Challenger may have been late to the pony car party, but it did so fashionably. 50 years later, that entrance remains memorable.

Ironically, it was the Dodge’s sister division, Plymouth, was actually first to the party with its Barracuda. Released just a couple weeks before the Ford Mustang in April 1964, the Barracuda shared with Mustang the formula that would make this sporty, youthful segment such a huge seller during the 1960s: long hood, short deck and compact proportions in a sporty front-engine, rear-drive package. While the Mustang was based on the Ford Falcon platform, its styling was entirely new; conversely, the spendier Barracuda was more clearly a fastback version of the existing Plymouth Valiant. The Mustang was a runaway success with 121,538 sold for 1964 while the Barracuda and its trick curved-glass backlight could only be considered a moderate success with 22,443 sold that abbreviated season. Had the first Barracuda been at least as popular as the Mustang, perhaps we’d be calling cars in its class “fish cars” instead of “pony cars.”

Through the rest of the 1960s, the Barracuda heavily trailed the Mustang in sales. In 1967, Plymouth completely restyled the Barracuda and added coupe and convertible models, but that year Chevrolet and Pontiac launched their respective Camaro and Firebird pony cars. That year, Ford Motor Co. added a Mercury pony car with the Cougar. The strong competition in the youth-oriented pony car field left the Barracuda swimming against the current. For the 1970 model year, Chrysler Corp. started fishing in a whole different body of water — one that would have room for Dodge.

Under legendary Chrysler Corp. Vice-President of Design Elwood Engle, designers Bill Brownlie and Carl Cameron came up with new pony cars for Plymouth and Dodge to sell beginning in the 1970 model year. Realizing the huge potential in the pony car category, Chrysler management hoped it could carve out a portion and sell in excess of 200,000 of its new Dodge and Plymouth pony cars even though Plymouth struggled to sell even 50,000 Barracudas annually during the 1960s.

Enter the E body

Like the 1960s Barracuda, the new MoPar pony car would be based on the compact A body, at least initially. After Chrysler Corp. planning was underway on the 1970 pony car, Ford and General Motors started stuffing big-block V-8 engines in their pony cars. The biggest engine Chrysler planned to put in its new-for-’70 pony cars was the 383-cid V-8, so engineers and designers tweaked the A body platform in order to add width for a larger engine. The result used the firewall-to-radiator support of the mid-size B body (Charger/Satellite), which could be had with the 440- and 426-cid engines.

This new pony car species was named “E body,” and setting it apart was a stunning low and wide stance, a close-coupled passenger compartment and the long hood and short rear deck expected of a pony car. The Barracuda and Challenger designs also featured a handsome kick up after the door and into the quarter panel in the “Darrin dip” fashion popular decades earlier. Dodge emphasized this dip with a body character line that paralleled the car’s beltline, including the dip. Aggressive grille designs of both Challenger and Barracuda were channeled deep into the front, and taillamps looked like red hot exhaust vents that were likewise channeled into the body. Coupe and convertibles were offered in both the Barracuda and Challenger lines.

Although The new Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda cut similar profiles for 1970, they were subtly different cars on the outside. The Challenger had a wheelbase 2 in. longer than the Barracuda (110 in. versus 108 in.) and the Challenger was more than 5 in. longer than the Barracuda. These differences were aimed toward the mid-price Mercury Cougar and Pontiac Firebird pony cars that Dodge intended to challenge.

Challenger’s interior featured very mod three-dimensional plastic door panels and a smooth, uncluttered instrument panel of matching plastic material. Instruments were laid out horizontally in four large, round pods. The Challenger featured an energy-absorbing steering column and advertised the featured with an exaggerated accordion-like cover over the column.

The Challenger was offered in several lines: a highline, a lowline, an upscale SE model and a performance R/T version with an R/T-SE version available. The SE, for Special Edition, featured a vinyl roof that covered a fiberglass shell that made the rear window smaller for a more formal effect. The SE interior was also more luxurious with an overhead console and available leather interior. Challenger could also be built as a SCCA-inspired Trans Am version with the 340-cid V-8.

Right out of the gate, available Challenger engines included Chrysler’s full line, from the 225-cid “Slant Six” to the 426 Hemi with the 340, 383 and 440 (four- or six-barrel carburetion) also choices. The base engine in the Challenger R/T was the 383-cid V-8. A Challenger could be mild or wild, with the wildest Hemi and 440 Six Pack versions among the fastest street cars of the entire muscle car era.

Challenger combinations could be downright dizzying as on top of the model and engine choices, there were luxury options and performance options: Go Wing spoiler, headlamp time delay, stripes, numerous wheel and wheel cover choices, Shaker hood scoop and more. Colors ranged from subtle green and brown earth tones to High-Impact Panther Pink and Plum Crazy. Shifting could be done on the column or through a Slap-Stick wood-handled shifter in the console. Despite building a Challenger for every person — from pastor and grandparent to teenage troublemaker — Dodge lost money on the Challenger program. Only 83,032 were sold in 1970 and with just 55,499 Barracuda sales added in for the model year, production was well beneath Chrysler Corp.’s expectation of 200,000 E-body cars per model year. Sales were worse in 1971 and then in 1972, Challenger’s grille and tail panel were restyled and the result was unflattering compared to the original. Performance dropped dramatically after 1971 when the triple-carbureted Six Pack 440 and 426 Hemi were dropped.

Challenger sales were curbed by internal competition from the restyled and cheaper 1970 Dart and then the Dart-based Demon fastback of 1971. Sales of the new 1970 Barracuda and its performance derivative, the ’Cuda, were also beat up internally by the new fastback Plymouth Valiant Duster and restyled Valiant Scamp. Some quality control woes further hampered sales of the E-bodies. The end came for the original Challenger, as well as the Barracuda, in 1974.

