How many cars have yet to make it to the pages of CC? Well, that rather depends. But when it comes to classic American cars from the 60s, the list is getting shorter; we can now cross the ’66 Charger from it. And this is a very CC-worthy one, rather than a pristine garage queen. G.Poon caught it and posted it at the Cohort, although he labeled it as a ’67. Easy to make that mistake, as the differences are minute. And since we’ve already featured a ’67 here, it’s only by virtue of this being a ’66 that it’s made the CC cut.
The external differences are very small, the main one being that the ’67 had turn signal indicator lights mounted on top of the chrome fender trim at their leading edge.
Inside, the differences were considerably more extensive. The ’66 came standard with a rather show-car worthy interior, including a full length console and four bucket seats.
The rears folded down, along with that arm rest, to make a flat floor. Given that there was no through passage from the trunk, just what purpose this served has been lost to the mists of time. But it sure looked cool in 1966. And by 1967, the interior was majorly decontented, with the buckets and console becoming optional, and even then, the console didn’t extend past the front seats.
The dash contained very Chrysler-ish big round gauges that were electroluminescentally backlit, just as on the ’60-’62 big Chryslers. Nice, expensive, and wouldn’t last, although they were back for 1967.
Here’s how they looked at night.
The ’66 Charger was pretty well-trimmed in the engine compartment too; no slant six Chargers, that would have to wait until 1968. The base engine was the 230 hp “poly” 318 V8, in its last outing. Upgrades included the 265 hp 361 V8, the 325 four-barrel 383 V8, and of course the mighty 426 hemi.
Yes, the 426 hemi (rated conservatively at 425 gross hp) made the Charger worthy of its name. It could click off sub-14 second quarter miles and hit close to 100 mph in the traps. That was hot stuff in 1966.
Not surprisingly, this one is not hemi powered, otherwise this would be the find of the year, in this condition. It looks to be sporting the 383, which according to a Car Life test ran the quarter mile in 15.6@89mph. And the 0-60 in in 7.2 seconds. Not bad, especially since was a Torqueflite equipped Charger, although the TF gave away little in performance to the four speed.
Needless to say, seeing a Charger in this kind of original condition with bare steel wheels is a serious time warp. Nice catch, G.Poon!
Related:
CC 1967 Dodge Charger: Chrysler’s Marlin Lee Wilcox
CC 1968 Dodge Charger Six: Rarer Than An Original Hemi Charger? PN
Nice catch indeed and thank you for the photos. The paint looks good for being from California.
This is the level of patina I like, e.g. No rust, just weathered non-clearcoat paint and no worries about the dings and scratches it has or accumulates. I didn’t realize the 67 got decontented from the 66, I had always assumed that happened all at once with the 68 (which I’d still rather have).
I love that rear view. I like the fastback roof in this big intermediate a little better than on the full sized GM cars of this era. I’m not that smitten with the tunneled back window/roof treatment used on the later cars. The interior of the original model is really nice. Typical Detroit, to “bait” with the glamorous interior than “switch” to a base interior a year later. Same happened to the Riviera. I guess this just gave more bargaining latitude to the dealer to help close a deal. I have to agree with Matt about the patina. This is being “burnished” through use over time, not a forgotten hulk pulled from wrecking yard. Great find!
Paul wrote: “Not bad, especially since (it) was a Torqueflite equipped Charger, although the TF gave away little in performance to the four speed…”
Indeed. If the drivers owned the cars and were responsible for its maintenance and repairs, the Torqueflite was likely to beat the 4 speed (especially off the line and all other things equal) – unless – the owner didn’t mind abusing the clutch and the transmission with tire burning take offs and speed shifting. That stuff was, and still is, very hard on clutches.
One had to shift very quickly to be faster than those early A488 Torqueflite transmissions.
From my limited experience (60 Polara, 57 Fireflite, and 57 Windsor) the Torqueflite could run wide open from zero to whatever, over and over, with little sign of wear. I can’t say for sure what happened many years later, but these three cars were still doing grocery runs and going to church on Sundays years after they started their racing careers (until of course other non-engine and transmission build quality issues raised their ugly heads).
@rlplaut: OOOH! Is that “black beauty” in the driveway yours?! My dad had the 4 door Matador sedan version, in yellow w/ a white top. I still recall washing those tunneled tail/reverse lights, and the fins were wild! 🙂
Elliot, No (unfortunately); it’s from the web. The 60 Polara was a chiseled beauty compared to the lesser models of that year even though to casual observers, the differences were barely noticeable.
Most well kept and restored high end Chryslers from that period (Polaras, Fireflites, Adventurers, New Yorkers, Furys, etc.) get obscenely high prices at the big name auctions these days.
