You forget...

[lloyd3]

How thirsty these cars are.

I had taken it out for lunch two weeks ago and had put $25 bucks worth of gas in it then (to get it a little above a half tank). Tooled around a bit after lunch (to avoid some of the more congested stuff) and...I think I even went to the dog park in it one evening. Nothing fancy and no (well...maybe 1 or 2 hard pulls, but nothing dramatic, just checking things out).

Started it today to go to the post office and noticed that it was a little over an eighth of a tank. The post office is ~5-miles away.  Dropped off my bills and headed for the gas station. $40 later (@ $4 plus/gallon for premium) and I'm back at almost 3/4 of a tank. Cooler than it has been (80s, not 90s) but still pretty warm for sitting on vinyl. A few thumbs up and several smiles do seem to help but...jeese this thing is thirsty.

I'll be covering over 1,200 miles next week (over 2 days). Can't imagine doing that in this old beast (actually, I sort-of can...did a comperable trip in June of '83 in a '70 4-gear Bee). Hope the decent weather holds through November here so I can burn a little more gas before I put it away for another winter.

[LaOtto70Charger]

What always gets me is how quick the needle drops from shutting down and restarting if do a couple stops foe groceries. Run into the store boom there goes an 1/8" of a tank.

[timmycharger]

Thirsty indeed.  A few weeks back I calibrated my fuel gauge with a "Meter Match" unit from Tanks Inc. This allowed me to have accurate information about my gas mileage I am getting.


Filled it up to 19 gallons and was just about empty when I put more gas in. I noted the mileage before and after and got a whopping 127 miles before having to fill up again. That is 6.7 MPG if you do the math. Pretty terrible for today's standards but probably average for a 440 six pack.  Supposedly you can do better with a six pack by not opening up the outboards but what fun is that.  50 of the 127 miles were probably close to full throttle haha!

Not really concerned about any of that after a few 1 -2 sideways shifts, don't care if its 2 mpg!

[Old Moparz]

Must be time to get an EV. 

My old Charger had a 383-4V & wasn't too bad on gas compared to a 1971 Lincoln Continental I had with a 460 that seemed like you could watch the needle move towards empty. 

My 1969 Caddy station wagon with the 472 weighed 7200 pounds & got 11 MPG hwy.

[lloyd3]

No interest in anything electric just yet. Maybe when I'm occupying an old-folks home?

My 383 4-gear car was clearly more "roadable" than my present ride. Less displacement (much!) and a 3.23 final drive ratio in the diff leads to more like 14 MPG than 6 or even 8 MPG (if I go really easy). Not complaining, mind you, but... just facing the facts. Great for small side and "pleasure" trips, but pretty hard to justify otherwise. Clearly, a "special-use" vehicle. Very special.

6.7 MPG in a 20-gallon tank means a range of 134 miles (even less when you're dealing with congested traffic).  My present "everyday" ride has a range of over 400-miles per fill-up. Think about that...there's a reason why you're always watching your fuel gauge and planning on your next gas stop when you're driving a "healthy" 440 car.

[timmycharger]

I thought the 68-70 Chargers had 19 gallon tanks? I was rounding up, 127 miles was 6.68 MPG 


Great point on the everyday ride, that is the part that seems the craziest to me. driving over 400 miles on a tank  of gas is so normal now, people must have not driven very far back in the day or had to re fuel every 3 days?

[b5blue]

Well a "Hellcat" can run wide open and drain the tank in like 16 minutes if I recall so go figure.  My mileage dropped big time after swapping to a 4BBL from 6BBL but I run 24/7 with A/C on blast now.

[lloyd3]

Nobody will ever mistake these cars for "econoboxes" so...it goes without saying that they do not compromise on anything for economy's sake. They have perhaps (finally?) become purely "big-boy toys" and...maybe they always were, really, anyway?

Love'em or hate 'em (& some do hate seem to them now) they represent an unique period of this country's history.  It's no-longer hard to imagine them being effectively legislated out-of-existence some day. If not by the usual "death-by-a-thousand-cuts" their progeny (modern hemis) are suffering from now, then by outright-bans on something so "inefficient and polluting" (the language used by the California-based Air Care Program employed here in Colorado to describe the "gross polluters" they're actively trying to remove from the road as I write this).

Me driving mine right now is largely a middle finger to all of that. Hopefully, not a final act of desperation. 

