1968 DODGE CHARGER R/T 426 HEMI FIRST DRIVE
It may comeas a shock, but this musclecar-loving automotive journalist is of the opinion that Warner Brothers' hit TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard" did more than anything else to tarnish the legend of the Dodge Charger.
Sure, the show was fun and exciting and should be applauded for its automotive theme in an otherwise nonautomotive network television landscape. But let's face facts: Bo and Luke Duke absolutely victimized the General Lee.
What else can you call splashing horrid orange paint over its sleek Coke bottle form, painting that stupid flag on the roof, and treating it like a stolen dune buggy? Heck, the boys couldn't even figure out how to use the door handles.
Of course, it was all part of the schtick. Series producers cast the General Lee as an ex-NASCAR champ, revived from storage to fight the good fight.
But even David Pearson's full-race Cotton Owens-prepared '68 Daytona 500 entry would fold like a paper bag if asked to do half the crazy stuff the Duke boys got away with each week.
As a young musclecar enthusiast in those days, I stayed up late one school night to watch Johnny Carson interview actor Tom Wopat (Luke Duke) on "The Tonight Show." When Carson asked how many Chargers were destroyed on each episode, Wopat answered "about one and a half." Everyone thought it was funny — except me.
I was horrified and suddenly viewed the Dukes' destructive televised antics as a serious menace, like a PAC-MAN game run amok, gobbling up every surviving Charger for one last airborn yee-haw before it smashed down to earth, twisted beyond salvation.
Fortunately, Dodge built more than 221,000 Chargers between 1968 and 1970, so they're not exactly an endangered species.
But further harm was done by far too many fans of the show who built General Lee replicas and displayed them at car shows and cruise nights all across the nation.
To me, these goofy homebrewed contraptions were an insult to the Charger's essence, a slanderous eyesore that always found me asking, "But what shape was it in before you ruined it?" — then running like hell.
So let us forget that sad chapter in history as we consider Dave Mikkelson's beautifully restored 1968 Hemi Charger.
It's not orange; there's no flag painted on the roof; it doesn't say 01 on the doors; doesn't jump over trees; and doesn't have an airhorn that plays "Dixie"; but it does have door handles that work.
Unlike the typical General Lee, replica or otherwise, Mikkelson's Charger has been given the respect it deserves. It's an R/T, and was originally ordered with the mighty 426 Street Hemi.
Let's break it down a bit. Total Charger sales for the 1968 model year were up a staggering 509 percent over the controversial outgoing 1967 fastback model.
A little more than 96,000 Charger buyers joined the Dodge Rebellion for '68. A total body restyle was all it took. (We'll discuss that in a minute). Of the nearly 100,000 Chargers sold in 1968, 17,584 were ordered as Charger R/T models.
The R/T (Road/Track) was introduced in 1967 as a special musclecar version of the midsize Dodge Coronet (there was no R/T model offered for fastback Chargers in 1967).
Standard Coronet R/T equipment included a front anti-roll bar, heavy-duty front torsion bars, shock absorbers, rear leaf springs, special external identification, and, last but not least, the biggest standard engine and brakes in the musclecar business to that point.
While competing muscle offerings employed scrawny 9.5- or 10-inch-diameter drum brakes, the R/T package delivered massive 11-inch drum brakes all around.
And a class-leading engine: At 440 cubic inches, the new-for-'67 440 Magnum was a full 40 cubes larger than the best Pontiac GTO offering and made 375 horsepower and 480 pound-feet. Again, this stuff was all standard on every Coronet R/T.
When Dodge unveiled the freshly restyled Charger in 1968, it was a natural move to offer a fortified R/T musclecar variant.
Though its standard 375-horse 440 Magnum was potent enough to handle nearly anything in the other lane, there was even more. Enter the optional 426 Street Hemi.
Not available on non-R/T Chargers (though at least one non-R/T badged Hemi-powered engineering mule was shown to the press), the 426 Hemi added $604.75 to the Charger R/T's $3506 base sticker price.
Think about that: The Street Hemi added nearly 20 percent to the bottom line. It's no wonder only 475 Charger R/T buyers went for the extra expense of the Hemi in 1968–211 with Chrysler's four-speed stick, and 264 with the bulletproof Torqueflite automatic.
Hemi-powered Mopars have been a major force to be reckoned with ever since their 1-2-3-4 sweep at the 1964 Daytona 500 torpedoed Ford's Total Performance marketing campaign.
