Ask the Car People.SM


Dodge Charger - READ ONLY

27 messages,  Last post on Jul 03, 2002 at 11:01 AM

You are in the Classic Cars - Archived Discussions Forum.

This discussion is ARCHIVED. To reactivate the discussion, post a request in the Lost In The Town Hall... discussion.

What is this discussion about? Dodge Charger

Messages Page 3 of 3

#18 of 27 68 by fwatson

May 29, 2002 (4:43 pm)

I bought a '68 Charger with 318 in 1969. It had 12000 miles on it, was a beautiful red with black vinyl top and all black interior, and cost me $1800. Those were the good old days. Kept it until, with two young kids, I traded it in on a '73 Toyota Corona MkII station wagon. Living in the Florida Keys, it had developed a case of keys cancer (rust), and is no doubt scrapped long ago.
 
I looked forever for a model of it, and when they came out with the cast models of the Bullitt Mustang and Charger, I bought both. They cost about $12 each at WalMart, and are in plastic model cases on top of my computer center as I type this. They are perfectly detailed, and beautifully finished.
 
My Charger is my favorite car of all I have owned until now (about 20 total). My new Mazda Millenia puts it to shame quality and handling wise, but I will never forget that car.
 
One project I always wanted to do, was get ahold of a '68 Coronet 500 Convertible, and install the '68 Charger front and rear on it to make a '68 Charger Convertible. Other than front and rear clips, the Coronet 500 was identical to the Charger. Even the instrument panel was the same.
 
You can find pictures of all models of Chargers online by googling for Dodge Charger. If you give the year, it will find the year you are looking for. I have a folder on my computer full of those pictures.
 
This one: http://doug.panter.com/Charger.html looks identical to mine except it is an RT with the black band around the tail.

#19 of 27 Australian Charger by avalanche325

Jun 28, 2002 (2:28 pm)

Have you Charger guys seen these???? I lived in New Zealand for a while, and liked them better than the US version. I always felt the US Charger was WAY too long. These have the similar styling in a smaller package. I saw quite a few with small block Hemis.

I wonder if a 440 would fit..........

http://www.aussiecoupes.com/charger.html

#20 of 27 by speedshift

Jun 28, 2002 (3:59 pm)

What the heck is a 265 hemi? I wonder if it's the old Dodge Red Ram from the '50s?

#21 of 27 We had the Aussie Charger in the States... by andre1969

Jun 28, 2002 (4:03 pm)

Well, in a convoluted sort of way. Over here it was called the Plymouth Duster and Dodge Demon (later Dart Sport, after people in the Bible Belt balked at driving a Demon to church on Sundays!)
 
It's heavily modified, compared to the Duster/Demon, but it's still an A-body. It may not be readily apparent, but look at the area around the A-pillars/winshield/cowl. Pure Duster!
 
You can get a big-block to fit in an A-body, but the end result is usually not pretty. When they first started putting 383's in Darts and Barracudas in 1967, their exhaust was very restrictive due to tight clearannces. A 340 or 360 is probably a better bet...plenty of hp and lighter, for better balance.
 
Then again, you could get that awesome Hemi-inline-6 in Australia. I think I'd almost rather have one of those just for the novelty!

#22 of 27 by speedshift

Jun 28, 2002 (8:08 pm)

It looks like the hemi was the 265 V8, unless they designed a hemi head for the slant six.
 
Yeah I just went back and checked out the photo of the six and it's not a crossflow (intake and exhaust are on the same side) so it looks like they didn't change the head. But it's a pretty engine, what with the multiple carburetion, header and finned valve cover. I wonder if any of that was part of the old Hyper-Pak they sold here in the early '60s--not the induction, though, the Hyper-Pak used one four barrel.
 
I'd sure like to know the bore and stroke of that 265 hemi. The article says it was developed for truck use(?) but abandoned in the states. IIRC the polysphere was first used in Dodge trucks in 1954, a year before it showed up in Plymouths. None of the polys or hemis displaced 265 CID so if it is one of the old MoPar engines it's a different bore and stroke.
 
The profile of the Aussie Charger has a little Maverick in it, and the front end looks a little Talladega. As far as reinforcing the Duster, apparently Australian roads are brutal and an American car wouldn't last long. I read that the Falcons they imported in the early '60s disintegrated quickly.

#23 of 27 on second thought... by speedshift

Jun 28, 2002 (8:29 pm)

I went to the Aussie Valiant site and they talk about a 245 hemi six, so I guess maybe the 265 was a six too. The way they mention it in the Charger site makes it sound like a V8.
 
If the six in the photo is a hemi then it's a non-crossflow hemi. Since a crossflow breathes better than a non-crossflow, designing a non-crossflow hemi head seems rather odd. Maybe since the slant six leans so close to passenger side of the engine compartment there wasn't any room for manifolding on that side of the engine, so they had to keep the intake and exhaust on the driver's side just like they did here.
 
Chrysler designed a hemi head for truck applications here, then never used it? That's pretty interesting. I'd like to know the history of that engineering exercise.

#24 of 27 That Aussie Charger website is a little confusing... by andre1969

Jun 29, 2002 (5:51 am)

...the way it's worded. Base engines in those thigs was the Slant Six, and the smallblock V-8's were optional. The Hemi-6 though, was an Australia-only thing. It was an inline-6, not related to the Slant-6, and came in 215, 245, and 265 variants. Supposedly it was conceived in 1966, when Chrysler started work on a Hemi inline 6 for full-sized trucks in the U.S., but then scrapped the idea, although it was picked up for Australian use.
 
There was also a high-output 225 Slant-6 though, that had around 170-180 hp (stock it had 145 gross). It was used in a car called the Pacer, which was basicallly a '69 Dart hardtop with a funky front-end. It got the Hemi-6 for '70 though.

#25 of 27 by speedshift

Jun 29, 2002 (9:48 am)

Interesting stuff.
 
You know it's hard to tell from the photo but that hemi six does look like the top end is off center, closer to the passenger side, like a slant six. But the valve cover looks too narrow for a slant six which IIRC was a wide engine--but the last time I saw one was a good twenty years ago so who knows.
 
It just sounds weird for Chrysler to put money into a new six when the slant was only a few years old and perhaps the dominant six in a market that wasn't competitive enough to require much innovation. Of course Chrysler did make more than its share of bad business decisions in those days.
 
The high-output slant must have used the Hyper-Pak stuff--or at least I'd hope so if I owned Chrysler stock. No point in re-inventing the wheel unless the Aussie market was super-competitive.

#26 of 27 by speedshift

Jun 29, 2002 (4:21 pm)

Speaking of Mopars, did anyone notice how Mitsubishi "borrowed" an old Dodge model name, obviously hoping to bask in its reflected glory? I refer of course to the Mitsubishi Lancer.
 
What next? Honda Roadmaster?

#27 of 27 Aussie hemi six by avalanche325

Jul 03, 2002 (11:01 am)

I lived in New Zealand for a few years. The hemi six was pretty popular in the old Chryslers. I don't recall seeing many (or any)slant sixes. But then again, they are probably not what you would keep and fix up.
 
You also have to remember that gas prices down there are incredibly high compared to the US. A V8 can be REALLY expensive to run. Gas was $4.95 a gallon when I was there (2yrs ago). A 2.0 liter is considered a big engine.
 
Also, a US Charger is WAAAAAYYYY too big for down under. Their car industry in the 60s and 70s was heavily influenced by the British car industry. They never understood why American cars were so big. They call them "Yank Tanks".

Messages Page 3 of 3

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement