DODGE CHALLENGER
AIR-CONDITIONING WASN'T AVAILABLE TO HEMI BUYERS
When Dodge launched its Challenger (aka Plymouth Cuda) into a booming performance car market. it could not have known that the car's effective lifespan would be barely two years.
The concept of high-powered engines in low priced packaging had been making money for the entire industry since 1964, but Dodge didn't, until the arrival of the Challenger and 'Cuda, have a contender in the Pony class against Mustang, Camaro and Firebird.
The Challenger was aimed further upmarket from the 'Cuda, with the same choice of engines but a longer wheelbase and generally higher standard of equipment and specification.
Three versions of the Challenger were built – base, R/T and T/A – with the upmarket SE trim package available on all except the competition-oriented T/A. V8 engines covered the gamut of mild to very, very wild with the smallest being a 5.2-litre similar to the `Fireball' used in Australian Valiants and the most powerful being a 315kW Hemi.
Larger in size but less powerful was the 7.2-litre, 440 cubic inch big block which could be specified with a single four-barrel carburettor or as a `Six Pack' with triple two-barrels.
A manual transmission was available, however the vast majority of Challenger buyers opted for automatic.
Convertible versions of the Challenger were built in small quantities and surviving soft-tops are among the most collectible and certainly the most expensive of E Body cars.
The SE was a muscle car for the mature driver. Its US$3498 price-tag very often swelled by options that saw most examples drive through the dealership door owing their owners at least $1000 more. The Hemi engine alone cost an extra $778.75 and they were never specified on their own.
Leather seat trim was standard in the SE with a combination cloth and vinyl optional. So was vinyl roof covering with a small, landau-style rear window. Standard to Hemi-engined cars were 15-inch Rallye wheels but no disc brakes, just uprated drums.
Incredibly for cars that weighed over 1600kg and would reach 225km/h, front discs were an $80 option on all Challengers apart from the T/A. Air-conditioning wasn't available to Hemi buyers either, because every available piece of underbonnet space was required to accommodate the massive engine and accessories.
Cancellation of Hemi production in 1971 didn't spell the end of Chrysler's E Body but it sure marked the beginning of a sad end. By 1974 the Challenger `range' had been reduced to a single model, with its most potent engine the 360 cubic inch (5.9 litre) `boat anchor' V8 developing a paltry 182kW. And worse was to come for Challengers in a fuel-shocked USA.
By 1976 when those `Hemi-powered drones' immortalised by Bruce Springsteen's BorntoRun were howling down empty avenues, they had come to be regarded as uninsurable gas-guzzlers and thousands ended their lives in the jaws of a car crusher.
Today, even ordinary ones can bring close to $100,000 and a Hemi convertible, if ever you could find one, can literally make millions. Checking scarce cars to ensure their specification remains unchanged from original is worth the money spent on verification.