The genesis of the 426 Street Hemi has been related many times, so let's just be thankful NASCAR banished Race Hemi-powered Dodges and Plymouths for super-speedway use in 1965, forcing Chrysler to hatch the slightly detuned Street Hemi for public consumption from 1966 through 1971.
With an underrated output of 425 horses and 490 pound-feet, any Street Hemi Mopar is a blue-chip performer, and collectible.
Funny thing about those Street Hemi-powered Mopars: Each one is fortified in numerous ways to allow the rear half of the unibody (where the drive wheels reside) to absorb the punishment doled out by the front half of the unibody (where the Hemi lives).
No, these factory upgrades wouldn't guarantee success on the set of "The Dukes of Hazzard" (nothing would), but Chrysler chassis engineers added structural reinforcements to the anchor points of the rear leaf springs to provide greater distribution of the momentary shock loads introduced into the floorpan during hard standing-start acceleration, i.e., drag racing.
This increases resistance to metal fatigue and prevents stress fractures. At the forward mounting point of each leaf spring, a pressed steel cover is welded to the existing merger of the floor surface, frame rail, and the leaf spring mounting bulkhead.
The resulting boxlike structure hangs lower than the surrounding area and is clearly visible ahead of the rear tire when viewed from a low side angle.
Though accurate reproductions are available today and can be added to non-Hemi cars (beware), the presence of these so-called torque boxes is a quick way to spot any Street Hemi-equipped Mopar hardtop or coupe.
All convertible Mopar models feature these same reinforcement boxes regardless of engine size.
At the rear end of each leaf spring, the chassis engineers specified the addition of a welded flat plate tying the rear frame rail into the leaf spring shackle mount, again to resist metal fatigue over a lifetime of vicious shock loads caused by full-throttle acceleration.
There is even more Hemi-specific reinforcement. Directly above the spot where the driveshaft meets the differential yoke, a thick metal pad is welded to the roof of the driveshaft tunnel to fortify the area in case an adjustable-height pinion snubber is installed.
The twisting driveshaft tends to cause the nose of the differential (the pinion yoke) to rise during the initial moments of full-throttle acceleration and transmission ratio upshifts.
By installing an adjustable-height pinion snubber to reduce the distance between the pinion and floor, this downward force can be transferred immediately into the rear axle to force the drive wheels against the street surface for added traction.
Though Street Hemi cars were never delivered to customers with adjustable-height pinion snubbers (a low-fixed-height unit was provided), Chrysler made sure every Street Hemi car was ready for dragstrip action.
Finally, all Street Hemi engines were equipped with slightly deeper 6-quart oil pans versus the 5-quart pan used on the R/T's standard 440 wedge-head powerplant.
The extra capacity caused the bottom of the sump to hang lower than the underside of the K-frame (the bolt-in support cradle for the engine and front suspension).
To protect the oil pan from dents, scrapes, and punctures, all Street Hemi cars wear a specific K-frame with a welded steel skidplate.
Again, this unique feature is immediately visible as the lowest point on the front frame as you face the car — hands-and-knees viewing is required.
Lesser (non-Hemi) Charger R/Ts lack these mostly hidden-undercar-body reinforcements and, oddly, Dodge made no attempt to tout their presence or virtues in advertising campaigns. It was typical of Mopar, though.
While certain competing musclecars were marketed with a healthy splash of overdrawn hype and sizzle, Dodge (and Plymouth) advertising copywriters tended to play a more conservative game.
But sometimes it doesn't pay to be humble. Pontiac taught all Detroit a lesson in 1964 with its brilliant marketing of the muscular GTO. The lesson was: "Sell the sizzle, baby, sell the sizzle." At the time, Dodge had no real musclecar offering.
Sure, you could order a 425-horse 426 Max Wedge in your new Dodge Polara, but the brand managers were way behind the curve when it came to creating an unmistakable image of high performance.
After all, you could also order your Polara with the sleepy 145-horsepower Slant Six.
Meanwhile, Pontiac made certain everybody knew every GTO packed nothing less than 389 cubic inches ("6.5 LITRE") of serious go power, even if it was actually little more than a warmed-over version of the same 389 used in full-size Catalina station wagons.
So, for 1966, along came the Charger, Dodge Division's most serious personal luxury "image car" offering to date.
Though its name wouldn't be out of place in today's world of electric and gas-electric hybrid vehicles, Dodge marketers capitalized on the inherent dynamic connotations of the word "charger." It conjured mental images of fearless military and sporting assaults, powerful warhorses, and, most important, the nickname given to particularly aggressive stock-car race drivers of the day.
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