Dodge Challenger R/T 426 Hemi - Tyrrell's Classic Workshop

[sc_rufctr]

Just glorious and I like the color.

[slow&rusty]

That was a great video. Nice to see some American muscle on Iain's video series and also him a fan of the car as well.

[astrochex]

Nice piece. I’m surprised he did not talk about the tires.

Yes, orange is a great car color.

[sc_rufctr]

What sort of money are these for a good one in the US?
(Clean, original, low mileage car)

Somewhere around $100,000?

[nota]

for a clone maybe if done right

price vary

they were about 4 grand new

mark got nick's hemi cuda on a take over the payments deal but that was in 69

when I bought my raysoncraft minus the hemi [ak ski drag boat]
the hemi cuda clone sold for 250k real hemi cudas were 500k
but that was the peak and they are down by a lot now

dodge chargers are less then cuda but more then a dodge sedan
daytona's a whole other price range up

[sc_rufctr]

Thanks Nota. Here's the link to the auction site in the UK. They have an estimate of price of £85,000 - £110,000.

https://themarket.co.uk/en/listings/dodge/rt-426-hemi-challenger/a90f53ab-c93f-43c2-8438-dfbac83d9720

According to Ian only 137 in this configuration were ever made so I can see someone in the US buying this car.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by astrochex

I’m surprised he did not talk about the tires.

Those tires are not adequate for that engine.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by Superman

Those tires are not adequate for that engine.

No tires at the time were adequate for my 383 challenger RT (first car)

I worked at a local 'service/gas' station, my boss would pile the 'pulls' out back, leftover tires with some tread, when customers bought a set of 4.

I was lucky to get 2 weeks out of them.

[Superman]

2+ years ago, when I was shopping for my first decent car for myself (aside from the 'family' car), I was mostly shopping for a Chrysler muscle car with that 383. That's when I learned I could afford an older 911 (about $10K). The rest is history. I met you guys.

[Jeff Higgins]

The Hemi was such a game changer back in its day. It forced Ford and GM to step up, but neither really did catch up. The Ford "Semi Hemi" 428 and 429 came close, and the canted valve Chevy 427 did as well, but they never quite got there. The Hemi represented the first real serious effort at controlling heat in the cylinder heads, vital in NASCAR racing. It wasn't so much that it made a great deal more power than its predecessors or the competition (although it actually did), it was that it could make that power with no risk of heat soaking the heads. It could simply run harder longer.

I grew up in an era when Hemi cars were just out of reach for us "kids". We settled for 383's and 440's instead. Interestingly, upon the occasions we had the opportunity to run against some better heeled older guy with a Hemi car, our 383's and 440's would mostly out run them. Tires, as noted above, were a pretty severe limitation at the time. Kind of "the great equalizer", when everyone had more power than those hockey pucks could hold.

The real issue, though, with the Hemi cars was that they just never had the chance to "stretch their legs". Even being such a big motor, they were all top end, high rpm affairs. By the time they were ready to show their stuff, most street races were over. Now on a legitimate drag strip, with a full quarter mile, it was a different story. But those impromptu street races, even the "organized" ones, were the province of the wedge motors.

Funny, I wound up rattling my way into early 911's a couple of decades ago largely because of these Hemi cars. You see, I had finally reached a point in my life where I could afford to get back into a "hobby" car. It was going to be some form of "B" bodied (Coronet, Belvedere, R/T, Road Runner, Super Bee, etc.) MOPAR with a Hemi and a four speed. I knew full well that it was going to have to be a clone, or that I would even have to build it myself. But, even with that attitude, at that time anything close was just unreasonable. So I gave up and took a sharp turn into the 911 hot rod world. And, well, I have to say I have no regrets. Our cars a so multi-dimensional. Those cars are very one-dimensional.

But I still want one...

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by astrochex

Nice piece. I’m surprised he did not talk about the tires.

"Good tires, but not great tires." As he casually lit a cigarette.

[Jeff Higgins]

Ah, Supe - "great minds"... Or even, at times, our addled old brains... we were typing at the same time. Sounds like pretty similar paths. Folks today probably don't believe that air-cooled 911's were a far "cheaper" option than old American muscle cars...

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by Superman

Those tires are not adequate for that engine.

Ya think?

[Skytrooper]

Yeah, my 440 Charger R/T eats tires.

[asphaltgambler]

Interesting thing about street production Hemi cars. The '66/'67 cars were just slightly detuned race engines that had no warranty. Later Hemi's did have warranties but the street engines were a costly warranty headache for Dodge / Chrysler. By 1970 they had very mild hydraulic cams and lower compression and really did not perform like the earlier engines did in the real world. The cylinder heads were different on the street engines VS the race engines.

The other problem was the option cost as when ordering a new car. With the Hemi option, there was a whole slew of things that had to go with it making the cost @1/3+ of the total price out the door which was too much for most young buyers pocketbooks.

[Jeff Higgins]

Yeah, I was very young at the time, but I still remember when my Uncle Jim showed up with his Hemi Roadrunner. Must have been '69 or '70, making me nine or ten years old. He must have made an impression, because I very clearly remember him grousing about it not being a "real" Hemi anymore.

His buddies with the '66/'67 Hemi cars (whose experiences no doubt led him into buying his) apparently gave him a hard time about it as well, as did my dad. My dad was driving a '66 Sport Fury with a 383 ahead of the 727 Torqueflite automatic. He had no trouble keeping up with his brother (I think we are back to tires again, plus the auto was easier to handle than Uncle Jim's four speed). All of that seemed to piss my uncle off no end.

Oh well, he didn't have to suffer for long. He left the Road Runner at home one day, driving the family Vista Cruiser to work so he could pick up some stuff on the way home. Meanwhile, my cousin gets sick at school, and my aunt has to go retrieve him... in the Road Runner...

They had a slight downhill driveway, and she had to back the car up it to get out. She told us all she killed it several times trying to baby it back up the driveway and then, out of frustration, gave it way too much gas. Wound up backing it into the neighbor's living room across the street. Other than scratching the paint, it didn't hurt the car in the least, since it was mostly window she drove through.

Unfortunately, however, that was the end of the Hemi Road Runner for my Uncle Jim. Wife was pretty mad, insurance cancelled, etc. I did inherit that Sport Fury, though, which wound up being my second car after my '67 GTO. I never looked back - wound up with a string of four more big block MOPARs. Wish I had kept one of them at least...