In the super ’60s, Chrysler Corp. had a need for speed. Race wins on Sunday directly increased showroom sales on Monday, and so Chrysler took competition seriously on the quarter-mile strip and on the circle tracks of NASCAR. The company was at the top of the game in 1964 when it unleashed the 426 Hemi engine to drag racers and NASCAR teams only to be told by NASCAR the engine had to be homologated by offering a minimum of 500 to the buying public. After an incredibly dominant 1964 race season, the Hemi was outlawed for 1965. Chrysler bowed to NASCAR and soon added the Hemi to its dealer brochures, thus exceeding the minimum required to race and the engine returned to the track.

As the 1960s advanced, so did the race competition, especially between Chrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. As drivers barreled toward the 200-mph mark on NASCAR superspeedways, car manufacturers began steps to get them there by squeezing more speed through aerodynamics.

At Dodge, work was undertaken to make the new, second-generation Charger more slick. Although attractive design features, the B-body 1968 and 1969 Charger’s recessed front grille and rear backlite created significant drag. Work quickly began to correct these speed-inhibiting features and a special 1969 Charger model was built with a flush grille and backlite. The grille came from the Dodge parts bin and was a 1968 Coronet unit modified to fit the Charger body; the flush backlite required manufacture of a special metal plug that fit in the space between the back of the roof, the flying buttress-type C pillars and the deck lid. To accommodate this plug, the depth of the deck lid had to be shortened. To the A pillars, stainless-steel covers were added to further reduce drag. All of this work was completed for Dodge by Creative Industries of Detroit.

Dodge christened this slicker 1969 Charger the Charger 500, a nod to the homologation number required by NASCAR for the Charger 500 to compete. However, it’s believed as few as 392 were actually built. The possible reason for the small number is that Dodge was already planning another trick for later in the season.

The Charger 500 triggered in NASCAR what is now known as the Aero Wars. Ford Motor Co. shot back at the Charger 500 with special, slicker mid-size Ford Torino and Mercury Cyclone models with longer noses carrying flush grilles and specially rolled rocker panels in the quest to hit 200 mph. The results were the Ford Talladega, named for the new superspeedway that it was intended to conquer, and the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II. Ford’s investments paid off and the Talladega was first to pass the 190-mph mark. The highly successful Talladega won 26 NASCAR races in the 1969 season, but Talladega wasn’t the location of one of its wins. That honor goes to a Charger. Specifically, a Charger Daytona.

The 1969 Charger Daytona was the next evolution of Dodge’s Charger 500-based aero warrior. It added to the Charger 500 a 23-inch-tall stabilizer wing on the rear fenders; a special sheet-metal “nose cone” that turned the flat face of the Charger into a wind-splitting wedge; specific front fenders and hood modeled after the upcoming 1970 Charger components; and fender-mounted cooling scoops. These aerodynamic features were influenced by wind-tunnel testing and helped the Charger Daytona become the first car to hit 200 mph on the Talladega NASCAR superspeedway, surely to the chagrin of Ford.

Again, Creative Industries was employed to undertake the conversion, and this time, Dodge officially met the 500-car requirement for homologation with 503 Charger Daytonas built.

The Daytona proved so successful on the NASCAR circuit that Plymouth followed suit. For 1970, Plymouth developed a very similar nose cone and rear wing to race its Road Runner as the Superbird.

Developing the Daytona

As development of the Charger Daytona began, it was named the Super Charger. Early discussion of the Super Charger/Daytona appears in a March 12, 1969, Chrysler Corp. Inter-Company Correspondence from H.D. Reeker to L.B. Wiser in which directions were given to “…proceed with the design and development work on this project per our discussion. Because of the tight timing overtime is to be used where necessary.”

“The Charger Number for this phase of the project 4430-885-799.”

A Dodge Division cost of Sales Charger Number will be furnished later to cover the cost of the production tooling and procurement.” It was signed by H. Dale Reeker and received by L.B. Wiser on March 13, 1969.

Prior to getting approval for the Super Charger project, Larry Rathgeb, Special Vehicle Group Head Stock Car Engineering, and Dodge Product Planner H. Dale Reeker presented drawings of the winged Charger to Bob McCurry, Vice President and General Manager of Dodge. McCurry reportedly said, “God, it looks awful, will it win races?” Rathgeb and Reeker assured him it would and they pled their case. McCurry gave approval to start the Super Charger/Daytona project on March 12, 1969. 

About a month earlier, on Feb. 7, 1969, Chrysler Corp. produced a Dodge Charger R/T SE in Paint Code F6 (Bright Green Metallic) at the Hamtramck Plant. Delays with scheduling approval to ship the Charger R/T SE to the dealer allowed Reeker and his team to reroute it from retail sale to the engineering department where it would serve as an engineering test mule for what would become the Daytona. Reeker and his team were under an extremely tight timeline to get the Super Charger project up and running. Having the already-built Charger R/T available allowed them to get the project moving forward without delay. 

On March 12, 1969 — the day of the aforementioned memo — Reeker was appointed to head up the Super Charger project in collaboration with Creative Industries to create a prototype and begin production of what would become the Dodge Daytona. The intent of it was not only to win NASCAR races, but to complete enough production cars to sell to the public, thus meeting NASCAR’s homologation requirements. Reeker and the project team were given a short timeline to start the process of building an engineering prototype. Reeker discovered the F6 Bright Green Metallic Charger R/T SE during a check of the inventory at the Hamtramck Plant and directed scheduling to officially place it into company service where it became the Super Charger program engineering Daytona prototype.

In a recent interview with Julie Moghal, daughter of Dale Reeker and spokesperson for her mother, Sandra Reeker, we were able to verify the history of the Charger Daytona prototype and add to its story.

According to Julie and Sandra, Reeker would drive the Charger Daytona prototype to his office in Highland Park, Mich., during the day, then at night he would drive it to Creative Industries, where the bodywork was being done. Sandra was pregnant at the time and remembers her husband bringing the bright green Charger home. She also recalls how she would wait in the car after riding along while he and the team at Creative Industries would hash out things while going back and forth about the car. The majority of the discussions were on how to improve the wing, with which Reeker was never completely satisfied, but had to accept due to the time crunch. When he was working on the final touches of the car, Reeker would drive it to Chrysler’s Chelsea Proving Grounds. At Chelsea, he and others would drive the car at the test track. Using the resulting data, they’d take it back to Creative Industries for further modifications.

Sandra Reeker specifically recalls her dad complaining about the cooling performance of the car. The scoops were added and mounted on top of the fenders as a last attempt to fix the cooling issue. She wasn’t sure of the exact timeline, but thought that is why the scoops didn’t appear on the car when it was photographed for a Playboy magazine article. (Dodge’s advertising department borrowed the car for the Playboy magazine photo shoot when design work was being done, and the fender scoops weren’t ready for installation on the car.) Reeker and Creative Industries later added the scoops as a final attempt to fix the cooling problem. In order to follow NASCAR rules, Reeker apparently told NASCAR inspection officials that the fender scoops were added for tire clearance when, in fact, they were designed for engine cooling purposes, and to help the car go faster. 

When the project was completed, Creative Industries turned the Daytona over to Reeker, whose boss told him he could use the Daytona prototype. After using it as a daily driver for a couple months, Reeker turned it in and move on to the next project. He gave the Daytona back to Chrysler where it was added to its inventory as an engineering test pool car. Select Chrysler engineers were given permission to drive and evaluate the car.

Eventually, the Charger Daytona prototype was shipped to East Cleveland Dodge where it was put into its retail car inventory and available for sale to the public. It was advertised in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper in October 1969. The advertisement stated, “Car formally belonged to Chrysler Engineering. Featured as a cover car and show car. Never titled, being sold with full warranty.”

From test car to private hands

Bobby Hodge was a liaison for the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. His job was to help with bringing home fallen soldiers. At the time his military service ended, he was living in the Cleveland area and he decided to buy himself a new car. On Oct. 16, 1969, he bought a bright green 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona with a white wing and rear stripe from East Cleveland Dodge.

During a recent interview with Dr. Cyril Gostich, who was Bobby Hodge’s neighbor and eventual husband to Bobby’s sister, he recalled going for a ride in the new Dodge Daytona. 

“I was 16 years old getting the crap scared out of me in the passenger seat at 118 mph,” Dr. Gostich recalled. He added that “the car had been featured in a Playboy spread just before Bobby bought it.” Bobby didn’t own the car for very long, maybe 6-12 months, as the payments were more than he could handle. 

The Daytona prototype’s second owner was Gene Clinton. His son, Clyde Clinton, heard mention that his father won the Daytona during a poker game. Gene was known to play high-stakes poker and had won several cars over the years. Clyde has pictures of the Daytona painted orange-red with a black wing, Magnum wheels and black push-button door handles. He indicated his father only owned it for a short time, as with other cars he’d won.