Rise to the top

As used cars and into the 1980s, the Challenger was a bit of an underappreciated stepchild in the muscle car world with values and interest lagging behind GM and Ford pony cars of the era. After the turn of the century, interest in these fast, powerful and handsome and aggressively styled pony cars flipped and they became among the most valuable muscle cars. Hemi Challengers began to sell for six figures and it took seven figures to buy a Hemi Challenger convertible.

The Challenger may not have lived up to Chrysler’s production expectations 50 years ago, but it’s undoubtably a winner today.

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GTS meant GT Sport. It was the name of a sexy new-for-’68 “sawed-off shotgun” that was a whole bunch more than a sporty compact car. “Not to take the edge off the Road Runner, the GTS might be a more sensible package,” said Hot Rod magazines’s Steve Kelly in the publication’s April 1968 issue. “The base price is higher, but you get things like carpet on the floor, fat tires, bucket seats and a few other niceties that can make Saturday night roaming more comfortable. The engine’s smaller, but that could prove an advantage for drag racing classes.”

Two hefty V-8s were available. A 340-cid small-block engine was standard. It was derived from the 273-318-cid Chrysler family of engines and had a 4.04 x 3.31-inch bore and stroke, a 10.5:1 compression ratio and a single four-barrel carburetor. The 340 engine cranked out 275 hp at 5000 rpm and 340 lbs.-ft. of torque at 3200 rpm. A 383-cid big-block engine with a four-barrel carburetor and 300 hp was optional. The 383 added 89 lbs. to the car if you got a four-speed gearbox and 136 lbs. if you got an automatic transmission. A standard 3.23:1 rear axle was supplied, but 3.55:1 and 3.91:1 ratio axles were also available as optional equipment.

Other technical enhancements included a low-restriction dual exhaust system with chrome tips, a heavy-duty Rallye suspension, 14 x 5.5-inch wheels and E70-14 Red Streak tires. Although a column-shifted three-speed manual transmission was standard, most Dart GTS models had either a four-speed manual gearbox with a Hurst floor shifter or a competition-type TorqueFlite automatic transmission.

Also identifying the GTS were hood power bulges with air vents, body side racing stripes, special GTS emblems and simulated mag wheel covers. A bumblebee stripe to decorate the car’s rear end was a no-cost option. Vinyl front bucket seats were standard in the $2,611 hardtop and optional in the $3,383 convertible.

In 1968, the production of the GTS models was lumped into the total of 24,100 Dart GT series V-8s produced. The 1968 Dart GTS hardtop with the 340-cid/270-hp power train tested out with a 0-to-60 time of 6 seconds. It did the quarter-mile in a “Scat Pack” time of 15.2 seconds. Hot Rod magazine published even better numbers for its 340-cid TorqueFlite-equipped Dart GTS, which ran down the quarter-mile in 14.38 seconds at 97 mph.

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Larry Swedel was determined to somehow, someday, own what he considers the most amazing, beautiful, over-the-top American automobile built in the 1950s. It’s hard to argue that the 1959 Dodge Custom Royals were some of the wildest, most extreme vehicles built in the 1950s, or any other decade for that matter.

The catch is, it’s also an extreme challenge to find one — especially a Custom Royal convertible, which is what Swedel had his heart set on. Only 984 of the gaudy droptops were built, and probably only a small fraction of those have survived.

Still, Swedel was unwavering in his belief that he would eventually stumble across a 1959 Custom Royal convertible that he could afford, and the story behind his stunning two-tone specimen is a lesson in patience, faith and dogged determination.

“I’ve been pursing one since my high school days. When I was in the 10th grade, I had an instructor in school who bought a brand new one of these, with the coral top,” recalled Swedel, a resident of Elk River, Minn. “It was a hardtop with a coral roof. He used to park it outside the building and we’d be up on the second story and I’d see it sitting there. And I’d think, ‘Man, if I could ever get a car like that I would be the luckiest man in the world!’”

About 20 years ago, Swedel finally came across an engine-less hull of a 1959 Custom Royal and took the first step on what would be a long, challenging scavenger hunt and restoration project.

“Actually a collector in Phoenix brought it up out of Mexico. The data plate and information that is on the door post is in Spanish. I do not know if it was ever licensed in the United States,” Swedel said. “It was in Mexico and they had pretty much used it up. I had bought it sight-unseen. They didn’t tell me much. I knew it came out of Mexico, but nothing else. But was a Custom Royal, and that’s all I needed to know.

“I paid way too much for it, but I’m glad I bought it, because I’ve never seen another one for sale that I could afford to buy.”

Swedel said he spent the next 15 years hunting for “almost everything” for the battered Dodge, from a new engine to the tiniest chrome trim bits. Since the ’59 Custom Royals were among the most overdressed and chrome-laden cars ever seen on American roadways, that meant a lot of time beating the bushes, combing the Internet and marching through salvage yards for scores of hard-to-find shiny parts.

“About five years ago we started on it. It took two years to do it,” Swedel said. “The interior I got a little later. The interior we just put in it. It’s pretty new.

“I didn’t mind waiting. I knew it would get done. After I retired I had more time, so I waited to start on it. I didn’t want to start on it until I found all the parts. It took a long time to find all this stuff!”

Swedel is quick to point out that tackling such an ambitious renovation is a lot easier when your son runs his own collector car restoration business. Larry and his son Michael have worked on many cars together over the years, and “without him I would have never been able to get the car back,” Larry noted. “He’s a great metal worker and everything. He helped me a lot.”

Dodge was clearly looking to end the decade with a bang when it launched its 1959 models on Oct. 10, 1958. The big fins from 1957 and ’58 were back, although with slightly different profiles, and the eyebrows over the headlights were larger and more pronounced. Overall, the cars projected a longer, lower and wider look.

The Custom Royals were back as the top dogs in the Dodge lineup, and they were loaded. Outside, the cars were slathered in chrome, from the full-length bodyside moldings, to the shiny fin edges, to the huge big-mouth grille and twin-headlight arrangement.

And the interiors were no less ornate. The huge steering wheel featured a thick horn ring. Engine-turned plating surrounded the flashy gauges, and cloth inserts jazzed up the upholstery.

Cars with so much flash, needed some dash, and the Custom Royal had plenty of go-power under the bonnet. The standard engine was the SuperRam Fire 361, which produced 305. Things got even better from there: the new D-500 383-cid V-8 with a single four-barrel offered 320 hp, while the coveted Super D-500 with a two Carter four-barrels generated a righteous 345 hp.

The big Custom Royals would never be confused with drag racers — or economy cars – but they were some of the best performing cars on the road in 1959. All of the Dodges from that year had Torsion-Air front suspension and rear leaf springs. The convertibles had an X-brace to support the five cross members and boxed frame.

The cars rode on 122-inch wheelbases and the convertibles weighed in at 3,372 lbs. The droptops carried a base price of $3,372 before you checked any boxes on the options sheet, and there was plenty to pick from there. In addition to the more potent engines, popular options included swivel bucket seats, power seats, push-button radio, air conditioning, electric clock and dual exhaust. About 94 percent of all 1959 Dodges had TorqueFlite automatic transmissions with the memorable push-button controls.

Of course, even if they were dogs when it came time to hit the gas, the Custom Royals would have had plenty of appeal. The spectacular “forward-look” styling of Virgil Exner, with its curved windshields, protruding tail lights, and long, sleek fins was the stuff that automotive dreams are made of. “A lot of people are amazed at the glitz on this,” Swedel noted. “To me it’s just unbelievable styling. To me, the ’59 year was the ultimate. It was as crazy as it got.”

There are no definitive numbers on how many Super D-500 convertibles were sold, but it certainly wasn’t many. Swedel isn’t sure what engine his car had in it originally, but he located a 383-cid V-8 and twin Carter carbs during his parts hunting and was able to build his Dodge with the top drive train. The car also has the Morrormatic rearview mirror and swivel front seats. Swedel even added a Highway Hi-Fi record player, which was not available from the factory on the 1959 Custom Royals, but it looks great nonetheless. “I know it was from the earlier years, but I like it and I built it the way I like it,” he added.

Swedel and his son opted for the authentic factory two-tone Coral/Quartz paint scheme, and gray-white-black interior. “I would have painted it this color, because that’s what I wanted, but it happened to be this color originally,” Swedel said. “This was my all-time favorite combination.

“I did it the best that I could do. I tried to get everything the best we could. We farmed out the engine machining, and farmed out the interior fabrication. Otherwise we did everything. We pulled the body, did all the bodywork and painting. I’ve got new old stock hubcaps and the steering and padding is NOS and Mirrormatic is NOS… And the emblems and parts [in back] are NOS.

“The car was complete with all the trim, but it was all junk. Absolutely none of it was usable.”

Swedel insists he “lucked into” some key parts, such as a trunk lid, doors and fenders that were all rust-free. The 383-cid engine came from a Desoto. “I’ve got the two [four-barrels] on it, and that’s the way I wanted to do it, as a Super D-500. I’ve got the correct fours and intake and linkage and everything,” Swedel said.

“The toughest part was welding in the whole car. The floor was gone, the trunk was gone, The fins were laid out. Somebody had hauled rocks in it. There was a sheet of metal in the trunk a quarter-inch thick. It was gone. The quarters had holes in them, and they had stuck Mexican clothes in there. We pulled enough Mexican clothes out of there for a family of five – shorts and shirts… They used that for filler and put Bond-O over that! It was unbelievable.”

Swedel has only put a couple hundred miles on his fancy Dodge since getting back to A-1 shape, but he has no plans to turn the car into a trailer queen. Of course, he also has a 1958 Chrysler 300-C convertible and 1954 Buick Skylark at home, and he’s working on a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible and 1956 Chysler New Yorker convertible, so the ’59 Dodge isn’t likely to be overworked.

“Some of the cars come and go — I have to do that, but this one I’ll keep around,” Swedel said. “I’ve wanted one for a long time, so it’s one of my favorites. And I’ll drive it. I do drive my cars.”

Wherever he takes it, Swedel is pretty confident he’ll have the only 1959 Custom Royal ragtop, and that’s the way he likes it.

“We get around. We go around to car events all over the country, and I have never seen another Custom Royal convertible. I’ve seen pictures of them, but I’ve never actually seen one,” he said. “I know there are a few on each coast — a couple of them anyway, but it’s like they left the planet!

“I just love the car. I love it. A lot of people don’t realize they are not going to see another one of these [in person]. I figure every place I take it, there’s not going to be two or three others. That’s what happens when I take my other cars. This one, I’ll be the only one.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1959 Dodge Custom Royal appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Bob Tomaine

Ed Kratil wasn’t the only one to notice an online classified for a 1959 Dodge Royal four-door. As he later learned, several of those who saw it had plans very different than his own.

“(The ad) was basically a one-line description with a really bad picture,” Kratil recalled, “but it was an original car as part of that description, and I went up there to take a look.

