Anyone hear of the "Bandera" Charger?

[Ghoste]

I'm just deleting some old e-mails and I have one that I saved off of Moparts.   Someone was claiming to have heard of a "Bandera" Charger but knew little more than that.   I have never heard of it but has anyone else?

[TruckDriver]

I'm willing to bet he might of heard about the '68 Bengal Charger and didn't hear it right.

[Ghoste]

No.  I didn't save the whole thread, just one post to remind to try and research it but I do remember that someone else had mentioned that.  This was also someone who was fairly savvy about Chargers. 

[bull]

Ok. So what's the story on the Bengal Charger?

[TheGhost]

Ok. So what's the story on the Bengal Charger?

Yea, what exactly makes it a Bengal Charger?

[Charger Aficionado]

   Some dealer in Cincinati ordered a bunch of Orange Chargers as "rally" items for the Bengals Football team, correct?

  How come we don't have any owners on this board???   I WANT ONE!!!   (I bet you do too Trav)...    

[Chargerguy74]

  Some dealer in Cincinati ordered a bunch of Orange Chargers as "rally" items for the Bengals Football team, correct?

  How come we don't have any owners on this board???   I WANT ONE!!!   (I bet you do too Trav)...    

Correct. Only a couple were R/Ts.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

There used to be a page dedicated to them on the old site......Maybe Troy can dig it up?

I found these on the web

[chargervert]

I saw a photo,of a 72 Bengal Charger,in the Mopar collectors guide,about a year back.I havent seen any 69-71 Bengal Chargers,just the 68 Bengal Chargers,and the one 72 Bengal Charger.When I saw the artical,I thought maybe someone took the emblems off a 68,and put them on a 72,but the emblem was different,and they thought the car was legit!

[Ghoste]

You don't remember which issue do you?  I subscribe but can't recall that story.  They sometimes jump the gun on their one of one stories anyway, but who knows?
I only ever remember hearing or reading about them as 68's.  I've seen two at shows over the years (or maybe it was the same one twice?) but that's it.

[chargervert]

Ghoste,I don't recall the issue,but it was one of those stories written in by a reader,and they replied back to them.It was on the black and white printed pages.It was a 72 Charger,with hidden headlights,and they showed a close up of the emblem.

[Ghoste]

That is sort of vaguely ringing a bell now.  There was never any follow up though was there?  I'd likely put that one in the urban legend file for now.  Probably the same place this "Bandera" thing belongs too.

[Wakko]

There was a band here in South Florida 10-15 years ago called Bandera...not sure they ever had a Charger...

[Troy]

I have some info somewhere but we're remodeling and everything is more disorganized than usual. They were all sold/delivered here in Cincinnati to celebrate the Cincinnati Bengals. I have tried to dig up the company that made the badges but I only have one good lead so far. There was an entire page dedicated to them on the old site but it was hidden and didn't get indexed. Here's the text from the old page but all the images are gone:

The BENGAL Charger is a rare species of Mopar history that was specifically built in 1968 to celebrate the Cincinnati Bengals first year in the American Football League. Its special order Tiger Orange paint and Bengal Stripes, combined with "BENGAL Charger" fender badges make it a truly unique car and an eye-catching crowd pleaser. Only 50 of these beauties were produced and there's only a couple that have been tracked down. Hopefully they survived and are in someone's garage.

...

Below is a brief history of how the Bengal Charger came to be...

Fifty "Bengal" Chargers were special ordered by Cincinnati Dodge dealer Tom Kneer to commemorate the Cincinnati Bengals' first year in the American Football League (AFL). All of the cars were painted "Tiger" orange and had black "Bengal" Stripes, black vinyl tops and black interiors. The cars were optioned with a variety of equipment.

As a devoted football fan, Tom Kneer was very excited to learn that his city would have an AFL expansion team beginning with the 1968 season. He decided to build a special car to celebrate the event. He envisioned mating the sleek new form of the '68 Charger with badgethe feline "Bengal" name and team colors - a match that couldn't miss.

Tom found out from Barry Buse (one of the team owners and a close friend) that the team's primary colors would be orange and black. In 1968, Orange paint was not available as an option on Chrysler Corporation passenger cars, so Tom selected an orange paint currently being used as a fleet color for Dodge trucks. The color he chose was originally developed for use on Michigan State Highway vehicles.

Tom contacted Chrysler with his request for orange cars. Chrysler told him that in order for them to build any cars with a special color, he would have to order a minimum of 50. He eventually agreed to special order 50 orange cars with an assortment of options. Most of the cars were equipped with a 318 or 383 engine. He had a few 6 cylinder cars built for marketing purposes and an estimated 10 - 12 R/Ts. Tom's dealership was having a hard time selling the Hemi option because of its high markup. For this reason, there are no Hemi Bengals.

Because Tom was purchasing so many cars, Chrysler agreed to throw in the black Sport Stripes for free. In 1968, Chrysler put Sport Stripes on the Charger R/T only. Since most of the Bengals were not R/Ts, obviously, an exception was made. For this reason and because they were free, the stripe does not appear on the broadcast sheet but instead was part of the special order processing along with the orange paint.

The chrome "BENGAL Charger" fender badges were made in Cincinnati and were mounted on the cars when they arrived at the dealership.

The Bengals were all built at the Hamtramck, Michigan assembly plant.

Troy

[Charger Aficionado]

Cool stuff Troy.

[Troy]

Oh, we've discussed here once before as well:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,412.html

There used to be a web site "bengalcharger.com" but it hasn't worked for a long time. Here's some info relating to it:
http://www.theezine.net/articles/6/Auction-Of-Rare-Bengal-To-Benefit-Endangered-Tigers.html

What it looks like:
http://supercar1.com/cart/CarDetail.asp?item_id=421&item_id=&item_number=&name=&

Troy

[bull]

Wow. I've heard of the cars being involved with the Cincy Bengals but never seen this much information before. It would be way cool to own one.

[THE CHARGER PUNK]

whats the paint code on these bengal charger?(like what color code of orange) and anyone have a close up pic of the bengal emblem?-MATT