In 1972, Albert Ousley purchased the Daytona from Bill Mayer Auto Sales in Mansfield, Ohio. Albert indicated that, when he bought the car, paperwork was including from Marshall Ford, a local car dealership. Albert said the car was the orange-red color with a black wing and has pictures to prove it. He installed American flag decals on the quarter panels in the black stripe that extended into the black rear wing. He also installed a set of chrome side pipes, and with plans to do some street racing, he installed a Six Pack intake and carburetor setup on the 440 Magnum engine. There was apparently a problem with the clutch, so he took the Daytona to his father-in-law’s house to work on it. The garage flooring and driveway were concrete, perfect for working on the car and its faulty transmission. While the Daytona was parked on jackstands in the driveway, his father-in-law forgot about it being there and backed into it, damaging the nose. Albert reportedly reached out to a local body shop to have the nose replaced and it informed him they couldn’t find a replacement nose and the damage was beyond repair. After getting the news, Albert put the car up for sale.

Les Bowman bought the Daytona from Albert in 1975 with plans to restore it. The original intake was in the trunk (minus the carburetor), and Les found a new-old-stock (NOS) nose cone at Glass City Dodge in Toledo. He then repaired and painted the Daytona in (F4) Charger Red and made other modifications, including changing the black push-button door handles to chrome. He installed a set of rally wheels and removed the C pillar and rear quarter panel emblems, believing they weren’t correct to the car. 

After Les completed a mild restoration of the Daytona, he took it to the 1977 Wing Car Nationals in Michigan where it received a first-place award. The late David Patik, a Wing Car “guru,” questioned the car’s unique features and wondered whether it was a real Daytona. At the time, Les was not aware of his car being the Chrysler Engineering prototype, since the official registry of Daytona cars wasn’t yet available or made public until years later. Frustrated by the under-hood review at the show, Les slammed the hood and said, “That is enough of that.” He took the Daytona home and put it up for sale in 1978. 

About this time, the Rizek family reached out to Les to have him restore their 1970 Plymouth Superbird. The restoration was completed in early 1978 and returned to the family. After delivery, a couple issues were noticed so Les picked up the Superbird for repairs and left his Daytona at the Rizeks’ home with a “for sale” inside the windshield. Shortly thereafter, the Rizek family purchased the car for themselves. It sat in storage for 25 years with only a couple miles added to its odometer since 1978.

In 2003, John Rizek bought the Daytona from his family. A few years later, he had the opportunity to speak with Les about the Daytona in more detail. Les provided additional information, adding to John’s curiosity. 

In 2009, John began a journey to thoroughly research the Daytona and contacted Wing Car expert David Patik, who told John they needed to determine if the car was real or not. David recalled seeing the Daytona years earlier, when Les showed it for the first time at the Wing Car Nationals. John wanted to know more about its uniqueness, and with his interest piqued, he contacted another respected Wing Car expert, Gene Lewis, who completed a visual inspection of the car in 2010. After a lengthy inspection, Gene asked John, “Do you know what you have here?” He explained that the car was the first Daytona built and had many one-of-a-kind prototype features.

In 2010, John hired Galen Govier to do a full in-person inspection of the car. Galen documented the car as being numbers-matching, and described it as the “pre-production Charger Daytona, referred to as the Playboy Daytona.” He also noted the carburetor was not correct to the car. With help from Ken Mosier, a date-code-correct carburetor was located and installed on the Daytona.

In 2023, John met historian Matt Clark, who asked John if he could further research the Dodge Daytona. John agreed and Matt started the journey to locate as much information as he could about the car. Matt reached out to Sandra Reeker, Dale Reeker’s wife; Julie Moghal, Reeker’s daughter; Dr. Cyril Gostich, brother-in-law to first owner Bobby Hodge; Clyde Clinton, son of the car’s second owner; and third owner Albert Ousley.

John gives special thanks to Matt for all the long hours he spent researching the “Playboy Daytona.” His passion and determination to complete the research, including locating and contacting people who had firsthand knowledge, was paramount to documenting the history of this legendary Aero Wing Car.

The story as it unfolded

Nearly a decade ago, I met John Rizek at the Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals (MCACN) in Rosemont, Ill., after a formal introduction through Ken Mosier, owner of Finer Details in Dansville, Ill.

It all started during a discussion with Ken about the history of  the Dodge Daytona Aero Wing car. At the time, I was gearing up to document a 1969 Charger NASCAR chassis believed to be the Rossi’s Automotive Engineering car raced by NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison. During our discussion, Ken mentioned knowing the whereabouts of the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona prototype. He said this Daytona was believed to be the first one built and appeared in Playboy magazine.

Ken introduced me to John Rizek, owner of the Daytona prototype. After speaking with John, I learned he displayed the Daytona at his private collection in Walkerton, Ind. My interest was piqued after meeting John and hearing about how it had been in his family since 1978. At some point during our introduction, I asked if he had ever driven it on the open road and John said he had not. I indicated an interest in photographing it at a private outdoor location for an article, but John said he had no plans of taking it outdoors; if I wanted to write an article about the car, I’d have to photograph it while housed in his collection. Since I only photograph cars outdoors or in studio settings, the photo shoot didn’t immediately progress.

For more than a decade, John and I would get together at MCACN, and for the most part, the topic of doing a photo feature about the Daytona prototype remained in limbo until November 2024. During last year’s MCACN, John expressed an interest in moving forward with a photo feature. In the spring of this year, John caught me off guard when he indicated that taking it to a private location was probable; in fact, he planned on purchasing a set of road tires and wheels after having his mechanic go through the engine and drive-train to make it road-worthy again. Less than a month later, John called to say the car was ready. 

The plan was to drive it to the location, and with help from his son Josh and grandson Jayce, the new wheels and tires would be swapped out at the location for the old redline bias-plies that had been on the car since it was restored in the 1970s.

On April 26, 2025, (aka “426 Day”), history was made when John drove his Dodge Daytona prototype on the open road for the first time in many years. The Daytona performed flawlessly on its short trip to the private location where I’d arranged our photo shoot. When I arrived on the scene a few minutes later, I helped John position the Daytona for its moment in front of the camera lens. John, Josh and Jayce worked like a racing pit team to swap the wheels and tires. As I looked at three generations of Rizeks working together to prepare the Daytona for the photo shoot, reality sank in. The photo shoot was really happening. They stepped aside and I looked through the viewfinder of my Nikon at the stunning red Daytona and the internal switch flipped: it was time to make automotive history once again.

Is it MoPar or no car for you? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/car-of-the-week-1961-dodge-dart-pioneer

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1971-dodge-charger-super-bee

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1974-dodge-dart-sport-rallye

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On Jan. 14, 1974, Dick Harvey walked into Len Derin Dodge in North Olmstead, Ohio, and placed an order for a new 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye after seeing an advertisement for the Dodge model in the November 1973 issue of Hot Rod Magazine. Just 21 years old, Harvey eagerly anticipated getting behind the wheel of the Dart Sport Rallye, which would be his first new car.

The yellow-and-black car Harvey ordered was a visual match to the car advertised in Hot Rod Magazine with the headline: “Dart Sport Rallye—If you understand what happens when you couple a 2.94 rear end to a wide ratio 4-speed…you’re the one we’re after.”

Verbiage in the ad further sold the car by saying, “Dart Sport Rallye wasn’t made for those who buy on cubes alone. A super car with a super price, it is not. But boring, dull, or commonplace, it isn’t either. The power-to-weight-ratio works out to a shade over 20 pounds per horsepower. The 318 V8 is still the same tractable mill even your maiden aunt could learn to love, but coupled to a new wide ratio 4-speed, it shows a rather refreshing tendency to quickness. The low numeric rear end ratio offers a bonus in quieter super highway travel. Everything you need is here, the things you don’t, aren’t. If the list of what you get stirs your interest, hustle down to your nearby Dodoge Dealer’s. The car’s even a little better than it reads.”

The Dart Sport Rallye features listed in the ad included the 318-cid V-8 with a “special ratio Hurst-operated 4-speed;” a 2.94 rear end; power steering; Rallye suspension; Rallye wheels; E70 x14 raised-white-letter tires; Deluxe vinyl seat; “Tuff” steering wheel; and “special Dodge lettering on the rear quarter panels.”

When his Dart Sport Rallye arrived on April 12, 1974, Harvey made a beeline for Len Derin Dodge. Upon driving onto the dealership’s lot, Harvey caught sight of this Yellow Blaze ’74 Dodge Dart and said his initial thought was, Those skinny tires and hub caps must go. When he and the salesperson walked around the Dart for the first time, Harvey was stunned by the skinny factory tire and wheel combination and asked, “Are those 14-inch wheels, tires and hubcaps the ones we ordered?” After reviewing the dealer’s order form for his car, Harvey and the salesperson confirmed that, indeed, the Dart was built to his order. Harvey said his next thought was, Tomorrow they’re getting replaced with something that gives the car a meaner look and stance.