“The gentleman I met with said he had some interest from overseas, Sweden and Germany. He did not want to arrange shipping and I said, ‘Look, if this is truly an original car’ — I couldn’t get under the seat at the time — ‘underneath the seat there’s a build sheet, under the dashboard, on top of the glovebox, there’s a build sheet and they should match whatever you have.’ He called me later that night. ‘I’ll sell you the car since you’re interested in it and you know what you’re talking about.’”

The deal was closed and instead of a making transatlantic crossing, the Dodge made a trip of roughly 50 miles to Kratil’s home in Ithaca, N.Y. That was in 2012 and the odometer showed 17,735 miles at the time, a fact that goes far toward explaining the car’s condition. Kratil doesn’t know where the Dodge spent most of its life, but if it lived in upstate New York where he found it, someone either devoted a lot of time to washing the winter road salt off on a regular basis or — more likely, given the mileage — stored it inside during the winter months. No matter which of those possibilities was the case, the car obviwously had a strong appeal to an owner or owners willing to go to such lengths to protect it.

From top hats to space suits

The appeal is understandable, as Dodge in 1959 was wearing its own interpretation of the Space Age and was a far cry from its ancestors of just 10 years earlier. Dodge had resumed production after World War II’s interruption by introducing mildly updated 1942 models for 1946. It was the universal formula among the “Big Three” and the few Independents that had survived the war. Reintroducing slightly updated prewar vehicles enabled the industry to quickly begin building cars and gain time to come up with new designs.

True postwar cars began trickling out with the 1947 models from Studebaker, Kaiser and Frazer and others followed for 1948. By 1949, new designs were in every showroom, although Chrysler Corp. had gotten off to a late start and launched its new Second Series 1949 lineup after having continued its 1948 models as the First Series 1949s. At Chrysler, cars had low fenders and high roofs, because Chrysler Corp. president K.T. Keller required enough headroom to wear a hat.

Across the industry, the new cars were obviously more than reheated versions of their predecessors, but with a few exceptions, they carried styling that reflected prewar thinking. The real difference — where there was one — was under the hood, as Cadillac and Oldsmobile introduced their similar but unrelated modern overhead-valve V-8s in 1949. The engines’ oversquare design meant the bore’s diameter was greater than its piston’s stroke with resultant benefits ranging from higher revs to smaller size. Combined with the OHV configuration, the GM engines represented the future and the competition knew it.

In 1951, Studebaker and Chrysler Corp. were first to respond with a 120-hp 232 and a 180-hp 331, respectively, but there was more to the story than just numbers. Chrysler’s FirePower V-8 was the start of what would become known as the Hemi engines for the engine’s hemispherical combustion chambers. More important in 1951, though, was the fact that Oldsmobile and Cadillac now had competition and that was just the beginning.

At Chrysler Corp., De Soto received a 160-hp, 276-cid version of the Hemi in 1952 and called it the Firedome. It continued its flathead six alongside the V-8 for a time, as had Chrysler, while the Dodge Division went another year with only its six. When its turn came in 1953, the Dodge was on a modern body with nearly every trace of prewar styling gone. Dodge was now “powered for action, with surging new V-8 performance” from its “new 140-horsepower Red Ram V-Eight (which) packs more punch per cubic inch. Most efficient engine design in any American car, with more speed than you’ll ever need!” The 241-cid Red Ram didn’t banish the six immediately, but the older engine was living on borrowed time.

Chrysler Corp. was on a roll with the rest of the industry, as 1955 saw only Kaiser and Willys lacking modern V-8s and they were exiting the domestic-passenger-car business anyway. Dodge by then was “a car that fairly breathes adventure” with its “aircraft-type V-8 engine” and completely new styling. Buyers now had a choice of V-8s up to a 193-hp, 270-cid Super Red Ram — the horsepower race that never officially existed was well underway — and smooth new bodies wore wraparound windshields and backlights, plenty of brightwork and the beginnings of fins. The 1956 update raised the fins and introduced overt performance in the D-500 option that Dodge promised “digs out like a demon, handles like a dream, corners like a chopped-down ‘rod,’ with a load of sand. It features a hefty 260-horsepower mill” displacing 315 cubic inches, and driving it would show “why guys who really know cars call it the hottest thing on wheels!”

Power and performance continued to increase and the two-year cycle brought a completely new “Swept-Wing” 1957 Dodge. Long and low with bigger fins and no shortage of flash, advertising boasted that “everything is new from road to roof.” Meanwhile, the top engine was now a 340-hp 354. The next year, a fuel-injected 361 produced 333 hp while the top carbureted engine generated 305 in a freshened body. The look continued through a subtle restyling in 1959 when the Super D-500 option was a carbureted 345-hp 383, but although the highest-performance version — then as now — got the glory, not everybody really wanted it.

Dodge knew that and offered not only lesser V-8s, but even the flathead “Get-Away Six.” Its entry-level Coronet was “your low-cost invitation to luxury motoring” even as its Custom Royal at the opposite end of the range was “a car completely satisfying in every respect.” Between those two extremes, Kratil’s Royal “gives you more of what you want. If a man were looking for ‘buying justification,’ he could certainly find plenty of reasons in the Dodge Royal Series because the list is both long and impressive … Whatever the reason, the conclusion is clear. There’s more of what you buy for in a Dodge Royal.”

It was, in effect, everyman’s Dodge. With its 295-hp 361 and PowerFlite automatic, Kratil’s Royal sedan is probably a typical example. It’s not his first.

