The 1968-1969 Dodge Charger models came with a tougher stance and extra muscle as many considered it the best-looking mid-size car around. Although the original fastback roofline was replaced by a notchback semi-fastback profile with “flying buttress” sail panels.
Dodge released a Charger R/T (for Road/Track) as part of its “Scat Pack,” which also included the Coronet R/T and Dart GTS. Each wore bumblebee stripes around its tail and carried an engine appropriate for its title.
Its targeted market was the rugged type of individual, “who likes it soft inside.” as it comes with Vinyl-trimmed bucket seats and posh amenities to lure comfort seekers, with a cushion available to position an extra passenger between the buckets.
The charger’s aggressive exterior with power to match was enough to pull in the performance especially when abetted by a pair of pipes blaring out the back, and brawny red-sidewall rubber hitting the pavement. let take a look at some of its features.
Styling of The American Idol
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The 1969 Dodge Charger came in just one body style, a two-door hardtop. It was the updated version of the restyled ’68 model, which meant it was built on a 117-inch wheelbase with Chrysler’s familiar torsion-bar suspension up front and leaf springs in the back. New styling touches for the base and R/T Chargers included a vertical center divider in the grille and horizontal taillights.
The really distinctive new Chargers were the 500 and the Daytona, both creatures of the so-called “aero wars” of the day being waged by Ford and Chrysler as they sought dominance in NASCAR stock-car racing. As it turned out, the recessed grille and inset flying-buttress rear window that looked so great on the ’68 Charger was an aerodynamic washout on 190-mph high-banked ovals.
For the 1969 Dodge Charger 500, Chrysler engineers began by plugging the nose cavity of an R/T with a Coronet grille (and nonretracting headlamps) moved up to the front edge of the bodywork. Meanwhile, they quelled lift by flush mounting the rear window.
The Interior
the 1969 Dodge Charger came with black vinyl bucket seat factory dash, custom gauge cluster, AutoMeter gauges, Scat front seats, G-Force 5-point harness, rear seat delete, stock steering column, Grant GT steering wheel, custom wiring harnesses, owner fabricated roll bar, Viper pedal assembly. There was no provision for air conditioning as the initial plan for the car was to be used as a race car
The Uncompromised Performance of The Charger
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Hemi and Magnum engines were only part of the story, after all. Standard Charger fittings included a mild-mannered 318-CID V-8 with 230 horsepower. The 1969 Dodge Charger also features Chrysler’s 383, with 290 or 330 bhp. Only by ordering an R/T or checking off the 375-bhp Magnum or 425-bhp Hemi did the magic for the car.
Copywriters for muscle-car ads evidently had a nasty streak, pushing their products’ potential antisocial tendencies with forthright abandon. A Charger’s suspension, they reported, “treats an angled grade crossing in the rain with studied insolence,” while this “Beautiful Screamer” with an “impertinent flip of the spoiler on the rear deck” contained “440 cubes of mean.” The 1968-1969 Dodge Charger had the ability to blow away the competition with its Manual-shift for the “four-speed box changes cogs with the precision of a sharp ax striking soft pine.”
In other words, Dodge ads proclaimed exactly what America’s sneering adolescents wanted to hear. “American guts” were promised, in a car “shaped like a Mach 2 jet on wheels.” Not to forget that the Charger also came with a six-cylinder engine in 1969. The car became a movie star, chased by Steve McQueen in Bullitt and playing against Elvis in Speedway.
A minor face-lift with a split full-width grille wasn’t the biggest news for 1969. More exciting was the emergence of the Charger name on two special models: the Hemi-powered Charger 500, built for competition; and the bullet-nosed Daytona with its far-above-the-crowd wing stabilizers, aimed at NASCAR racing.
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