The following morning, Harvey made the trip to Conrads, a local tire shop. There, Conrads installed a pair of narrow 14-inch chrome Keystone Classic wheels with Goodyear radial tires on the front. On the rear went a pair of 15-inch, deep-dish chrome Keystone Classic wheels with wide Goodyear radial tires extending beyond the rear quarter panel wheel openings. This wheel-and-tire setup now gave the Dart the look and stance that Harvey desired, which was all the rage during the ’70s. The car now took on an aggressive look and go-fast stance.

Harvey said his wheel change was inspired by the Sox and Martin race team’s pro-stock race cars, which ran Keystone Classics. He said he somewhat idolized Ronnie Sox and the Sox and Martin MoPars and decided his new ’74 Dodge Dart should be similarly fitted with a set of Keystone Classics. After all, if the wheels and tires and the stance they provided were good enough for the red, white and blue Sox and Martin cars, they were good enough for his new Yellow Blaze Dart Sport Rallye.

The 1974 Dart Sport Rallye as-built

Chrysler Corp.’s Dodge Division produced Harvey’s Yellow Blaze 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye with a black interior at the Dodge Main Assembly Plant in Hamtramck, Mich. During the ordering process, Harvey checked off just about every box on the dealer order form. Within the MoPar community, it’s now regarded as one of the most-optioned ’74 Dart Sports ever produced. The list of options is extensive but among the most notable options that Harvey checked is that Rallye Package. The car was additionally optioned with functional hood scoops and power disc brakes, but the list doesn’t end there. Harvey also selected the black split-back bench seat; sunroof; canopy vinyl roof; light package; tinted glass; day-night mirror; dual remote painted racing mirrors; rear window defogger; and three-speed windshield wipers with electric washers. The ’74 Dart Sport Rallye was further optioned with bumper guards; a radio; and the rear deck panel stripe and “Up & Over” stripe, as seen in the Hot Rod Magazine ad.

‘Day Two-ing’ a Dart Sport Rallye

From 1974 through 1978, Harvey drove his ’74 Dart, then parked it in his father’s garage when he moved to Cincinnati. Then, in 1975, Harvey’s younger brother, Don, came across a ’69 340-cid V-8 engine and convinced his older brother to let him build the engine, then the two of them could install it into Harvey’s Dart. About a week later, the engine was ready. The two brothers loaded it into the trunk of Harvey’s 1964 Chrysler Newport, then hauled it to their father’s garage in Westlake.

Harvey went all in with the 340 engine build. He’d previously rebuilt a 225-cid straight-six engine and a 383-cid big-block V-8 and was excited to get his hands on a small-block MoPar V-8 and seeing what it could do in his Dart Sport Rallye.

In June 1975, Harvey’s friend, Ron, owned a 1964-1/2 Barracuda with a tired 273-cid V-8 engine. The Harvey brothers decided to replace the 273 with the original 318 engine from Dick’s ’74 Dart Sport Rallye. They completed the installation at their grandpa’s barn in Westlake. A week later, the 340 engine built by the Harveys was ready. The brothers installed it into the ’74 Dart at their dad’s garage, also in Westlake. As Harvey explains it, their grandfather’s barn and father’s garage were located back-to-back and within walking distance of each other. Both engine swaps were completed using a come-along strap attached to the building rafters.

Harvey drove the Dart until 1978, then parked it in his father’s garage when he and his bride, Lynn, were married and relocated to Cincinnati. The couple had dated in the ’74 Dart Sport Rallye and Harvey’s prior 1968 Dodge Super Bee. Being newlyweds with new careers and plans to start a family, the ’74 Dart took a backseat due to its smaller size and not being what they considered a family car. And, in June 1984, they welcomed a son, Phillip.

However, the ’74 Dart Sport Rallye wasn’t parked for long. It only sat idle until 1979, when Harvey’s younger brother convinced him to turn it into a drag car. The ’74 Dart was raced locally from 1979-1990 with the younger Harvey doing most of the driving. However, Harvey got behind the wheel a time or two just to see what his Dart would do.

The Dart was raced hard and the 340 engine blew up in 1990. It was then replaced by a 440-cid V-8 that Harvey built. During the later part of the 1990 race season, it, too, succumbed to hard quarter-mile passes and blew. Harvey pulled the 440 and the transmission and brought the rolling body and chassis home where it sat for nearly 10 years. In 1999, Harvey and his wife relocated to West Chester, Ohio, and the now engine- and transmission-less ’74 Dart ended up in yet another garage.

From shop to shop

In 2003, the Dart was transported to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula when a friend there offered to restore it. Not long after its arrival, the friend realized he was in over his head and the car sat. A year later, the restorer relocated to Milwaukee and the ’74 Dart was trailered to his new location where it was parked again. Harvey remained intent on seeing the Dart restored. However, another six years passed with no restoration work done to the car, so Harvey had it transported to his home in Ohio. There, it sat in the family garage for another decade or so.

During 2017, at an Indianapolis swap meet, Harvey approached The Finer Details booth where he met owner Ken Mosier. Harvey proceeded to share the story of his 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye with Mosier. After hearing the story, Mosier agreed to pick up the car so that he could complete a rotisserie restoration of it, but he wouldn’t be ready for it for another year.

In the spring of 2018, Harvey and his wife purchased a new home and needed to move the Dart Sport Rallye once again. Acting on a hunch, Harvey called Mosier to see if he was ready for it. Mosier was now ready and made arrangements for someone to pick up the car. About a week later, the car was transported to Mosier’s shop for the complete restoration that Harvey had hoped for many years would finally happen. Mosier called Harvey to say that he found the Dart Sport Rallye to be extremely rough, “But I’m going to restore it,” he told Harvey.

In early 2019, Mosier called Harvey to say he had become ill. After receiving this news, Harvey wondered if this would alter Mosier’s ability to complete the restoration. Sadly, on Nov. 8, 2021, Mosier passed away.

Mosier’s wife, Allie, reached out to Jake and Sandy Poffenberger, current owners of The Finer Details in Danville, Ind., to see if they were interested in completing the 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye restoration. It and two other automobiles were left unfinished in Mosier’s shop upon his passing.

The Poffenbergers agreed to take on the task of finishing the three automobiles. With Allie Mosier’s assistance, the Dart Sport Rallye was turned over to General Manager Justin Bliss and the rest of the Finer Details team. With help from Allie’s father, Keith Miner, as well as Bobbi Miner, the ’74 Dart Sport Rallye and all of its components were retrieved from the Miners’ building and transported to The Finer Details, where the restoration immediately resumed.

Among The Finer Details’ work was the installation of a specially prepared small-block 360-cid V-8 engine rated at 400 hp. The engine was backed with a Brewers Performance four-speed manual transmission, a 3.55 rear axle in the 8-3/4-inch housing and Wilwood four-piston power disc brakes to enhance performance, safety and overall handling characteristics.

Factory air conditioning was not checked off on the dealer order by Dick Harvey back in 1974. At his request, a Classic Auto Air air conditioning system specially designed for the ’74 Dodge Dart was added.

When studying the exterior of a factory-stock 1974 Dodge Dart, the first thing that usually catches the eye is the large plastic panel that fills the gap between the federally mandated safety bumpers and body of the car at both front and rear. The team at The Finer Details created custom bumper mounts and fabricated the bumpers to fit into the body curvatures with the goal of enhancing the overall appearance of the ’74 Dart. The finished look is clean and flows into the body. Gone is the gaudy factory “push-bar guardrail” look that was the norm during the period.

An end to the long resto road

With Bliss overseeing the restoration, the eye-catching Yellow Blaze 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye’s seemingly improbable restoration journey was completed. The finally restored MoPar “day-viewed” on Nov. 18 at the 2023 Muscle Car & Corvette Nationals (MCACN) where it was one of three MoPars showcased in The Finer Details’ display. At MCACN, the car earned a prestigious Blue Ribbon Award in the Super Street/Modified class on Sunday during the awards ceremony.

About a month after getting his 1974 Dodge Dart Sport Rallye back from the restoration shop, I checked in with Harvey to see how the bonding process was going with his old car. He said after the car was delivered to his home, he and his wife took it out for a 35-mile cruise and planned to hit the local back roads later that day.

“It’s like stepping back to the mid ’70s, when Lynn and I used to date in the Dart,” Harvey said. “We retraced some of our favorite drives. The excitement and joy this car brought me when new has been superseded due, in part, to the efforts of Allie Mosier, Justin Bliss and The Finer Details team. I’d like to express my gratitude and appreciation for allowing Lynn and I the opportunity to experience the youthful joy of driving this MoPar once again, feeling its new-found power while cruising for miles with the windows down, sunroof open and engine roaring.”