Just the right Dodge

“I’ve always liked the Dodges,” he said, “the ’59s specifically, because they look mean from both ends. The Dixie Cup taillights in the back are ridiculous-looking and the front just looks aggressive. The styling on some of the newer Chargers and such still has that eyebrow and it’s very similar. I’ve always liked the body style, I don’t care if it’s a two-door, four-door. That really doesn’t matter to me.”

Liking the Dodge that much gave it a few points to start with and fortunately, Kratil soon found that it had no real problems. “It needed new tires,” he said. “It had the original bias plies on it. The original. The original bias ply spare is still in the trunk.

“When I went to pick up the car, it ran really poorly. Once I got it home, I looked in the shop manual and for some reason, some of the plug wires had been switched. As soon as I did that, it purred … It didn’t need a spec of bodywork, it didn’t need anything on the interior. I put seat belts in.”

He said that it had run well on the 75-mile trip he’d just made to the Rolling Antiquers show in Norwich, N.Y., and that it’s ready for much more than that. He knows the reactions it would get on such a trip.

“I’ve heard, actually this morning from somebody who pulled up behind me at the gas station, ‘I don’t know much about cars, but I like what I see,’” Kratil said. “A lot of people don’t know what it is, but they say, ‘I think my grandfather had something similar to that’ or, ‘Is that a Cadillac?’ I do get a lot of older folks, if I’m driving down the road, who turn their heads and then kick a light bulb on, and also the little kids who have watched ‘Cars.’ They like things with fins. It has a lot of ‘shiny’ to it and they get a kick out of it.”

And while it’s not the Super D-500 engine, he said the 361 has no problem keeping up with traffic.

“It will not beat anybody off the line,” Kratil said, “but it will sure get you there with a smile on your face.”

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A Dart from the desert!

We found this gem hiding on Craigslist in Ramona, Ariz., and it was love at first click. How can you go wrong with a 55-year-old convertible, in all its 225 Slant Six greatness, for under 5 grand? Sorry buddy, you can’t. This a no-brainer, and if we’d didn’t live cowering in fear of our wife, we’d be on our way to pick this fabulous piece of of open-air awesomeness right now. The seller says he’s at $4,600 firm and sounds like he means it, so we’re not even going to haggle with him.

According to the owner, the “Dart needs work” … well, yeah. But it has a long list of new parts (radiator, distributor, cap, rotor, fuel pump, water pump, all new hoses, spark plug wires, spark plugs, gas tank, new gas line back to front, reman. carburetor, fuel filter, new battery, new locks all around, used but good pair of taillights, complete new brakes including master cylinder (but not installed)).

It would take some love and some work, and we’d probably have to pluck a few cactus needles out of the sidewalls, but it would be worth it!

Check out this listing here:

We’d Buy That! 1967 NSU Sport Prinz

We’d Buy That! 1973 Volkswagen Thing

We’d Buy That! 1959 Cadillac Stretch Limousine

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“Weathered Wheels” super spotter Steve Isola came across this 1940 Dodge sitting on a trailer in Duluth, Minn., last fall, “presumably a fresh arrival from Oregon. The car looks very complete,” he says. “I suspect the new owner is going to tackle a restoration project. The old Dodge looks to have a lot of extras, like sun visor, bumper guards with extended wings, radio and trim rings. License plate is circa 1975-1985, based on the color. I can’t quite read the expiration year on the sticker. Either way, it’s been sitting since at least the mid-’80s.”

Weathered Wheels: 1929 Model A Ford

Weathered Wheels: 1953 Hudson Hornet

Weathered Wheels: 1964 Chevrolet C10

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Longtime Old Cars subscriber Arthur Slack purchased his sweet 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Custom four-door sedan back in 1994. It has optional fluid drive, radio, heater, two-tone paint, factory directional signals, fog lights, dual outside mirrors and full wheel trim.

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Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Thanks to his grandfather, William Hupke had always been mostly a Dodge guy. About 10 years ago, his son William Jr. made sure pops was going to stay that way.

The father-son duo wound up traveling from their Wisconsin homes to the Twin Cities in Minnesota about a decade back to check out a pair of venerable Dodge Brothers cars they knew about that had both come up for sale. The both came home with a car — Jr. with a very nice black four-door business sedan, and Sr. with sweet red two-door roadster.

“We wound up buying both of them. My boy, that’s why he has so many cars!” Hupke laughs. “He didn’t have enough money, and so it was ‘Dad, you buy this one.’ He’s got four cars, but one of them is sitting in the corner of the shed in pieces. He’s got a REO and a Trumbull, and the rest are Dodges.

“My grandfather, he use to have REOs, and when he had a new car in ’38, it was a Dodge, and I still have that one. On the farm we had Model A’s, by my dad had a Dodge, too, in the ’50s, so I’ve always been around Dodges. We picked this car up just the way you see it sitting here.

Hupke knew about the roadster through a co-worker. The car had been showing up at the Iola Old Car Show for years. And since Hupke has been in attendance since the first Iola show in 1973, he had seen it more than once and knew it had been preserved.

“We knew the two cars were around, put it that way,” he says. “When [the owner] died, we pursued it a little bit… It was probably restored in the late ‘50s. I know the guy who had it, he’d never done a thing to it and he had it at least 25 years, if not more.”

Horace and John Dodge would no doubt be tickled to know that one of their automotive children was still on the road, as durable and reliable and ever, and serving its owner well and for a relative bargain investment. Producing quality, lower-priced cars that the common man could afford to buy and maintain were top priorities for the adventurous and innovative siblings, who first teamed up to run a successful Detroit engine and transmission building venture before turning to car building in 1914. The new company almost immediately established a reputation for building solid, sturdy machines that were reliable and built to last. The company was the first to mass produce cars with steel bodies, and helped pioneer the use of 12-volt electrical systems.

