You hear a lot about the late-60s Chargers, the Malaise Era Chargers, and the current crop, but what about the forgotten '66 and '67 models? Some think they're homely (and suspiciously similar in design to the AMC Marlin), but 40+ years sit pretty well on this '66 that the unstoppable Kitt found in her Denver neighborhood. In this case, the car's proud owner was present and happy to open hood and doors to facilitate photography of his Dodge (which, sadly, lacks the optional 426 Hemi).
Down On The Street Bonus Edition, 1960s, 1966, 1966 dodge charger, b-body, charger, chrysler, denver, dodge
The Forgotten Charger Thrives In The Mile High City
4:40 PM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Murilee Martin
1,466 views
39 comments














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I know the BJ snobs will think I'm crazy, but this is my favorite type of Charger.
The underhood dress-up is fine but I'd prefer the stealth look of stock wheelcovers. Either way, she's a rare beauty.
Doesn't even look like a 383. Small block (318) ?? Any experts?
The first-gen Charger effortlessly out-cools the overhyped 1968-70 edition, no bright orange paint or rebel flags necessary- and does it with grace and elegance.
@Murilee -- For whatever reason, this has me wondering whatever happened to that Torino GT project of yours?
One thing the owner mentioned: It's hell driving this in any kind of weather, because rain and snow just sit on the back window. There's no wiper and the angle isn't steep enough for precip to slide off.
Of course, these days, you wouldn't want to take it out in weather anywyay. Especially not in snow.
With carpet as bushy as Marilyn Chambers, and an ass that would make J-Lo jealous, any zoot suit wearin' dragon would hit this ol' girl hard!
Homely - Yes
Awesome - Yes + 1
It's too bad he didn't roll it back for some more front end pix, but the ones you have are really great, Kitt--especially of the front fender/Dodge logo.
It is Marlin-esque.
Can't you here the Chrysler Gear Reduction starter right now? Just the sound of one of them starting up a 318, or a 383, or a 440 just gets my heart pumpin, and my loins jumpin... (ok, you can now stop laughin...)
The old man had one just like this. purchased upon arrival back in the states from 'nam to los angeles, driven to the nearest speed shop and given some headers and true duals. he drove it straight through the night to wisconsin. he said the exhaust was glowing red almost header to tailpipe. lotsa no-doze. got pulled over somewhere in arizona and the officer just asked he keep it under 100 (after seeing uniform on the young sgt. morse.
Win! This car is beautiful and I'm not even a MOPAR fanboy.
When I was a lad, this was a Dodge Charger, full size and bad ass. These old Mopars had 2 distinct sounds. The high wind starter motor and the air flow when the secondarier opened up. I swear to god you could here that a mile away.
The old lady across the street from me had one of these with a 440 max wedge and woul dnot sell it. It sold in her estate auction for little of nothing and I wasn't there.
Well, this seems to clinch it... there are obviously temporal rifts over both Alameda AND Denver, which randomly drop gorgeous old road iron along the curb in quiet suburban neighborhoods. Someone needs to notify Torchwood or Doctor Who immediately...
@charles_barrett: The Doctor, yes. Captain Jack, however, is more likely to Go Dragon on the aforementioned hardware.
@AmishJohn: I'd love for Captain Jack (John Barrowman) to go Dragon on me, so I'll distract him while the rest of his Torchwood team (except Ianto, who needs to ...ahem ...assist Jack) investigate this rift business...
@charles_barrett: Charles, oh Charles.... can we keep the mental images to a minimum please? I mean really, did you have to innumerate your desires so eloquently? (just bustin' your balls, metaphorically speaking!)
@charles_barrett:
For some reason,Alameda doesn't surprise me as much,quirky small Bay Area city bereft of the pretensions one might find south of the grapevine,but Denver?How they have so much cool iron that has survived is beyond me.
No offense on the "South of the Grapevine" comment I hope,it's just that I was born and raised behind the "Orange Curtain" (Huntington Beach) and couldn't imagine ever living down there again,living in the Sierra is nice.....
@UDMan: Now, to be fair and technical, "going Dragon" is only known to us Jalops, and the whole Captain Jack/Ianto thing would only register to BBC/Torchwood/Doctor Who nerds like me. It wouldn't register a mental image if ya weren't payin' attention...!