The Harveys look forward to the spring when their son, Phillip, and grandson, Miles, join them for their very first ride in the family’s Yellow Blaze 1974 Dodge Dart Sport.

Kindred Spirits

Occasionally, I come across something extra-special that takes me down memory lane and allows me to step back in time when I, too, was settling into my first car, a 1971 Dodge Charger. Much like the Harveys, I also replaced my Dodge’s factory wheel, tire and wheel cover combination with a set of aftermarket wheels (polished-aluminum Ansen wheels and Mickey Thompson wide-oval tires). This wheel-and-tire combo made my Charger resemble a Hot Wheels car from my youth with its skinny tires on the front and wide ovals on the back. Paired up, it gave the car attitude, and even though it only had a 318-cid small-block V-8 under the hood, the addition of the replacement wheels and tires made the car look fast. The “small front wheels and tires and big rear wheels and tires” combo was all the rage back in the ’70s and is likely derived from our youthful days of racing Hot Wheels cars and admiring their “go fast” drag racing stance, as well as watching drag racing during the Wide World of Sports’ weekly televised coverage of NHRA racing events from around the country. Al Rogers

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The year 1928 was a busy one for Walter P. Chrysler and his company, Chrysler Corp. Having launched the company in 1924 with introduction of a full line of cars bearing his name, the entrepreneur expanded it four years later by bringing out two new lines, the Plymouth (to fit into the low-price market), and De Soto, to fill the gap between it and the Chrysler.

A year before the October 1929 stock market crash, the ’20s were still roaring and so was Walter Chrysler. Before 1928 was over, he was offered — and accepted — the opportunity to buy Dodge Brothers, which he had attempted to purchase two years earlier. Dodge Brothers started manufacturing automobiles in 1914 and built the company up to second place in the industry by 1920, which was the year that both brothers died. Without their leadership, business fell off, and in 1925, the two Dodge brothers’ widows sold the company to a New York banking firm. Three years later, when the company was sold to Chrysler — at a $24 million profit, incidentally — Dodge production had dropped to seventh place.

Dodge cars had always been identified by an emblem featuring intertwined triangles, which closely resembled the six-point Star of David, a Jewish symbol, although the Dodge brothers were not of that faith. One of many tasks on Walter Chrysler’s to-do list was to develop new identity symbols for Dodge and the other two new cars under the corporate banner.

In the process of researching the “Little Mermaid” radiator cap ornament that adorned early Plymouths, Jim Benjaminson also tracked down the origin of the Dodge Ram ornament. The long-time editor of the Plymouth Bulletin and current membership director for the Plymouth Owners Club, Benjaminson published a detailed account of how both mascots originated. It turns out, the both came from the hand of the same person.

“In 1929, rising young sculptor Avard T. Fairbanks arrived at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor to head up the sculpture department,” Benjaminson wrote. The Great Depression having set in a couple years later, he needed a more reliable car than the one he was driving, which often wouldn’t start on cold mornings, but he didn’t have the money to buy one.

Launched in 1928, Plymouth planned to introduce a new, lower-priced PA Series for 1931 that would have Plymouth competing with Ford and Chevrolet to establish the “Low-Priced Three.” Chrysler engaged Fairbanks to design the Winged Mermaid ornament — later to become known as the Flying Lady — for the Plymouth PA. The artist drove home a brand-new Chrysler Royal Eight as payment for the job and in lieu of cash.

Recognizing the appeal of Plymouth’s Flying Lady ornament, Walter P. Chrysler recalled the artist to the company’s headquarters in Highland Park and commissioned him to design a brand image for the new Dodge model planned for 1932. Benjaminson cited the account of a Fairbanks family member in a 1987 Southwest Art magazine article:

“For two weeks father worked on all sorts of models from mythology creatures to various powerful animals. Finally, he called the designers and Mr. Chrysler in to see three models of a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, a ram. He proposed the charging one.

“They asked, ‘Why a ram?’

“Father responded, ‘It is sure-footed; it’s the King of the Trail; it won’t be challenged by anything.’ They nodded their heads. Then father, with a bit of corny humor, added, ‘And if you were on the trail and saw that ram charging down on you, what would you think? — DODGE!’

“To which Walter Chrysler excitedly replied, ‘That’s it! The ram goes on the Dodge!’”

Not needing another car in exchange for the Dodge ram ornament design, Benjaminson said Dodge Division President K. T. Keller settled with Fairbanks by giving him a check for the full retail price of a top-of-the line Dodge Eight: $1,400.

The Ram radiator ornament debuted in January 1931 on the new Dodge DG Series Eight, then on the new 1932 Series DL Six models when they were introduced in November of that year. It would continue to appear on all Dodge passenger cars and light trucks. When new styling in 1935 hid the radiator inside a grille and sheet metal shroud, designers added a new base for the charging ram as a hood ornament.

The ram design was updated in step with the cars’ styling during the years that followed. The 1946-’48 hood ornament was more streamlined, and then the head and horns became more prominent on the sloping hoods of the early-1950s Dodge.

The new “Forward Look” Dodges in 1955 were the first since 1932 without the ram hood ornament. In fact, traditional hood ornaments of any kind went pretty much out of style from that time through the 1960s and ’70s. However, the ram image continued under the hood. Dodge’s Hemi-head V-8, introduced in 1953, bore the name “Red Ram,” and an image of a charging mountain goat appeared on the valve covers. “Red Ram” would designate the Hemi engines through 1958. In that year, Dodge began transitioning to wedge-design V-8s, which went by the “Ram Fire” moniker.

An application of the ram image that began in 1960 harked back to Avard Fairbanks’ mascot design of the charging Rocky Mountain goat. Ram-charging and ram-induction were the names used to describe the concept of using intake manifolds with long tubes connecting the carburetors to the cylinders, which set up a wave effect to faster force more fuel-air mixture into the engine.

“The Ramchargers” was the name of a drag racing team largely made up of Chrysler engineers who tested their go-fast innovations as they campaigned the company’s Factory Experimental and Super Stock combinations on the nation’s drag strips.

Later, the Ramcharger name was revived and applied to the new sport-utility vehicle (SUV) when Dodge entered that market in 1974. The marketing department suggested the name described the “agile, nimble, go-anywhere vehicle.” Originally offered with only four-wheel drive and V-8 engines all the way up to the 440-cid version, the Ramcharger could also be ordered with two-wheel drive the following year.

In the years that followed, the Ram name and designation worked its way into a wider variety of models from Dodge Truck Division, such as the Mitsubishi-built Ram 50 and Rampage mini-pickups, Dodge Ram vans and D-150 Series Ram and Power Ram 4×4 pickups. A new ram’s head hood ornament began to reappear on certain models in the early 1980s.

When Chrysler Corp. was purchased by Fiat in 2009, RAM became the company’s separate truck brand and the original Ram truck logo was adopted. And it continues to this day as the bold “R-A-M” lettering in the locomotive-appearing grille coming at you down the highway (or looming in your rear-view mirror), and as the now-familiar head-and-horns emblem peering from the tailgate of that Ram truck ahead of you at the stoplight. 

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Steven Mastey is glad he was stubborn enough back when he was 20 years old to order the exact car he wanted, regardless of what anybody else thought.

Forty-nine years later he still has his black 1974 Dodge Charger SE, and he still feels the same way.

“I was 20 and I saw a ‘73 [Charger] in the area — black and white — so that’s what I wanted. It wasn’t decked out like this one. It was the only one I’ve seen since then — his and this one. I even went to MoPar Nationals and there were no black-and-white ones.”

Even his uncle, who sold cars at a local dealership, tried to talk Mastey out of his purchase.

“I went to a Pulaski [Wis.] dealership, and it’s my uncle Jim [who works there] and I told him what I wanted and he said, ‘I’ve got two Chargers in the showroom, why don’t you take one of them? Is said, ‘Well, they’re not black and white.’ And he said, ‘I haven’t sold a black car in 10 years.’ I said, ‘Well, today you’re going to … And I want a four-speed.’ He said, ‘I haven’t sold a four-speed car in 10 years, either.’ He was selling 318 automatics, that’s what people told him they wanted.”

So Mastey got his ’74 SE in black with a flashy Aztec interior, white vinyl top, four-speed and 400 four-barrel V-8. The final bill was more than $4,700. He hasn’t regretted it for one day or any of the 96,400 miles the car has traveled the past 49 years. 

“If you were going to spend $5,000 on a car that era, you get what you wanted,” he chuckles. “That’s the way I looked at it.”

Mastey drove the ‘74 year-round for two decades, then parked it for another two decades while he got ready to restore it. The project languished for months and Mastey finally had to change restorers. 

“I had a guy who started on it to do a complete frame-off restoration,” he says. “He got like a year into it and got divorced and sold his business and gave me the car back, in pieces!”

“But I got it done and I’m glad I did. I plan on driving it and I’m glad I got it done before I couldn’t drive it — before I got too old! [laughs].”