In 1920, Dodge Brothers had risen to second among U.S. car makers. When the founding brothers both died that same year, however, the company began to lose ground to its competition, and in 1925, the operation was sold to a New York banking firm. Just three years later, Walter P. Chrysler bought out the company and soon began turning the company’s fortunes around for the better. By the time the 1930s arrived, the “Brothers” part of the name was dropped.

Model year production for 1924 topped 207,000 units for Dodge, which produced three lines. The Standard line was the cheapest and included six body styles, ranging in price from $865 for the roadster to $1,385 for the five-passenger standard sedan. The Special lineup was one step up and also included six body styles, including Hupke’s lovely roadster, which carried a base price of $1,025.

Dodge also produced a limited number of six-passenger custom bodies, including four-door taxis — with both open and closed cabs — and a four-door landau sedan.

The 1924 model year saw a number of changes and updates on Dodge Brothers products. Appearance updates included a taller radiator and a higher hood line. The side hood panels now had vertical louvers. Drumhead lights were another new styling feature. The cars had a longer wheel-base and lower overall height. The former three-quarter elliptic springs were replaced with those of semi-elliptic configuration. Inside, the seats were lowered. Gear and brake levers were moved forward, providing more useable leg room. Budd-Michelin steel disc wheels were now available for the roadster, as well as the closed body styles. All closed cars had a flat, slanted sun visor supported by curved corner brackets. A rear brake light was made standard equipment for all models and balloon tires were optional, as were solid steel wheels.

The new line of “special” models came with deluxe equipment features like nickel-plated radiators, bumpers, automobile windshield wipers, Motometer type radiator caps and bright metal runningboard step plates.

The cars were also equipped with a clever and practical “starterator”, which combined the starter and generator into one 12-volt unit. The change had actually come two years earlier and made Dodge the high-volume car builder to offer self-starting vehicles. The carry-over 212-cid inline four-cylinder produced 35 hp and was viewed as one of the sturdier and most reliable power plants around for the money. As far as Hupke knows, the engine in his red roadster is the same one that his car was born with, and it is still running strong.

“I like driving it. I really do. It runs good to about 35 mph,” he says. “The transmission is geared low and I don’t like to overspeed the motor, so I don’t go too fast. You don’t have very much room. My wife likes to ride in it, too. She hollers at me if I go too fast on a rough road.

“The only thing I don’t like is you don’t really have any front brakes of any kind, so you have to drive accordingly. It doesn’t have any brakes on there.”

Hupke generally keeps the folding top up. The car has got wind wings and a folding windshield to help control the wind inside. Hupke also has the snap-on side curtains, although he never uses them. The roadster only comes out of the garage on nice days. “The curtains are still in the box,” he laughs. “I’ve never had them on.”

Inside, the pleated black vinyl seat is functional if not fancy, and looks great with the black folding top and bright red paint. The dash has all the important features of its time — a speedometer, ammeter and oil pressure gauge. A hand brake lever is located on the floor next to the three-speed manual shift lever. For Hupke’s money, the most interesting feature of the interior is the little metal match holder attached to one of the spokes on the steering wheel. It’s not an accessory you see every day. “The guy who had it before me liked to smoke cigars, so it’s got a ‘cigarette lighter,’” he jokes.

“The Dodge brothers worked for Ford before they started their own business, and the four-cylinder engine is almost like a Model A engine, but the transmission shifts opposite of a Model A. I don’t know why the Dodge Brothers changed that. And it also has a 12-volt system and 12-volt systems were used only for a couple years back in those days, and then they went totally to a 6-volt batteries, thorough the whole industry… The fuel pump is in the back, so it has a Stewart Warner vacuum fuel pump and that was used on a lot of cars — Buicks, Studebakers and them used that back then. It just has a splash system for oiling the motor. It doesn’t have a high-pressure system, but it works.”

Hupke’s 1924 Dodge hasn’t been in the family nearly as long as the ’38 that his grandfather bought new, but he is probably equally attached to it. The car is simply a wonderful little machine, a quintessential 1920s time machine with a cheerful red appearance. It’s a car that is easy to admire, fun to own, and appreciated at almost any old car gathering.

“I’ll keep it as long as I can. Most of the time it’s only out for about three car shows a year,” Hupke concludes. “Then it goes back into its place and stays there until next year.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1924 Dodge Brothers roadster appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Brian Earnest

Tom Brickbauer got some sound advice from some of his car-loving friends a few years ago.

Today, he’s glad he listened.

The Kiel, Wis., resident had been leaning toward getting rid of the 1974 Dodge Charger SE he had owned since it was new. The car needed some work and was still in original condition, and Brickbauer thought it was probably time to unload it.

“I was going to get rid of it and buy a Challenger, a new one!” laughs Brickbauer. “I really liked the new Challengers, but then people said you should keep [the Charger]. ‘You’ll be sorry. It’s got all the paperwork and all the numbers matching and everything.’

“So instead of spending the money on a new Challenger, we had this car restored and we go all over with it now. We love it.”

Their ride of choice is a triple-green SE that has served the family well over the years and remains in amazing shape given that it has only been partially restored. Brickbauer had the car stripped and painted a new coat of green, and had some rust issues fixed under the rocker panels. Beyond that, the Charger is wonderfully original.

“No, I never would have thought we’d still have it,” he says. “We had a ‘69 Dodge Charger — you know, the ‘Dukes of Hazzard — and I had that for a few years before we got married and we could afford a new car. So we traded that in and ordered this Charger. We’ve had it ever since and we drove it for about eight years as a family car. Then we said we were going to keep one of these Chargers, and so we put it away and got rid of the other one.