I don't care what anyone says, had the Duke boys been rocking a 66 charger that would be the one to have. Not only are they pretty, they are way more practical with the optional folding rear seats.
@Opus:
It's a 383 or a 440. Chrysler small blocks have the distributor at the back of the engine.
And actually, it's not really sad that it's not a Hemi. Then it would be spending its time in a garage, appreciating in value, but never really getting driven. This thing probably occasionally gets the opportunity to scorch the tread off those el cheapo tires.
Finally, while I do think the '68-'70 Chargers looked better on the outside, this car had the coolest interior of any 60's Mopar. The full-length console, quad buckets, and enough smoking equipment to keep any number of occupants happily puffing away are nice, but it's the electroluminescent gauges that really do it for me.
Best looking Charger by far.
It's 1967, 1966 would have whole-length console - even in the back.
Nice car! A favorite of mine! A friend bought a '66 Charger from a cheesy used car lot 'bout 24 years ago. Paid about $2100 for a bondo bucket with a 361/automatic. He probably sunk $6000 into the body and a couple grand more in a worked 440. He got married, planned a move to the west coast and lost his shirt when he sold it for $4000.
I'm a Mopar oddball: I prefer the bubbleback (64-66) Barracudas and the early (66-67) chargers. Something about them just speaks to me. My fantasy garage has a '65 Barracuda and a '66 Charger...the former outfitted with a 273 solid lifter screamer engine and a 4 speed, the latter with a thumping 383 big block and an automatic.
I'll park them next to my 67 Imperial and its tasteful, danish modern interior.
Love the extreme fastback bodystyle. Serious land shark. These and the Torinos (especially the Talladegas) are are just drop dead gorgeous cars and I would love to have one.
The '66 and '67 Chargers have always been my favorite Chargers. I had a chance back in high school to buy a '66 Charger from a guy I worked with for $1500. It had a 383 with an automatic, and was in really good shape. Unfortunately my parents thought it was too much power for a 16 year old who liked driving as fast as possible.
Ah yes the gorgeous design that was planned to become the brilliant 2nd gen Chrysler Turbine powered car. I imagine a complete different 1970s and on for Chrysler if the turbine car would have become reality in the market.
[www.phoenixnavigation.com]
@MarionCobretti: Oh yes, the owner took care to point out the four (four!) lighters in the car and the dials as being features he especially liked.
You can sleep in the back! How many fastbacks off this? I'd love to have one of these cars. Or a Marlin...
*offer
I wouldn't say that Dodge ripped off AMC, or the reverse for that matter- just one of those design convergances that happens, I think. 1965 Charger II concept:
And other than them both being mid-size fastbacks, there really isn't much resemblance..
But if you gotta take sides, I think it's significant that the Barracuda was on the market while AMC was still playing with this concept. The original plan was a Rambler American fastback, but the engineers couldn't make their V8 fit under the hood (is the story I heard, anyway).
Here's the '64 AMC "Tarpon" concept:
Whoops- that first pic's a little large... sorry.
@48pan2: I know what you mean about the starter and 4V sound when the back two open up. In fact, for your pleasure, check out my YouTube clip of my old '63 Polara w/383 - 4V being "opened up" on the freeway (after some introductory stuff....):
OK ... this ain't working today. Just go to YouTube, search on "racebeer", and click the "2007 Update" video. Can't seam to get the embed to wwork today ..... too early!!!!
Niiiiice.
Great find.
that is a low deck 383 block. also not the turn signal on the front of the front fenders - dead give away to being a 67 Charger.
nice car - too bad the seats were recovered in something not even close to stock and the paint has poor prep work to it, especially around the emblems. how hard is it to pull the trucking emblems!?
Back in the '80s my barber who sold cars on the side had a dark blue '67 Charger with black interior on his little lot. I took it for a test drive of maybe half a mile; it had a 383 in it as I recall, and at the time I figured I couldn't afford the car because of the gas mileage, and gee, gas was what...87-cents a gallon? The cars I test drove before making up my mind on that first car...the '67 Charger, the one-owner '58 Impala, the new '84 VW GTI...and I listened to my parents and bought an '84 Buick Skyhawk. If I didn't own an El Camino I'd be ashamed to show my face around here.
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