Generation 3: Charging ahead

The iconic Charger was in the fourth and final year of its third generation in 1974. It was no longer the awesome muscle machine of years past, but then no other former American muscle monsters were, either. But the handsome Dodge was certainly still an attractive, popular car in 1974. The SE, with a base price of $3,742, was the fanciest and most expensive of the Chargers, with its louver-ish rear quarter windows, vinyl roof treatment and other upscale goodies. Of the 74,376 Chargers built for 1974, 30,957 were SE models, with all carrying V-8 power.

The Hemi, 440 and R/T Chargers had been retired after 1971, but there was still a nice 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. Option boxes that frequently got checked included power steering, power disc brakes, tinted glass, air conditioning, sunroof, vinyl roof, two-tone paint, AM radio, AM/FM radio, buckets seats and a console.

Along with plenty of options, their were also plenty of colors available for Charger buyers. Customers had their choice of Dark Frost, Powder Blue, Lucerne Blue, Starlight Blue, Bright Red, Frosty Green, Deep Sherwood, Avocado Gold, Parchment, Aztec Gold, Dark Moonstone, Sienna, Dark Chestnut, Eggshell White, Black, Top Banana, Yellow, Golden Fawn, Yellow Blaze, Golden, Dark Gold, Bahama Yellow, Orange, and Rally Green.

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 been an option package on Chargers for 1969-70, but became a separate model for 1971. It had the Landau vinyl top with 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.

The pedestrian 150-horse 318 was the base engine, but 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 weren’t looking to conserve gas.

The 340 was also dropped for 1974, and there were a few other minor changes to the SEs. The interior grains and patterns were altered slightly, and the rubber bumper tips were enlarged, but the ’73s and ’74s were still hard to tell apart. A three-speed manual transmission was standard, but a four-speed pistol-grip Hurst unit was on the options list. The Torsion-Quiet Ride suspension setup introduced in 1973 returned for ’74, and disc brakes were standard on the front.

20 on, 20 off!

Mastey fixed a few things over the years when his Charger was still his daily driver. He replaced a front fender when it began to rust out. Ditto on the trunk lid, which also suffered from the ravages of Wisconsin winters. But he says the interior was in great shape and he never had any mechanical problems.

Eventually, though, he decided to put his beloved Dodge into semi-retirement and make some tough decisions.

 “It had about 80,000 miles on it and I decided to park it, and that’s when I started going to car shows and looking for parts to restore it,” he says. “So for 20 years it sat in my brother’s shed. Of course, a tornado went through and took the shed down, and it dropped a pole on the front fender, on the driver’s side. It was just a fender, so it wasn’t that bad. But I wished it had been the passenger side because I had replaced the one on the driver’s side once before!”

After his first restorer fell through, Mastey had to find somebody he was sure could do a complete job and see the project to the end. He found one in Big 3 Performance in nearby Green Bay, Wis.

 “I talked to him and he gave me the impression right off the bat that he wanted to do the car. It wasn’t just going to be a job. So I went with them and they did a fantastic job.”

In addition to getting bodywork, new paint, new vinyl top and another cosmetic goodies he could manage to replace, Mastey also decided to replace the flashy Aztec interior. It’s certainly one of the most unique aspects of the car, and even though the original upholstery was still nice, Mastey wanted the car to look new again inside and out.

“I found out that the ’74 is not the most wanted, so the aftermarket doesn’t make a lot of parts,” he noted. “Like the ’71, you can build a car with aftermarket parts, but not this one. So I had to find used parts, and that was interesting.”

He said new fenders, doors and rearview mirrors were particularly hard to find.

The car still carries the AM/FM radio, power steering and tachometer that were all optional when Mastey bought the car new. He had the thin white racing stripes re-done when the car was repainted. 

“The only thing that’s different on it from the day I drove it home from the dealership is it’s got air conditioning in it now — Vintage Air,” he says. “Otherwise it’s identical to when I got it.”

Mastey isn’t kidding when he says he restored the ’74 SE to drive it and have fun. He drove it 1,200 miles round trip a year ago to a national meet in Columbus, Ohio. He says it was smooth sailing all the way.

“You can let go of the steering wheel and it will go straight. It drives excellent,” he says. “My son was going also to Ohio. He’s got a 2010 Challenger. He said ‘You going to be able to run 80 mph?’ And I said ‘I don’t think I want to’ … So he says ‘You just leave a day earlier.’ And so that’s what I did. That way I could run my speed, and he could run his.”

Mastey knows the ’74s might never get the same attention and adoration as the earlier Chargers. He’s just fine with that.

“When I go to a car show it’s inevitable a ’68, ‘69 or ‘70 will park next to me [laughs]. That’s what people are looking for and those are beautiful cars,” he says. “But that was before my time. I didn’t have the cash and I was still in school!”

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With a grandfather who was a die-hard Chevy guy, you’d think Joe Sokola’s automotive passion would be for the bow-tie brand. Not so. Instead, he fell hard for Mother MoPar, and he remembers exactly how it happened.

“My grandfather was a collector, but he had ’20s and ’30s Chevrolets, and they’re still around,” Sokola says. “So I grew up ‘Chevy,’ but for some reason, I went to the Dodges and Plymouths.”

To explain the reason Sokola went sweet on “MoPar,” he shuffles back to his childhood memories and describes the driveway next door.

“When we were kids, the neighbor’s [mom] had a Coronet four-door, and she used to drive us to school in it,” he says. “In the late 1970s, you didn’t see so much of them anymore, because they were so rough.”

If the neighbor’s surprisingly well-preserved Coronet didn’t absolutely solidify Sokola’s passion for midsize B-body MoPars, a schoolmate’s 383-powered Super Bee completed the obsession.

“A friend had a dark-green Super Bee, and he’d pick me up in it, and that car was over the top,” Sokola says. “His was a ’68. The thing was shot and he ended up banging it up. It was rough, and he drove it a year and he taught me how to drive a four-speed with that car.”

“His name was Kris Simmons; the Simmons family were all MoPar people. When my friend showed up with the Coronet Super Bee in the late 1970s, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I have been hooked on them ever since. Since then, I bought them, fixed them up, sold them and tried to move up in the collector car world.”

Today, Sokola has a 1968 Super Bee of his own — a Hemi version, no less — but it was a long time coming, and he wasn’t necessarily looking for a Super Bee when he landed his dream car. He started at the entry point of the B-body collecting world with the ultimate goal of one day landing a Hemi-powered version, but he had to slowly move up to one of those coveted and valuable examples of a B-body powered by the ultimate MoPar powerplant.

Climbing the B-body ladder

A couple years after Sokola received his driver’s license, he landed his first MoPar B-body — Chrysler Corp.’s name for its mid-size passenger car platform. He says that B-body 1965 Coronet was a “plain Jane” with a 318-cid V-8 purchased in 1981 for $500. Although not the fastest-flying version of the Coronet, it was a good start and fit in with the company he kept.

“The Simmons family were big MoPar people,” Sokola recalled. “They’d go to Connecticut Dragway every weekend back then. They had a lot of nice stuff — Challengers, Super Bees, big-block Darts — and I kind of looked up to them. I was kind of part of their crew with the car stuff.”

With high-performance Dodges and Plymouths swarming around him, Sokola’s lust for a high-performance MoPar only grew. By the 2000s, he had bought and sold his way up to a wicked B7 Blue 1969 Dodge Charger R/T with a 440 Magnum. It was a great B-body MoPar, but it still wasn’t a Hemi car.

“I was looking for a real factory Hemi car, and so I sold my 1969 Charger R/T and was saving money to move up to a factory Hemi car.”

Sokola soon learned the available factory Hemi cars were rougher than what he was looking for, or out of the price range of guys like him — working stiffs with kids in college and a mortgage. That didn’t stop him from chasing Hemis, and he drove from his Connecticut home to North Carolina in order to sniff out a black ’66 Coronet Hemi car in his price range, but it turned out to be a dud.

“The ’66 and ’67 [Hemi cars], they’re kind of the lowest-price Hemis, and then [prices] jump up in ’68, ’69, ’70. Then they jump up again in ’71,” Sokola says.

Dodge hatches the Super Bee

Then as now, there is a clear line of delineation between Hemi car prices from the 1966-1967 generation of B-body MoPar to the restyled 1968-’70 B-body MoPars. Today, Hemi 1966 and ’67 Dodge Chargers generally top out around $70,000, with Hemi Dodge Coronet hardtops and their Plymouth Belvedere hardtop counterparts selling around the same prices. Meanwhile, the restyled 1968-’70 Hemi B-body Dodges and Plymouths usually sell for about two to three times the price of Hemi cars of the previous generation.