“We drove it to car shows and did all that, and then somebody banged into the fender and beat it up, and we couldn’t fix it because the car was all faded and if we fixed it the rest would all stand out. So we said, ‘When we restore the car we’ll fix the fender and fix everything else,’ so about four years ago we decided we were going to keep it and we took it in [to be restored].”

The car sat mostly idle for about 15 years before Brickbauer and his wife Marilyn decided to finally pull the trigger and have it worked on. The couple had driven it occasionally and made a few appearances at car shows over the years. The fact that the car wasn’t in overly rough shape made the decision easier.

So did the fact the Brickbauers loved the looks, styling and personality of the Charger SE as much today and they did back in 1974. “We wanted the SE style with no back [quarter] window with the three louvered windows,” he says. “Then we put a special steering wheel — the tufted steering wheel I guess they call it — and we put the other rims on it. We were going to put a 340 or 360 motor in it, and the salesman talked us out of it because it was going to be a family car. He says you’ll never be able to afford the gas, so we got the smaller 318 in there. A lot of people said you should get a bigger motor in there [when you restore it], but I said it’s all original, so why would you mess up the car?

“It served us beautifully, and the interior is original. The vinyl top is original. In the back we didn’t use any [children ‘s] car seats, so the seats stay good. Nowadays the car seats would ruin the seats.”

Of course, one of the most unique qualities of the car is its attention-grabbing metallic green paint, accented by a forest green vinyl top and matching green interior. Dodge called the paint “Frosty Green Metallic”, and it definitely makes the car stand out.

“We picked out the car and I let her pick out the color and she said I want something different. She gets credit for that. We love it. Everybody else does, too.”

The Brickhbauers also added the “Easy Order Package” for $578.70, which included the Torqueflite automatic, power steering, power brakes, inside hood release, undercoating, bumper guards and a few other goodies. Other add-ons, including an AM/FM stereo, chrome styled wheels and “Brougham Package” with vinyl bucket seats, electric clock and Deluxe steering wheel, brought the total bill to $4,601.55

Generation 3: The Charger rolls on

It was a few years removed from its late-1960s heyday, but the Charger — in the fourth and final year of it’s third generation — was still a fun, stylish and popular car in 1974. The SE, with a base price of $3,742, was slotted as the most refined and expensive of the Chargers, with its fancier roof treatment and a few other tweaks setting it apart from its siblings. A total of 30,957 of the Charger SEs were built for ’74, with all carrying V-8 power.

Sadly, the R/T, 440 Six Pack and Hemi V8s were long gone, having been discontinued after 1971, but there was still a long list of options and engine choices available for Charger buyers. The standard Charger continued as the base trim level and included all federally mandated safety and pollution equipment; 225-cid Slant Six (or 318-cid V-8) engine; cigarette lighter; dual horns; color-keyed carpeting; inside day/night mirror; roof drip rail and wheelwell moldings; and two-speed windshield wipers. The Charger Rallye option included all the standard Charger features plus front and rear sway bars; F70–14 raised white letter black sidewall tires; power bulge hood; Rallye instrument cluster; body tape stripes; hood pins and special exterior ornamentation.

The Charger SE had the Landau vinyl top with filled quarter windows and six opera windows; electric clock; concealed headlights; inside hood release; belt and rear hood moldings; front stone shield molding; Deluxe wheel covers; front bench seat with folding center armrests, Light Group; Rallye instrument cluster; and F78-14 black sidewall tires.

For buyers who wanted more oomph than the 150-horse 318 could provide, two- and four-barrel 360-cid V-8s were popular choices. They were rated at 200 and 245 hp, respectively. A 400-cid two-barrel (205 hp), 400-cid four-barrel (250 hp) and four-barrel 440 V-8 (275) hp were also available for those who wanted to thumb their nose at the gas crunch.

The changes to the 1974 models were minor. The 340 was dropped, the interior grains and patterns changed slightly, and the rubber bumper tips were enlarged, but for the most part the ’73 and ’74 Chargers were the same cars. They carried the Torsion-Quiet Ride suspension setup introduced in 1973, and disc brakes were standard on the front. A three-speed manual transmission was also standard, but for a few more greenbacks a buyer could have a four-speed pistol-grip Hurst unit.

Seeing green, again!

The Brickbauers had their Charger living in a small restoration shop for more than two years before it finally reappeared, looking almost new again. The rust below the doors was fixed and the dented rear fender was cut out and replaced with new metal. The heads on the 318 were shaved and new gaskets were installed, but the engine didn’t receive a full overhaul. Even with 135,000-plus miles today, it still runs quiet and smooth.

“It turned out really good. We had it in a small shop and everybody said you can’t have it there. It’s not going to turn out,’” Tom said. “But we can’t complain at all. It took 2 ½ years. I kept after him and I ordered all the parts… We kept everything original, exactly like it was… We’re pretty much into all-original cars. We had a ’39 Chevy at home. It’s a two-door sedan, Master Deluxe, and it’s in this same condition.”

“Yes, I’m very careful with it. But we drive it all the time… I can go 65, 70 down the highway no problem. It’s not too bad at all.

“We’ve just have always liked the car and we’ve had a lot of fun with it. We get a lot of compliments on it.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1974 Dodge Charger SE appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Story and photos by Al Rogers

While organizing a special “Icons of Design” category for the annual Eyes On Design car show in 2016, I caught wind of a special Hemi-powered MoPar hidden away in the Great White North. Apparently, a private individual has quietly built up a world-class collection, the Manny Collection in Ontario, Canada, that consists mainly of unrestored MoPar muscle cars from the 1960s and early 1970s.

