What a great find, by Bruce Hiebert: An original and slightly dinged Challenger. How many of these are left in the world in this kind of shape? Bruce identified it as a ’70 or ’71; somewhat sadly, it appears to be a ’70, as the “Challenger” script is above the character line on the front fender. If it had been a ’71, I’d be asking if it might be one of those rare one-year only Challengers Coupes that came standard with the 198 cubic inch slant six. No such luck, but this is still a fab find, and it may very well have the 225 inch slant six, given its stripper status.
Update: I was mistaken; the 198 six became the standard base engine in the coupe in May 1970, so this could be one of those.
Update#2: a commenter has run the VIN on this car; it is powered by the 225 slant six.
Here’s the post about that:
Automotive History Oddity: 1971 Dodge Challenger “Coupe” With 198 Cubic Inch Slant Six
I’m surprised this hasn’t been given the R/T treatment. Good to see one left alone. Were there any other pictures?
No. Otherwise I would have posted them.
Thanks for featuring my pic! And no, my bad, I didn’t take any other photos of the car… should have got up close and taken a few more.
Looks like a six, to me. IIRC, 318 cars got a small ‘V8’ emblem underneath the Challenger script. Not to mention the poverty dog-dishes. All in all, if original, a great CC survivor.
is it
might beone of those rareone-year onlyChallengers Coupes that came standard with the 198 cubic inch slant sixIt’s possible, and has a higher likelihood of having the 198 as a 1970 than 1971, as they built just shy of 2,000 so equipped that year vs. barely over 2,500 coupes in total regardless of powertrain in 1971. I’ve never been able to find exact 1971 powertrain breakdown figures for the coupe, but if it’s anything like how the Barracuda “198” coupe trended, it would only be a couple hundred, at most.
See the equipment lists; the 198 was indeed standard as well as the most common configuration, followed by the 318 and not the 225 as one would expect. Coupe Challengers were introduced in March of 1970 in an attempt to attract more buyers with a lower entry price, and just over 5% of all Challenger production in 1970 were the fixed window coupes:
Aha! I did not realize that the 198 coupe arrived in the 1970 MY. I need to change this post as well as the one I linked to. Thanks.
Dodge couldn’t be bothered to straighten the door mirror, in either the original photo or airbrushing.
I love a nice survivor .
If not rusty just do all necessary mechanical repairs then drive and enjoy it .
Challengers were E bodies, no ? .
-Nate
Yup, E-body like the third-generation Barracuda.
Casual car fans, “I thought they all came with HEMI’s [or V8’s] back then!?”
When a so called car fan says “I thought …”, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. With all the car history available online, no one can use the excuse “I thought” anymore.
This poor owner must be fending off the restomod vultures left and right, probably goes through an abnormal amount of wiper blades from all the notes with unsolicited low ball offers that keep getting stuck under them.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to try and use an original, lower-tier ponycar as a daily-driver.
Unless, of course, the owner wants to have constant, lengthy conversations with ‘American (auto) pickers’.
I hope it’s secure at night. . .
I love this car. The dog dishes and the American flag are the perfect accessories.
I mean… the ’70 Mustang was probably almost as heavy and came with just a couple more cubic inches…
At first all I could think of was the awful sloppy/clanky column linkage for the 3 speed, but I looked and the lucky tightwad buyer of the Challenger got a floor shift standard. You had to move up to a charger to get the column-shifted 3 speed.
Aaagh, that dull, faded red paint is giving me flashbacks. Those Chrysler reds would oxidize something fierce if you didn’t keep them polished.
In high school I had a classmate who had a ’70 or so Barracuda with a /6. He had it all decked out in late 70’s style with wide tires and a jacked-up rear end, but it was all show and not much go. Given the way most high school kids drive, I guess you could say he had wise parents! Some people made fun of him, but not me. It was better than no car at all, which is what I had.
It would be nice to see what is inside the cabin. Unless a floor-mounted shift, manual or automatic was ordered, the standard seat was a bench.
One never knows. Maybe it’s a true sleeper with a high boost turbo under the hood.
Now seeing everyone’s comments, I truly regret not having taken more shots of the car—getting a peek at the interior, etc. I just wasn’t thinking about CC at the time. I did go back in my files to check if I’d taken any others, but there was only this one: contrasting my almost-as-weathered ’89 F150 with the Challenger parked across the street (this was all from a road trip I did from Winnipeg to Los Angeles in the summer of 2019). Coming from the land of snow and salt, it was of course a revelation seeing so many older cars still in daily use in L.A.—but this was by far the most interesting one I came across on my trip.
I can help with this one! I shot this car back in July 2019, and because I was also curious about what was under the hood, I snapped a pic of the VIN plate under the front windshield. It’s not a 198 slant six, but it is indeed a 225, and a Los Angeles-assembled car as well. It’s one of the cars I’d been meaning to write up if I ever got to it, but life has unfortunately intervened over the years…
I posted my photos to the Cohort, and here’s a direct link to the album if anyone wants to take a look.
Thanks. I’ll do a more thorough post with those pictures.
That’s amazing! And that’s about the same time I shot the car… for me it was June 2019. Looks like it’s parked in pretty much the exact same spot in Santa Monica, too, I’m seeing the same building in the background. So great to have the additional info and see more photos of the car… thanks so much for posting!
Also being from the land of snow and salt I too was able to see a similar car while in LA 19 years ago when my wife and I were on our honeymoon. It was a ’71 V8 badged car with its original paint and badly sun damaged vinyl top removed. I remember thinking how cool it would have been to be cruising down the pacific coast highway in that instead of the 2002 V6 convertible mustang we rented.
I’m sure this one can fetch $60,000 at auction, especially with its roof rack and slant six. The market ( & people ) is crazy like that.
They’re very very few slant 6 challengers out there please leave one alone there was a slant 6 1968 charger that sold better than a 446 pack they’re still valuable even though they’re not high horse
why not, the mighty Gullwing has one.