The price discrepancy is likely due to the excitement Mother MoPar brought to the scene for 1968. That model year, Chrysler Corp. injected a fresh excitement into its performance line with budget muscle cars based on its restyled B-body platform that undercut the price of the Pontiac GTO. At Plymouth, there came the new Road Runner, a Belvedere-based model available with decals of Warner Brothers’ famously speedy Road Runner cartoon character and a decal on the air cleaner of his nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. There was even a “Beep-Beep!” horn under the hood and a special Road Runner-only variation of the 383-cid V-8 with an exclusive 335 hp built using the heads, cam, intake manifold and valve gear of the 440-cid V-8 that was standard in its costlier Plymouth GTX counterpart. The Road Runner’s appeal to young drivers wasn’t just the cartoon shtick and unique V-8 — the factory price was a relatively affordable $2,870 to $3,034, depending on whether the buyer chose the Road Runner two-door sedan or spendier hardtop.

Before Road Runner came on the scene, Plymouth had been relying on its handsome GTX to give it street cred. The GTX was a high-trimmed version of the Belvedere with a hot 440-cid V-8 as standard equipment or the 426-cid Hemi V-8 as optional. With its standard 440 and luxury features, the 1968 GTX’s $3,300 base price limited the number of performance-minded young men and women who could afford it. Sure, they could instead buy a stripped-down base Belvedere optioned with a big-block instead of buying a loaded GTX, but a Belvedere’s look generally didn’t match the excitement available under its hood. That, and the price of speccing out a base Belvedere with a hyper-expensive Hemi engine put a performance Plymouth B-body out of reach for most young buyers.

Chrysler Corp. outlined parallel paths for Dodge and Plymouth cars during the late 1960s, and for nearly every model and option, there was a counterpart at the other division. With Plymouth launching its Road Runner for 1968, it’s no surprise that Dodge followed shortly after the start of the selling season with a budget B-body muscle car on its likewise restyled 1968 Coronet line. Dodge would crown its econo muscle car the “Super Bee,” a less juvenile yet still youthful name, and place it beneath its Coronet R/T counterpart to the Plymouth GTX. The Super Bee would also be placed beneath Dodge’s B-body Charger which also had the new Coke bottle-shaped styling, but had its own semi-fastback roofline. (Meanwhile, the Coronet and Belvedere shared a glasshouse.)

Just as Plymouth kept down the Road Runner’s price by basing it upon the base Belvedere, Dodge based the Super Bee upon the Coronet 440 — it’s second-step-from-the-bottom midsize model — and stripped most of the Coronet 440 body trim. It then built up the Super Bee with performance that could be seen and felt. The 335-hp 383 once unique to the Road Runner became standard in the Super Bee, and a Super Bee decal was applied to the rear of each quarter panel. Super Bees also received a unique hood with a “power bulge;” a “distinctive ‘Scat Pack’” performance grille that had a blacked-out mesh center; a Rallye instrument cluster from the Charger; heavy-duty shocks, brakes and suspension; wide-tread redline tires; and a standard four-speed manual transmission. Whereas the Road Runner could be had as a coupe or hardtop, the Super Bee was offered only as a coupe in ’68. Since Dodge was a step up from Plymouth in the Chrysler Corp. hierarchy, the Super Bee coupe was base-priced at $3,027, putting it about $150 more than a Road Runner coupe, and $7 less than the price of a Road Runner hardtop.

On Jan. 2, 1968, Chrysler Corp. announced the Super Bee’s launch to Dodge dealers in a letter that noted production would begin on Jan. 12 with the model’s announcement to the public to be followed on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s Day). The letter was followed by a special brochure to dealers that showed them all there was to love about the new Super Bee:

“Meet the Super Bee. Newest member of the Dodge Scat Pack,” began the brochure. “It’s the performance version of the Coronet 440 2-door coupe. A new way for you to capture and cash in on the profitable youth ‘performance’ market. (500,000 strong.)

“The Super Bee was designed specifically for a large portion of that market. It’s the super car for the guy who doesn’t want to shy away from GTO’s…only their high prices.

“Super Bee’s for the guy who wants a low-priced performance car that he can drive daily…but still take to the track on weekends. One that commands respect when the Christmas tree lights up.

“The Super Bee’s the car he’s been looking for. It’s a gutsy road car with all the goodies to make it a true performance car. If your customer doesn’t believe it, tell him you’ll meet him with a Super Bee at the local drag strip.”

Although the newest member of the “Scat Pack” — Dodge’s hive of performance cars that included the R/T Charger and Coronet — the Super Bee best made use of the Scat Pack performance car marketing. The Scat Pack’s mascot was a helmeted bumblebee with drag slicks for feet and a smoking engine with headers on his back. Dodge put its colony of performance cars into its Scat Pack and made it easy to identify them; they were “the cars with Bumblebee stripes,” it said.

A Hemi all his own

Ironically, not all Super Bees received the Scat Pack Bumblebee stripes, and the Super Bee that Sokola finally caught in his Hemi car search was among those without stripes. His years of hanging out with fellow MoPar fans led him to the nearby Hemi Super Bee, and he admits the recession helped him eventually put a Hemi in his garage.

“In ’07, ’08, ’09, they were paying big money for [Hemi cars],” Sokola recalls, “and then the bottom dropped out. I bought it during the slump, but it needed help.”

The Hemi that Sokola found in 2010 came to him by word of mouth from northeastern Hemi guru Joe Sica, who told him the long-parked 1968 Hemi Super Bee might be for sale.

“It kind of fell in my lap,” Sokola says. “I knew of the car, but there wasn’t any thought of it being for sale.”

Other MoPar collectors knew of the Super Bee as well, as it was a pretty storied machine in the area. The car wasn’t known for exploits on the track, but for simply being a Hemi car that was once regularly seen.

“It was [originally] bought as a daily driver in the Vernon, Connecticut, area, which makes sense, because it was bought at Chorches Motors in the next town over (Manchester, Conn.),” Sokola says.

The Hemi Super Bee came with a dealer emblem for Chorches Motors and he eventually spoke to Sam Chorches, whose father operated the dealership from the late 1940s to the mid 1990s.

“Sam explained to me that his father was big on selling Darts, Coronets, Monacos — four-doors, two-doors and stations wagons,” Sokola said. “But Sam’s father was big and he loved selling Dodge pickup trucks. His father hated these [performance] cars, because he was into pickups, four-doors — they sold trouble-free — and the Hemi stuff was nothing but a headache.”

Sam Chorches was serving in Vietnam when the Hemi Super Bee was ordered from his father’s dealership, but he confirmed to Sokola that all Hemi cars back then were, indeed, ordered. Due to the expense and power of the Hemi engine ($714.30 in a 1968 Super Bee), dealers always ordered Hemi cars, and almost always for a specific customer.

On paper, it looks like Sokola’s relatively stripped Super Bee was ordered for the drag strip rather than the street. In addition to the optional J-code Hemi and the Hemi-specific four-speed, the Super Bee only touts an AM radio and tinted glass as options. The rear axle is the standard unit for a four-speed Hemi: the Dana 60 with 3.54:1 gears. The original owner didn’t even specify the Bumblebee tail stripe for his Super Bee!

Sokola has tracked the car through all of its past owners and believes the original owner sold the car in the early 1970s. Then it bounced from owner to owner until 1983, when it spun a bearing. At that point, the grounded Hemi Super Bee was advertised for $1,400, but there were no takers. Six months later, the car sold for $1,000.

Over the next few decades, the two owners previous to Sokola began restoring the car. They completed restoration of the body, interior and most of the mechanical components. Sokola estimates they were 80 percent done with the restoration when he negotiated its purchase.

“It ran rough, and it didn’t want to run right,” Sokola says. 

However, the body work really impressed him and the price was in his range, so he sealed the deal.

Once getting it home in 2010, Sokola began the busy work of putting Super Bee back on the road and as Dodge originally built it. As funds allowed, he sourced a correct original radiator and 15-inch wheels to replace the “Dukes of Hazzard” mags on the car. He also installed a wiring harness, went through the brakes again and had the car’s original carburetors rebuilt. As with anything related to Hemis, the parts were expensive, he says, but rebuilding the Hemi engine was the biggest blow to his pocketbook. However, Sokola says the engine rebuild was worth it since it was done by Bill Atwood, an experienced and respected builder who knows Hemis inside and out. Since getting the Hemi Super Bee back on the road in 2013, Sokola has put thousands of trouble-free miles on the Super Bee.

The 440 Magnum-powered 1969 Charger R/T that Sokola sold to buy the Hemi Super Bee is a pretty choice car. Was it worth selling the Charger for the Hemi experience?

“Without a doubt, yes,” Sokola says. “It runs good, and I like it. I am happy now, but for a while, the sorting out was driving me nuts. But I finally got it. I finally feel like I am not going to get stuck anywhere. But at first I thought, ‘What did I get myself into?’ Then I got over the hump and prevailed and was able to move on.”

