A 'back in the day' question for old timers about Charger sightings

[Benji]

I was born in 1948 so I definately remember the Chargers of the late 1960s, in fact I had two '68 Chargers, the first one was yellow with a green vinyl top, green tinted windows and green upholstery.  It was a 383 4V auto with A/C. I bought it in 1974 for $300.00. I painted it a 1970 Chrysler green color then I did a complete detailing of the car.  I had about $500.00 in the car when I finished it. I sold it a week later for $1800.00!  It was a beautiful car.  A couple weeks later I saw another Cahrger, a blue 383 2V auto with a white vinyl top and blue upholstery sitting on a used car lot.  Someone had dumped about a quart of sand in the crankcase but failed to inform the owner!  I got that car for $275.00.  I bought a wrecked 1968 Road Runner that had about 40,000 miles for $250.00 and swapped engines with the Charger then I sold the RR to a boneyard for $125.00!  I don't remember what happened to that Charger.  I also owned a 1970 'Cuda coupe with a 340 auto. Triple black.  Cool car. Absolutely screamed. It had a wild lumpy Lunati cam, Isky lifters and competition valve springs, Hooker headers, a Tarantula intake manifold with a 780 CFM Holley carb and an 1800 stall speed converter.  I had two pigs for the limited slip diff, a 3.91 and a 3.23. The 3.91 was best for the 1/4 mile; the 3.23 best for top end which was about 140 or so.  That car LOVED super Shell gasoline and 260 Sunoco.  ANY other gasoline and it loded up in a couple of hours which meant I had to take it out on the interstate and "blow the carbon out."  Lots of fun doing that!!!  A buddy of mine owned the "holy grail" of 'Cudas a 1971 Hemi Cuda convertible.  He offered to sell it to me in 1974 for $5300.00.  Unfortunately I didn't buy it!!!

Ben

[71charger_fan]

I rarely saw a Dodge of any kind in my hometown. We had a Chrysler-Plymouth dealer and a Chevy dealer. Almost everyone in town drove one or the other. The next closest set of dealers were VW, AMC-Fiat, Ford, and another Chrysler-Plymouth store. Not a lot of variety and most of the cars running around town when I was a kid were 6 cylinder or small V-8 four doors like Biscaynes, Belvederes, Valiants, Novas, and Ramblers. A few folks, like my grandfather and my father-in-law, drove a bit farther to buy Buicks and Oldsmobiles. There was a guy on my street that had a Dart GT and I thought as a kid that it was possibly about the most awesome car I'd ever seen up to that time except for the one guy in town that had Corvettes. I don't remember anyone having a 68-70 Charger, but I remember one 66 or 67. By the time I was in college, a couple of local guys had bought a used '72 and '73 Charger. In hindsight, the coolest two cars I ever saw back then were a Packard Caribbean convertible and a Cord. The Packard must have been visiting as I only ever saw it once. The Cord "lived" in an old garage on my walk to elementary school and I never saw it actually move. I've sometimes wondered whatever became of it.

[pippo702]

Thanks for this thread! Boing born in a different continent,this is very interesting to read!

You may not be old enough to remember a story for this thread but I'll bet you know someone that is. It would be great to hear about those days in Europe.

Yeah..I've born in 1980..but many people still talking about the "good old days" here..my shft boss used to work with his father in a garage where they were working on many Fiat,Alfa Romeo (his favourite is the Duetto..the same as the one that appear in The Graduate) and Lancia..
In the 69 were at the top of the economic boom after WWII and even the lowest class of workers were starting to buy a city car..like my grand father who got his first car,a Fiat 500..
my mother used to tell me funny stories about their vacations in the Versilia Coast where they were travelling (100 miles from our home town) all 4 (my mother has a sister) in this:



As you can see not many luxury cars even if we do have a great motor tradition..

[bull]

When I was of driving age in the early 80s the new car lineup really sucked so, I looked back to the 60s and 70s which turned out to be a good thing since the cars I liked were 10-20 years old by then. My dad was never a brand loyalist really so we got pretty much whatever was cheap and available. Because of that I never felt much of an influence from him on what brand I should buy. That said, I really only distinctly remember four cars they owned and two of them were Mopar, unless you count AMC which was not owned by Mopar at the time. The AMC was a 1974 Hornet and the two Mopars were a '79 Cordoba and a '67 Belvadere with a 225 and 3 on the tree. I really loved that Belvadere. The Cordnoba was ok but I've never been much for plush interiors and lots of gadgets. I've always liked the stripped down cars with window cranks and basic interiors more.