[Kern Dog]

Heck yeah, Lloyd.   

I'm in the worst state of the Union here...California.
I'm an optimist but also a realist. I don't see these cars being banned outright but politicians have sneaky back door ways of restricting things. Higher registration costs targeting vehicles of a certain age, re-enacting emission testing to include cars that had previously made exempt from testing, "No emission zones" like England has tried to do including electronic license plate readers that capture numbers to send notices of violation for entering restricted zones, etc.
We used to capture and punish politicians that abused their power. Back then, we were a tougher breed. The risks we faced back then were imprisonment or death but for desperate, hungry people, that wasn't much of a deterrent. Nowadays we are mostly comfortable and well fed so the oppression of government isn't opposed as harshly as it should be.
Imagine an average woman that decided to quit having sex with you. You figure so what? no big loss.
Now picture a beautiful woman that you've been with that also decides to stop having sex with you. Now you're going to miss out and you're willing to put up with stuff you'd never tolerate from the average woman.
THAT is oppressive government described how I see it. They know that we are comfortable and used to the comforts and conveniences so they keep pushing, knowing that we have grown soft and will just take it.
We will reach a limit at some point though. I don't know where that is but all it takes is a few acts to start happening. From there, momentum may increase and it could really be trouble.

[Nacho-RT74]

I decided not to pay attention onto gas mileage (or must I say kilometerage? LOL)

Driving the Range Rover 2.5 diesel in Spain I get around 11 liters per 100 km (if trusting on the on board unit control and replacement gas sender)

Driving my Charger in Venezuela I could made 450 km on highway with one tank, but the gas was soooooo cheap on those days that we never took care of that.

And still if finally I can bring my Charger to Spain, I don't think will take care of "kilometerage". If I have to take care better not to drive it.

[JB400]

And to think, the new Charger EV is supposed to get less than 200 mile range, top off for pennies, and  with the smell of marijuana everywhere, it's going to be like 1969 all over again. We're even going to the moon again sometime soon.

[John_Kunkel]

Well a "Hellcat" can run wide open and drain the tank in like 16 minutes if I recall

And that same car, when driven normally, will get 18 mpg on the highway, will idle so smooth you have to look at the tach to see if it's running, run the quarter in under 12 seconds and will cut better than 1G on the skid pad.

Kinda makes one wonder, if Detroit had been left to their own devices with no regulation, what would cars be like now? Since car makers are in business to make money, there would be no incentive to improve mileage, safety and economy if it costs more money and cuts into their profits. If it wasn't for emission regulations, would they have gone to computerized fuel injection and ignition improvements that have given us the Hellcat et al.

And, whether y'all want to believe it or not, emissions regulations have made the U.S. a better place to live. Here's what it's like elsewhere. The masks aren't for Covid.   

[b5blue]

In the early 70's I learned about inflation and ran the numbers out to project 50 years. My teacher was right! However gas has bucked the trend and is dirt cheap.

[Kern Dog]

I have accepted that the fuel economy will never be great. I've driven V8 cars and trucks all my life. Fuel economy has never been a priority to me.
I knew a guy that flew across country from Sacramento to Philadelphia to buy a Diesel VW pickup that had been converted to a turbo Diesel from a Jetta or some other VW model. It also had a biodiesel conversion so he could run cooking oil.
He drove it all the way across the United States to get back home. You had to start it and shut it down on Diesel but once it was up to operating temperature, he could switch to whatever alternative fuel he had.
Another guy had a 92 D-250 with a Cummins. He would pour used oil or ATF in with his Diesel to get more range for less money. A third guy bought a stock non turbo Diesel VW pickup that was rated at 50+ mpg when it was new. He was so hung up on saving money on fuel, he didn't even bother to read up on how s-l-o-w those turds were. You could not get over 60 mph on flat ground with that piece of crap.
Me? Double digit fuel economy was good enough. I worked construction for 36 years with commutes as far as 123 miles each way. I've had newer trucks that could get 20 mpg if I could keep around 65 mph. I'd sometimes get asked if I wanted to carpool with others to save money.
No. I'd rather drive alone. Too often, passengers feel the need to talk too dang much.

[1970Moparmann]

I did the some of the Hot Rod Power Tour this year in my 68 Coronet RT and got between 13 and 15 mpg.   There were many miles of smiles in the 1,200 miles I drove.