And move he does. Now that it’s one honey of a Super Bee, Sokola drives the Hemi car to events around his Connecticut home, even in neighboring states. He’s added power steering, so “instead of fighting the wheel and fighting the stick, I am glad to be just fighting the stick,” he says. He’s also added the dual Bumblebee stripes to the Super Bee, giving it the proper look that many associate with the model.

Sokola says at shows, people either walk right by his Super Bee or it creates enough buzz that it’s awarded best-of-show honors. Either way, it doesn’t matter to him. He finally has his Hemi B-body and he’s enjoying every minute behind its wheel.

“I don’t get stupid with it. I take my time and use my head. I am going to be 60 in a couple months — I am not this crazy kid anymore.” 

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Whether you’re a Dodge fan and prefer Panther Pink sprayed on your cars, or a Plymouth fan who’s fond of cars painted Moulin Rouge, the colors and results are the same: a shockingly bright hue that had never been seen on a production automobile before January 1970.

Chrysler Corp. had a history of introducing special spring colors, and in early 1970, Dodge and Plymouth added the hot pink shade to their lists of High Impact colors. Although the colors and corresponding codes were the same from Dodge to Plymouth, the extra-cost High Impact colors had different names that were notably catchy by taking advantage of slang and phrases of the day. Names for some of the High Impact colors were Plum Crazy (Dodge) and In-Violet (Plymouth) for purple, Top Banana (Dodge) and Lemon Twist (Plymouth) for bright yellow, and Green Go (Dodge) and Sassy Grass (Plymouth) for a medium green. When the wild hot-pink color was added, Dodge named it “Panther Pink” while Plymouth called it “Moulin Rouge.” Both carried the code FM3, and the color added $14.05 to a 1970 Dodge’s sticker price.

High Impact FM3 Panther Pink made its way onto Chrysler Corp. showroom floors by the early spring of 1970. Then it vanished from the scene about as soon as it arrived, having been removed from regular production in the summer of 1970 and becoming a special-order-only color into the 1971 model year. By the time the spray gun was empty, experts estimate that Panther Pink had been applied by Chrysler to only a few hundred cars. Despite its short-lived tenure, it made a lasting impact on MoPar collectors. Furious Fuchsia was released by Chrysler in 2010 as an updated, special-edition 40th anniversary tribute and throwback to 1970, when Chrysler introduced the iconic Panther Pink. Furious Fuchsia has been described as the closest color hue to Panther Pink in the pink color family.

Today, there are many fans of Panther Pink, but an entire car painted in the color can be a bit much. However, Panther Pink is striking when paired with a full white vinyl top. With a white vinyl top, a Panther Pink car maintains its “wow factor,” but gains class and perhaps a little sophistication.

Then and now, Panther Pink is a polarizing color, which made it rare in the early 1970s. Due to attrition and its wild nature, those few original Panther Pink cars have become very desirable. An already aggressive-looking and desirable muscle car painted Panther Pink is doubly rare and desirable. This 1970 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Six Pack car with its High Impact color is one such muscle machine.

While many might think of muscle cars as a man’s game, the truth is a little less patriarchal. There were certainly women interested in going fast in an aggressive-looking machine. Today, we cannot be certain why the factory built this V-Code 440 Six Pack Charger in such a wild color as a sales bank model (meaning no dealership specified it this way), but perhaps it was to allow a young-at-heart lady a chance to stomp on the bad boys on a Saturday night or during a cruise to the shore.

While walking with Tim Wellborn through the Wellborn Musclecar Museum that he and his wife Pam opened during 2000 in Alexander City, Ala., we came up on their Panther Pink 1970 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Six Pack. We stopped at the car and Tim mentioned how the pink Charger was one of Pam’s all-time favorite muscle cars, and that it had been in their collection for nearly 20 years. According to 1970chargerregistry.com, there were 28 Charger R/T models painted Panther Pink in 1970. Tim said only two of those Panther Pink Charger R/Ts are documented as being Six Pack cars, and he would know. When it comes to researching automobiles and learning their history — such as when, where and how many were built — Tim does his homework. He and his team go to great lengths to gather the facts. Further aiding their research on this car are two broadcast sheets indicating the car’s options. They also know the car was originally sold through King Dodge in St. Louis, Mo.

Chrysler Corp. produced this Charger R/T at its St. Louis assembly plant on July 10 — rather late in the 1970 model year — with both left and right outside sport mirrors, a tinted windshield and front and rear bumper guards, among its many options. The Panther Pink FM3 paint finish is offset with the white R/T longitudinal tape stripe white side, optional white vinyl top and plush premium-grade vinyl interior upholstery with charcoal-tone houndstooth inserts. The interior is further complemented by the optional center console for the automatic transmission and standard R/T simulated walnut applique on the instrument panel and console. Passengers are treated to tunes and talk from an AM radio.

The Wellborns’ Panther Pink 1970 Dodge Charger 440 R/T was restored by Dale Gyorvary. During its lifetime, the Charger had been well cared for, and it retains its original “born with” 390-hp 440-cid V-8 with the three two-barrel Holley carburetors that give it its “Six Pack” moniker. The Charger was further built with the tried-and-true combination of Chrysler’s A727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission and 8-3/4 rear differential with 3.23 gearing. It sports five-spoke road wheels and Goodyear Polyglas tires for that tough early-’70s muscle car look.

Between the Six Pack 440 and its Panther Pink paint, this beautiful Charger R/T is both a handful and an eyeful.

Dodge’s winner returns

The Dodge Charger was slightly revised for the 1970 model year. It was the last model year of the second-generation Charger, which had begun in 1968. The 1970 Charger remained available only as a two-door hardtop with its Coke-bottle shape and “flying buttress” C pillars, but now featured a new wraparound chrome bumper with a grille that continued to hide the headlamps although it was no longer vertically divided in the center. New electric headlamp doors replaced the old vacuum-style doors. The taillamp lenses were similar to those on the ’69 model, but 1970 Charger 500 and R/T models had unique trim that encircled both taillamp lenses, making them appear to be one large, single lens. On the R/T, new rear-facing scoops with “R/T” badges were mounted on each door, over the door scallops. A new “440” or “HEMI” hood graphic made the option list for this year only, but was not often seen. With this option, Dodge painted the hood scallop inserts black and put silver engine call-outs on top.

Interior changes for 1970 included new high-back bucket seats, revised door panels and map pockets that were now optional instead of standard. The ignition was moved from the instrument panel to the steering column (as with all Chrysler products this year), and the glove box was now hinged at the bottom instead of the top, as in 1968–’69.

For 1970, Dodge offered the standard Charger, the Charger 500 and the top-dog R/T model, the latter two models further available as SE models. Standard R/T equipment for 1970 included a four-barrel 440-cid Magnum V-8 with dual exhaust, heavy-duty drum brakes, F70x14 white sidewall tires, striping and a handling package that included special torsion bars, Firm Ride shock absorbers, heavier-duty rear springs and a front sway bar.

The 426-cid Hemi V-8 continued to be available, but only on the R/T, and a new engine choice — the 440 Six Pack — was added to the Charger R/T’s option list for 1970. With three two-barrel carburetors and a rating of 390 hp, it was one of the most exotic setups since the cross-ram Max Wedge engines of the early-to-mid 1960s. The Six Pack was previously used only in special high-performance Dodge Super Bees and Plymouth Road Runners in mid 1969. Despite this new engine, Charger production slipped to 46,576, mainly due to the popularity of the new E-Body Dodge Challenger pony car, as well as rapidly increasing automobile insurance rates.

The Charger’s production slip for 1970 came despite its successes on the track. In the 1970 NASCAR season, Bobby Isaac’s Charger had 10 wins — more than any other car, including the 1969 Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird — thus earning Isaac the Grand National Championship. Tim Wellborn and the Wellborn Musclecar Museum own Isaac’s K&K Insurance-sponsored #77 Charger race car. Along with the Panther Pink 1970 Charger R/T, the #77 Charger is a fan favorite at the museum and when shown at public events.

The Wellborn Musclecar Museum

Tim and Pam Wellborn opened their Wellborn Musclecar Museum to the public in 2010. From its location in Alexander City, Ala., it’s devoted to the great American automobiles of the 1960s and 1970s. The collection showcases such classics as the Charger, the Road Runner and the Super Bee, making it the nation’s largest high-performance MoPar collection.

Owners Tim and Pam Wellborn have been muscle car collectors since their early teenage years. While still in high school, Tim’s father ordered a new 1971 Dodge Hemi Charger after going to the dealership in late 1970. That 1971 Hemi Charger now greets guests walking into the museum, which was originally a Chevrolet dealership upon its construction in the 1940s. (Look for a feature on this 1971 Hemi Charger in Old Cars’ 2024 Father’s Day issue.) 

