 - present. The four-door Charger! You'd have thought Chrysler had lost their minds! Four doors! Let's look at performance and overall driveability...these are hands-down, better cars than ALL of the older Chargers, period! Four doors...so what? What gets raced around the world? Four-door "saloons", not the two-door versions of various cars.
Chrysler will NEVER build another '68 Charger. Ever. Even the new Challengers are far and away better automobiles than ANY of the "E"-body cars ever were. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen a four-door Challenger, just to watch heads explode.
You want a two-door Charger? Go find one and buy it! It probably is NOT going to be your daily driver. A new one will be, and be a much better car.
Wildaugust
Senior Member
I was kind of disappointed when I saw the production Chargers for the first time. I was hoping that they would have been a bit more retro looking. I guess they figured that one retro styled car, the Challenger, was enough. To me, this prototype actually is closer in styling, but not by much, to the original Chargers.
Wildaugust
Senior Member
I always liked the 1971-74 Chargers. I personally thought that Chrysler should have dropped the name Charger after that. The '75 - '78 Chargers were nice enough cars, but they certainly weren't musclecars anymore.
Hey, does any body remember the Dodge Challenger? To me, this was a real abomination.
Hey, does any body remember the Dodge Challenger? To me, this was a real abomination.
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patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
^^^For what they were, they really were good cars, competing in the marketplace with the newly-designed Fox Mustang, the Toyota Celica, and Mazda RX-7. I drove several of these (and the sister Plymouth Sapporo), and as long as you didn't end up with the weak 2.0L Four with the automatic, you had a pretty capable car. Besides, what was Chrysler building in the US that warranted the Challenger name then? Virtually every car built from 1978 through about 1981 sucked, with precious few exceptions.
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I was very disappointed that they didn't build the Charger like the prototype shown above, that's a very good looking car. I'm over the whole Charger being a 4-door thing though and began liking them shortly after there release. I do wish they'd lose the B-pillar on them and the 300s although I know why they're there so no need to talk about it.
Corvette hunting is like hitting a girl.
Still has the OEM radiator cap.
72Fury
Senior Member
My first puppy love had a sliver challenger exactly like that one. Offerings from all of the mfrs were pretty dismal. On a more interesting note, I started looking for the old manuals, I knew I had a Dodge Brothers manual somewhere. I found it along with a 60 Dart and a 68 Fury manual. There is some mileage stampings and different hand written oil instructions inside on the DB manual.
I showed the manuals to my Dad. The Dart was from a 60 convertible he had, the 68 was from a wagon I remember as a kid, and best of all the DB manual was from a car my Great Grandfather bought (1927 ?) with my Grandfather. I had no idea. That was their hand writing & notes. Both died long before I was even a thought. I had absolutely nothing from my Great Grandfather & seen just a few pictures of my Grandfather. I'd like to personally thank the members from this site for inspiring me to look. Thanks guys!
I showed the manuals to my Dad. The Dart was from a 60 convertible he had, the 68 was from a wagon I remember as a kid, and best of all the DB manual was from a car my Great Grandfather bought (1927 ?) with my Grandfather. I had no idea. That was their hand writing & notes. Both died long before I was even a thought. I had absolutely nothing from my Great Grandfather & seen just a few pictures of my Grandfather. I'd like to personally thank the members from this site for inspiring me to look. Thanks guys!
MrMoparCHP
Old Man with a Hat
There is an artist that before the new charger came out was doing renderings of what he thought the car should look like. They were so good people were posting the pictures as if it was the new car, he is also behind many of the new Cuda rumors.
Alan
Alan
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I'd buy one of those today!
polara71
Old Man with a Hat
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
Fast is fast, just like that sleeper Buick Ross posted, 9.85 in a big ugly plain looking car. I got to talking to a guy at Norwalk, he asked me if I cleared the patina onto my Challenger, talked about it a while, then talk turned to his car as I noticed the supercharger on it it is a '12, superbee edition 5.7 with big wheels, he had like 30,000+ miles on the supercharger drives to track (from Buffalo) with wife 5yo son and canopy unloads the junk rips off 12.15s give or take a hundredth no fuss it was my first real interest in these new cars because the guy was so down to earth and matter of fact. Oh and ripping low 12s if I didn't mention that
Wildaugust
Senior Member
I should have been more clear. The point that I was trying to make was not that these cars weren't any good. They may have been fine as little economy cars. My point was that it was an abomination to use the Challenger name on them. At least Plymouth didn't call the Sapporo a 'Cuda.
Ford almost committed a similar atrocity back then. They were planning to introduce the front wheel drive Ford Probe under the name Mustang. IMO those were very dark days for the North American auto industry.
Wildaugust
Senior Member
There is an artist that before the new charger came out was doing renderings of what he thought the car should look like. They were so good people were posting the pictures as if it was the new car, he is also behind many of the new Cuda rumors.
Alan
Now that captures the look of the "real" Charger. There's still something about the styling of the quarter windows but, other than that, it's just right IMO.
70bigblockdodge
Old Man with a Hat
cm23uoc
Old Man with a Hat
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This pic reminds me of that well known SFGT artistry that puzzled us with the front axle Treatment. Might be the same Artist ?
Even fake that Fury is beautiful .. I wouldn't want the transfer case though.
I'd love to have one of the new R/T Chargers
I'd love to have one of the new R/T Chargers
Now that is what a retro Charger should of been produced. Very cool!
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