It was very unusual for me to see any muscle cars where I lived because we lived in a remote area near a logging town of 1,100 people. Every man owned a pickup and every woman owned a sedan pretty much. I remember one guy who owned a Pantera which was super exotic for my neck of the woods. Another kid had a Superbird but the thing rarely moved so all I ever saw was the nose of it sticking out except for maybe twice. At the age of 14 or so I had no idea what this car was which I think is odd since my dad was pretty into stock car racing. I can't recall seeing a single Mustang but there was a Camaro and a Chevelle sighting once in a while.

The first Charger I ever saw was on TV, DOH of course. I fell in love with the car immediately and it was a few years later that we moved and I was on a different school bus route that took us past a house where a red '70 Charger sat. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was love at first sight.

[ws23rt]

For the most part what we like today comes from am early exposure to something that at the time was special. However a lot of styling efforts did not make that cut. I recall my friends and I would avoid looking at some cars if we had the proper warning. Kaiser Frazer comes to mind.
There is a lot to be said about aesthetics but no matter how well the car performs what sticks in our memory the most is what it looks like.
I don't know what art is but I know what I like. Late sixties muscle cars not only performed but had the performance look to go with it.
My two favorite are the 69 charger and the 70 chevelle.

[Kern Dog]

In high school 1982, a guy got the keys to his brothers 69 Charger 383-4 barrel. It was a decent runner for being basically stock. He took it out after school and wore the rear tires down to the wear bars in that afternoon. He didn't say how much tread was on the tires in the morning.
Another guy had a 68 Charger with a 383 2 barrel. He sold it to buy a Camaro. What a dork.

[bull]

There is a lot to be said about aesthetics but no matter how well the car performs what sticks in our memory the most is what it looks like.
I don't know what art is but I know what I like.

Totally agree. Make your Accord or WRX go 187 mph and 0-60 in 2.2 seconds, I don't care. I'd rather have a slow car with style.

[Iceyone]

Born in 60, fell in love with my Dad's 69 Charger the day he drove it home from the dealer. Before that I liked my Aunt's 66 Mustang Fast Back. We had a Dodge dealership in town so Mopars were everywhere. I bought my 68 when I was a 17 year old Junior in High School. The car was only 8 years old then and rusty. Several others had Chargers, Cudas, Super Bees, Chevelles, Camaros, Firebirds and Mustangs while I was in School. When I was taking Driver's Ed, I sat in Chrysler Trainer and manuevered around numerous Chargers on the street. Muscle cars were everywhere on the streets back then with a lot of racing going on both at Lee County Raceway at the edge of town and Main Street. There was one guy I knew that had a 71 440 6-Pak powered Road Runner with Nitros. He was hard to beat. Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago and I just bought the motor out of that car for 200 bucks. Back in those days even though some thought these cars were special back then, most people weren't so preoccupied with keeping the car original or wondering if it will go up in value. You weren't cool if you left the original hub caps on your car either.   

[Bob T]

It is sort of generational though, with the average ages of owners being in the late 30 to late 50 or 60's at a guess. Also on this is the generation prior that enjoyed the likes of mass produced and therefore availability of pre and post war cars, the majority of the guys that had their "Dukes moment" or similar influence over wooden spoked or truly vintage cars have already passed on or on a lot of cases are getting too old to drive or spanner on those cars.
And as a result these cars are not worth as much to the average punter and are getting sold on by the families whose offspring don't want granddads old car.

Will it be a similar thing in 25 years time with the muscle car era icons, I think so

[ws23rt]

It is sort of generational though, with the average ages of owners being in the late 30 to late 50 at a guess. Also on this is the generation prior that enjoyed the likes of mass produced and therefore availability of pre and post war cars, the majority of the guys that had their "Dukes moment" or similar influence over wooden spoked or truly vintage cars have already passed on or on a lot of cases are getting too old to drive or spanner on those cars.
And as a result these cars are not worth as much to the average punter and are getting sold on by the families whose offspring don't want granddads old car.

Will it be a similar thing in 25 years time with the muscle car era icons, I think so

I think you are right. The present always fades into the past.

[SkiJogg]

I graduated 1968 The were just as exciting back then and they did not sit on every street corner they sold $1200 more than the Plymouths an bee's

[ACUDANUT]

1968 ? you were Grade A draft material back then.