Among those cars is a red 1969 Charger 500 that, as it turns out, was the first Charger 500 built. It was originally used by Dodge at major auto shows and for promotional purposes. “It’s pretty much an original, unrestored Charger 500 with the 426 Hemi engine and four-speed Hurst shifter,” the collection’s owner told me. “I’ve known about this special muscle car for a very long time.”

It was early in 1969 when he saw an article in Hot Rod magazine about the Dodge Charger 500. “The article went on to rave about the car and its powerful Hemi engine,” he said. “In 1969, between publicity appearances and special events, the Charger 500 spent quality time roaming the streets of New York looking for opportunities to show what it was made of. I was only 15 years old at the time, but seeing it in Hot Rod and reading the story really made an everlasting impression on me.”

He also remembers reading in one of the articles “how the driver-side quarter-panel struck a light pole one night during some high-speed driving. The car was taken to a local dealership, which worked on it during the night and into the early morning hours so it could be ready for an appearance at a previously scheduled event.”

Three decades later, in yet another example of how small the muscle car world can be, he had the opportunity to purchase that same Charger 500 from then-owner Harold Solomon. “During a previous visit to his collection a couple years before, the car caught my eye. It rekindled my teenage infatuation and put butterflies in my stomach. To keep my emotions in check at the time was challenging. I asked Harold to keep me in mind if he ever wanted to get rid of the car. Little did he know how much I really wanted it. One can always dream, and I hoped that one day I’d get my chance to own it.”

Then, one day, the phone rang. “Harold asked me if I’d be interested in buying the Hemi Charger 500. He gave me his price and two hours to decide if I wanted it. If not, he was going on to the next person. I didn’t waste any time; a deal was reached.”

For those not familiar with the Charger 500 and how it came to be, here are the facts as we know them per the Chrysler Corporation archives and Chrysler Registry.

The Charger 500 was developed specifically for NASCAR racing. The 1969 Charger’s standard sheet metal — particularly the concave grille opening and the shape of the back window and rear roof section—created aerodynamic problems at high speeds. Chrysler designers addressed those issues by replacing the Charger’s stock grille with a Coronet grille mounted flush with the leading edge of the car’s nose, and reshaping the backlight and its surrounding sheet metal into a fastback-like form. According to a letter Chrysler sent to this car’s first post-Dodge owner, the changes were good for an “increase of 3 to 7 mph…on the super speedways.”

(Those modifications, however, didn’t make the Charger 500 as competitive as Dodge wanted in NASCAR, leading to the development of the winged Charger Daytona. But that’s another story.)

To qualify a car as “stock” for NASCAR racing at the time, a manufacturer had to produce at least 500 automobiles for private sale. The task of turning a standard Charger into a Charger 500 fell to Creative Industries in Detroit, which took Charger R/Ts from the Hamtramck Production Plant, performed the front grille and backlight modifications, and then shipped them to a second location where they were repainted and prepped for dealer sale.

How many Charger 500s were actually built? Some sources state more than 500 were produced (559 or 548, depending on the source), while other experts in the hobby put the number at 392. That’s shy of the 500 required for homologation largely because production of the Charger 500 and the Charger Daytona — both built at Creative Industries — overlapped, and more attention was being paid to the winged car, since it would be the one raced.

The paperwork that the Manny Collection has on this car is extensive, including the aforementioned letters from Chrysler and the Chrysler Registry and documents from Galen Govier. They indicate that this was the first Charger 500 ordered (by the Dodge News Bureau) and the first one built. It is one of 15 Charger 500s equipped with the Hemi engine and A833 four-speed manual transmission, and the only Charger 500 with the Hemi, four-speed, R4 Bright Red paint, C5X black cloth and vinyl interior, and power windows. The option list on the car is extensive, which makes sense given its promotional intent.

From 1968 through 1995, it appeared in 20 automotive publications, with many of the editors doing some serious road “testing” on the streets and highways in and around New York City.

The current owner has never driven it on the open road or race track. It was driven at the Indianapolis and Talladega Speedways not long after he bought it in 2003, but he decided to ride in the passenger seat, leaving the driving to an expert who knew the tracks and how to get the most out of the Charger 500 without doing damage to it or the passengers.

When asked how he got into the muscle car hobby, the Manny Collection’s owner told us it was a “family thing” that started with his grandfather, who owned a body shop, then to his father who designed grilles, trim components, and emblems for the automobile industry. In fact, his father had a role in the design of the iconic Ford Mustang “running horse” we’ve all become accustomed to seeing affixed to the grille of the ponycar since 1964.

Then with a chuckle he added, “There was my uncle John with his 1950 Ford coupe. One day he showed up at my parent’s house with a raccoon tail attached to the top of his radio antenna. It was the thing to do back in the day. He was the ‘cool cat’ who’d put his own twist on his automobiles. I wonder if he ever realized how much of an impression he made on me with that raccoon tail.”

At a Glance

1969 Dodge Charger 500

Owned by: The Manny Collection, Ontario, Canada

Restored by: Unrestored original

Engine: 426ci/425hp Hemi V-8

Transmission: A833 4-speed manual

Rearend: Dana 60 with 3.54 gears and Super Track Pack

Interior: Black vinyl and cloth

Wheels: 15×6 Stamped steel

Tires: F70-15 Goodyear Polyglas Red Streak

Special parts: First Charger 500 built

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The post Car of the Week: 1969 Dodge Charger 500 Hemi appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.