1968 Charger 500....Did They Make 'Em??????

[A383Wing]

Customer came into our shop today....subject turned towards Mopars, (gee, wonder how that happened), anyway, this guy says he knows of a '68 Charger 500 that is sitting at this house out by him. I asked if car had the round tail lights or the rectangle ones...he said the round style...OK, so that makes me think it's a '68. I told him that the 500 model started in '69.....well, I think it did, thus the reason for this post....he also told us that car is 440 with a 4spd trans....my interest is getting a little more peaked......car has not moved in years....I asked if headlights were visible or not....he said they were, well, maybe the headlight doors were up......I asked about the "flush" rear window....he could not remember, but he said it did not have a vinyl top......but he said it's got "500" stripe and "500" on the rear tail panel after the "Charger" script.

My question here....did they make a '68 500? Or is this guy blowing smoke up my 

Bryan

[RD]

i am not an expert, but i would say with 99.9% confidence "no".  69 being the first year.

[A383Wing]

That was my thought also....but I figured I better check here with the "know alls"

Bryan

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

69 was the first year for the 500 model

[bull]

Sounds to me like someone just added a 500 stripe and emblem to a '68. It's worth checking out though. Could be a '68 R/T 4spd and that's nothing to sneeze at.

[HITMAN 149]

goooo scope it out & let us know!!!!!!!! bring a camera!!!!!!!!

[8WHEELER]

I have a couple of them, 150k each father son fixer uppers. Now I just need to go buy
the 500 emblems to pull this off.................  um I mean sell these RARE cars   



Dan

[tan top]

hmmmmmmmmm   highly unlikley but could be another  68 prototype 500 , would like to see some pictures

[Ghoste]

No, no, no, no, no, and no.
Never say never on a 2nd 68 prototype and never say never on the odds of both of them being sold to the public but I'm going to go extemely skeptical on this one and just say no.

[XS29J8]

The first known Charger 500 was a 68 HEMI 4spd. In June 1968 there was a memo sent to all Dodge dealers that stated all new orders for the 68 HEMI 4spd Charger would be taken but delivered as the new Charger 500 and the 500 was originally to be built as a HEMI 4spd car. That obviously changed as production went into effect and I don't believe any other 68 C500s were actually built. But never say never with ma mopar.............

XS

[Nacho-RT74]

That's the closest to a 68 500 I have found on the net

[Ghoste]

That looks like the prototype one whose existence is known and well documented.  Note the taillights.

[WheresMyCharger]

Nacho, I think there is a picture similar to that in "75 Years of Chrysler" book

[Nacho-RT74]

maybe... dunno... I found on the web LOONG time ago. A guy with a charger website where includes some history, pics and protos

[69_500]

There is 1 known 68 prototype Charger 500, and it is the one pictured. Now it has underwent a few color changes, and some changes in the engine compartment over the years. It is a HEMI car, but at one time was chromed out in the engine compartment, and at one time was painted more of an R4 red, but it was origionally a maroon color.

It could be a charger 500 just wearing 68 rear tail lights. Who knows, one way to know for sure is to go look at it, and post pics.

[A383Wing]

It could be a charger 500 just wearing 68 rear tail lights. Who knows, one way to know for sure is to go look at it, and post pics.

Yea, I will if he comes back to the shop, we told him we want to look at it anyway.....I suspect it's a '68 with added stripe & badges, but like it was said before, "Never say never with Ma Mopar"........my camera is with me, locked & loaded....it's capacity is 393 pictures on one memory card......supposedly the car is somewhere around my area close....I figure if I get a shot to look at it, it would be worth it, even if it's not a real 500.

Bryan

[bull]

It's a lot more work to add '68 tail lights to a '69 than it is to add '69 500 decals to a '68. I'm betting they followed the path of least resistance.

[A383Wing]