The car pictured below went for $247,500 at Barrett-Jackson in Florida in 2011 and the top is not even fitted correctly. A D500 1960 Polara convertible went for $176,000 in 2007. Those are insane prices for cars no sane person would ever drive on the road. These cars are now Picassos with tires (only you need more space to store them).
How weird, I was just watching an episode of Tom Cotter’s Barn Finds and he located the twin to this one in a yard in Savannah, Georgia. Same year, same color, same 383. Bizarre.
And then in the next episode he’s interviewing a guy who says “every car has a story”. I about fell out of my chair.
Anyway, great car, beautiful interior!
Nice CC catch, wonder what AMC big-wigs said when they first got a load of the Charger.
Catching that Charger was a lucky break. I saw it going in the opposite direction, and in my rear view mirror, watched it turn into a shopping mall. Turning around and cruising through the mall lot, I spotted it…fortunately parked without other cars in the adjacent spaces. I was late getting to where I was going, so a few exterior shots and some interior ones that weren’t worth posting because of reflections were what I got. The car apparently has a future, though; its interior was in a state of what looked like careful disassembly. It could be under restoration and if so, I’d guess the wheel covers are stored away safely.
I’ll edit the year model at the Cohort!
Wish they all could be California cars.
If I’ve learned my California license plates correctly, the style and plate number on this car suggest that it has been in the Golden State continuously since at least the early 1980s.
Way back in the days the alfa-numeric was useful to tell Police where the vehicle was from without having to wait for the radio….
It’s fascinating stuff and I wish I’d paid closer attention to the guy who tried to explain it all to me in the early 1970’s .
-Nate
Well ;
I just saved an old VW Beetle from under a tree near the ocean and it’s a California car from new but has surface rust almost every where…
-Nate
Really nice and well-deserved CC, but a bit of the ’66 Charger has appeared here before: I put its pioneering headlights in the AH: Hidden Headlights piece way back in 2011.
I’m wild about that nighttime dashboard, wow.
Word of the day: “electroluminescentally”.
I saw one of these as a little kid in 1966 and it left a huge impression on me. It was like a spaceship with those hidden headlights (the first I’d ever seen) and those amazingly cool rear bucket seats. It…was…. beautiful. My dad was driving a 3-cylinder 2-stroke SAAB in those days, and well… wow! The best part was that we parked right next to it at McDonalds – a really rare treat in those days days. They even still had the Hamburger Man and were still counting off the number of burgers they’d sold on a big electric display.
I’ve long ago given up McDonald’s but I still want a 66 Charger!
Haaa! I remember the hamburger man! And the count up was something I too looked too whenever we visited. Don’t remember eyeballing any cool chargers though, the rare visits to McD’s was too big a deal for scrawny kids like me. Good times!
Unless you are a truly hardcore racer (or looking for the big collectible price!) forget the hemi, go for the 383/torqueflite.
The correct muscle car transmission is a 4-speed.
Behind a 510ci low-deck stroker (4.25″ crank in a .030″ over 400 block), dressed to look like a stock 383.
This one I shot at Thanksgiving All American Day at Lakeside Raceway. I chatted to the owners, this was its first outing. Disc conversion and a 502 stroker.
One of my highschool friends had a ’66 in the same red. His had a 383/TFlite. I remember how nice the interior was compared to my ’68 Mustang.
It must have been fun to be a Dodge dealer in 1966 They almost caught Plymouth
in sales Almost unheard of in those days Dodge rebellion was on!
Nice find. When I was a kid in the early ’70’s, a family around the corner from us had a white Charger of this vintage. I’ve always liked the fastback Chargers, and I saw a beige one this summer at a garage in downtown Toronto. It looked to be in pretty good shape, and I imagine it’s been put away for the winter, safe from Ontario salt. Red works better for these Chargers, though, and I hope the owner does a good job on its restoration
Wow, this looks A LOT like the second car I test drove in February of 1977 when I was looking for my first car. It was a very cold day and the red 66 Charger wasn’t running great. It also had a pair of metallic red doors. It just wasn’t nearly as nice as the 67 Galaxie convertible that I saw right before it.
My car mentor Howard had bought a 66 Newport very early in the model year. His brother was an exec at Sun Oil. Sun would bring as many models as they could in preparing service materials for their stations, and Howard’s brother pulled strings and managed to get the Newport in. The guys at Sun thoroughly tuned and adjusted everything on the car and it was perfect when Howard got it back. Then the 66 Charger came out a few months into the model year and Howard traded the Newport in on one of the first ones. His brother was furious.
The trunk did have a pass through.
I quite like these–love the profile and I’m a sucker for hidden headlights and full-width taillights. That interior looks quite fantastic too, or at least the full-content ’66 version.