“Let me take a long last look/Before we say goodbye”- Don Henley
Even if you listened with only half an ear, there was an audible ticking of the clock evident in the years 1972-1973. Vietnam was beginning to wind down, as were the Nixon years. And (saddest of all), the Muscle Car era was expiring with a whimper. It had been on life support since late 1970, when the data from 5 years (give or take) of accident reports had caused alarm in the august halls of America’s largest auto insurers. Young, target market drivers + high powered cars + Substandard Brakes and Suspension = Low profits. Add to that the hi-po chariots’ tendency to guzzle gas and emit lots of smog, and it didn’t take a Lee Iacocca and his cohorts in Detroit to see that the muscle car’s days were numbered.
This brings us to our subject matter for today: The 1972 Dodge Charger. In the twilight of the go-fast days preceding the first gas crisis, the Charger was in its third generation and frankly, showing its age. The MoPar B body had morphed from a tough, brawny beast with lots of street cred into a NASCAR queen with more swoopy curves than Joey Heatherton. Richard Petty liked the ’72/’73 so much that he would drive one for another 4 years of racing glory (an eternity in those days for one body style) and notch 6 super speedway wins that year. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” is an article of faith among car executives, and the ’72/’73 Charger proved that in spades.
The nameplate reached its sales zenith in ’73, with over 108,000 copies sold. But when the sales numbers were totted up at the end of the year, the sales graph showed a distressing and prolonged plunge after the September Yom Kippur War that triggered an OPEC boycott of sales to the U.S. It was the perfect storm: The EPA had mandated that manufacturers reduce emissions, (this is when we began the phaseout of leaded gas, which presented its own challenges) the price of oil doubled (when it was available), and the country began the malarial fever/chills of inflation and recession. The fun was over. The frivolity and wastefulness of cars designed to be frivolous and wasteful was over, never to return.
When the muscle car died, something in America changed. Hard to put your finger on it, but the cynicism, superficiality and plain ol’ avarice that we battle today seems (to me) to have begun when we lost our real Chargers, Mustangs and Camaros and had to get by with Omnirizons, Mustang II’s and 4 cylinder Camaro poseurs.
The Charger returned with the same body in ’73, (but with dorky slant “opera” windows on the options list as another warning of the bad times to come), but after that, the “Charger” became just another badge job that hinted at what used to be. The donor cars were workaday Cordobas, Coronets and (gasp !) OmniRizon derivatives that Carroll Shelby rented his name to in order to help you forget that they were… OmniRizon derivatives. They went a little faster than the donor car, but not enough.
This fine old Charger was spotted in southeast Tennessee on a brutally hot July day. A buddy who knows says that the dual exhausts signify a 400 four barrel under the hood. The possum squashers front and rear are mounted on non stock wheels, but the exterior is otherwise very presentable with no rust visible. It seems like there’s been at least one careful respray. I hope that it finds a good home before the Tennessee winter takes its toll on this last burst of enthusiasm, before we lost a lot of our innocence.
“A buddy who knows says that the dual exhausts signify a 400 four barrel under the hood.” – I think the dual exhaust signifies a 440 CID engine.
I’d say it signifies someone added a readily available dual exhaust to what may well be a 318 car. Also of note it’s a 72 body(as evident in the chintzy side marker lights) but it has 71 taillights.
“The fun was over. The frivolity and wastefulness of cars designed to be frivolous and wasteful was over, never to return.”
I would venture that any modern ICE with 500HP IS “…designed to be frivolous and wasteful…”. And FUN has returned.
Actually, good MPG started coming back with some models in 1976 and was finally in all models by about 1995… even with HP coming back in 1980s… and HP getting unlimited in 1990s and beyond…
Prefer the generation of “Chargers”, prior to this one. Like this one “ok” though.
Not sure how long ago these pics do/don’t “hail from”.
Chrome on the car appears to be quite good.
Pics of inside would be nice.
440 or 318, I still give this a 9 out of 10 primarily because there is NO vinyl.
America did not start the fundamental change you mention when performance cars died in 1973, it changed fundamentally after November 22, 1963 and has never been the same. Vietnam, Watergate, the Energy Crisis, the Malaise Era all manifested following the Kennedy Assassination.
Good points; I was about to add the same thing.
As many have said, we are living through the new Golden Era of muscle/sports cars. Even the “work a day models” are quite outstanding, as we edge into the era of widespread electric power. There is a new Charger on the way, and it’s not powered by a battery!