Wellborn Musclecar Museum
124 Broad Street
Alexander City, AL 35010
http://wellbornmuseum.squarespace.com
256-329-8474

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Preston Stephens and his wife, Dorothy, were married in 1939, then bought a farm near Frankford, Del., and eventually built a farmhouse and started a family. The couple were doing well by the early 1970s, but the daily demands of maintaining the family business had reached a point where help was needed to lighten the load.

In 1974, the Stephenses added an integral piece of machinery to the family’s Pear Tree farm. After years of raising crops on the family homestead and seeing annual growth, they realized it was time to add a practical pickup to handle loads of seeds and other farm-related supplies.

A dual-purpose Dodge

It had also become glaringly apparent in 1974 that Dorothy needed something larger to transport her wallpaper installation supplies and equipment. She struggled with the lack of space in her sedan, so she and Preston decided a well-cared-for used pickup truck would properly serve the farm and Dorothy’s wallpaper business. The couple purchased a Desert Turquoise 1970 Dodge D100 Adventurer pickup and devised a plan that allowed them to use the truck as a multi-purpose vehicle. For the next 16 years, the truck split time hauling plants, grain, seeds and other items on the farm, then would switch its identity and travel the roads of Delaware and Maryland while transporting wallpaper supplies and equipment to Dorothy’s shop, then to each of her job sites.

Ira Stephens was 13 years old when the ’70 Dodge D100 Adventurer showed up at the family homestead. The teenager was just getting into the car scene, and a pickup truck with the “Slant Six” engine under the hood and manual three-speed transmission shifted on the steering column didn’t quite excite the young man. Like most teenagers, he was into throaty-sounding V-8 Mustangs, Torinos and other cool muscle cars, and a six-cylinder-powered pickup truck didn’t make him look twice. When he looked under the hood of the Adventurer for the first time, he stepped back, shrugged his shoulders and walked away, chuckling under his breath, “What happened to the rest of the engine?” he later recalled. “I’ve seen bigger engines in the tractors on the farm. That engine sure looks too small to move that truck.”

One day, Ira’s father handed him the keys and told him to pull the truck into the garage. Ira had driven tractors on the farm, but driving a pickup with a three-on-the-tree manual transmission would take some practice. However, he soon got the hang of it.

As the years passed, Ira spent more time driving the Dodge pickup. Once he obtained his driver’s license, his trips took him out on the local roads, and although he didn’t mention it to his father, he developed a newfound respect for the Dodge. He noticed how well it ran on the open road, and with each mile he spent in the driver’s seat, he began to notice how well it had been taken care of by its prior owner. His father continued giving the truck great care — he used it, but didn’t abuse it. However, there were times when the Dodge would be loaded with farm or wallpaper supplies to the point where the rear bumper nearly dragged on the ground, but it was bought to be a work truck. The Dodge never missed a beat and always went about its business without fail.

Ira calls his father “frugal,” adding, “He never abused any piece of farm equipment or vehicle; everything had a purpose and got used as intended, and afterwards cleaned up, oil and fluid checked then stowed away in the barn.”

Even though his father and mother regularly used the truck, they always made sure it was well maintained and cared for. It turned out to be one of the Stephens’ most dependable pieces of machinery on the farm and on the road.

Watching his father methodically care for the Dodge had an impact on Ira. He said his father would quietly go about his maintenance process, and he led by example. Not realizing it at the time, Ira was routinely taught by his father how to maintain the farm equipment, tractors and automobiles, and the Dodge truck was the main vehicle his father used as a teaching aid for his son.

Dodge builds a winner

By the time the Stephenses purchased their 1970 Adventurer in 1974, the era of Dodge’s highly successful 1961-’71 generation of light-duty trucks had come to an end. Using a clean-slate approach, Dodge launched a totally new pickup lineup for the 1961 model year that only shared its drivetrain with its predecessor. The 1961 Dodge trucks featured new cabs and Sweptline pickup boxes, which were mounted on wider, double-dropped frames. Dodge trucks for 1961 also had updated front suspensions and steering mechanisms, and some featured Chrysler’s new (and soon to be legendary) Slant-Six engine. The 1961 models were also the first trucks available to the public equipped with alternators (introduced in Chrysler’s 1960 passenger car lineup) instead of generators.

By the 1970 model year, the 1961 Dodge truck body had been mildly updated, including receiving a new grille, plus a larger 25-gallon fuel tank and a unique tailgate emblem for the Adventurer trim level.

Chrysler believed that an I-beam axle/leaf spring front suspension system was simpler, more durable and better suited to truck usage than competitive independent front suspension arrangements on the market in the late 1960s. Dodge was also aware of the rough-riding reputation attached to the leaf spring design. To achieve the best of both worlds, the company introduced “Cushioned Beam” suspension in 1969. While retaining the inherent toughness of the I-Bean axle, it softened the ride by using nylon interliners between the leave springs and added a standard anti-sway bar to resist “corner lean.” The new front suspension system used by Dodge from 1969 through 1971 produced what is possibly the best-handling solid-axle truck from any manufacturer.

The VIN on the Stephens’ 1970 Dodge D100 Adventurer best tells the story of its construction. The VIN begins with D1 (D100), followed by: 4 (Sweptline bed); A (under-6,000-pounds gross weight); B (225-cid, 1-venturi engine); U (Missouri assembly plant); and 140565 (sequential build number). The pickup’s GVW is 5,200 pounds. It has a 3,600-pound-capacity Chrysler RF36 rear axle with a 3.55.1 ratio. The front axle is rated at 2,500 pounds. It has a Chrysler A250 three-speed transmission. The 225-cid engine’s net horsepower is 127 at 3,900 rpm. The front springs are rated at 1,025 pounds each, and the rear springs are rated at 1,100 pounds each. The wheelbase is 128 inches, making it the longbox version with an 8-foot bed.

The 1970 Dodge pickup represents state-of-the-art mechanical technology for its era. Many people within the automobile industry consider the 1961-1971 Dodge truck to be the best-styled pickup of its generation, especially when equipped with one of the Adventurer option packages. When the total package is added together, Preston Stephens knew what he was looking for when he bought the 1970 Dodge D100 Adventurer pickup. It was the perfect truck for a farm and a wallpaper-hanging business.

A new adventure — then back again

In 2001, Preston Stephens passed away and the pickup was sold. The new owner, Bill Brown, took exceptional care of the truck. Soon after buying it, he sent the truck to Curt’s Autobody in Pocomoke, Md., for a body–off–frame restoration. Known for their excellent craftsmanship and attention to detail, the staff at Curt’s Autobody restored the Desert Turquoise ’70 Dodge D100 Adventurer to better-than-factory standards. Not long after the restoration was completed, Bill started showing it at local car shows in Maryland and Delaware. It was restored to a world-class level and is capable of competing against the best of the best.

Ira heard through the grapevine that his family’s old Dodge had been restored and spotted at some of the local car shows. He was sure it was his family’s pickup since the Turquoise Adventurer is unusual in that it is equipped with the standard Slant-Six and three-speed manual transmission as most Adventurer-optioned pickup trucks came with V-8 engines and automatic transmissions.

Not long after the sale of the Adventurer transpired, Ira began to regret letting it go. He realized that the truck had been an important part of his life, just as it had been to his parents’ lives and businesses. Even though it didn’t have a V-8 engine as Ira preferred, the turquoise ’70 Dodge Adventurer had grown on him, and it wasn’t until it left his family’s possession that he realized how unique it was, and how special it had become to him and his family.

As the years passed, Ira dreamed of finding the ol’ Dodge and one day buying it back from the new owner. His ultimate plan was to return it to the Stephenson family homestead, where he thought it belonged.

Miraculously, in 2008, Ira came across the truck and its owner at a local car show. As he approached the Adventurer, he immediately recognized it. Bill approached him, and after an introduction, Ira mentioned that his father, Preston, was the previous owner. The two discussed the truck’s history and Ira complimented Bill on how well the pickup looked. Before leaving, Ira asked if it was for sale. Bill said, “Not at this time.” Ira gave him his phone number and asked Bill to call him first if he ever wanted to sell it.

Nearly two years later, Ira received the phone call he’d been hoping for, but didn’t completely expect to receive. It was Bill, who simply stated, “I’ve decided to sell the Dodge pickup. If you’re interested, you can have it back.” A deal was immediately struck, and within days, the Adventurer was back at the Stephens’ Pear Tree homestead in southern Delaware. It now has a permanent home in a dedicated stall within the original Pear Tree homestead barn.

Ira takes the 1970 Dodge D100 Adventurer to local car shows in southern Delaware during the summer months. Occasionally, someone will walk up to the truck, look it over and ask, “Is this the truck that Dorothy Stephens used for her wallpaper hanging business?” With a smile on his face, Ira nods his head and says, “Yes, she was my mother, and this was her truck.”

Ira has one particularly sweet memory of his mother and the Dodge that he likes to share.

“After wrapping up her work for the week, my mother would stop in town at a local popcorn stand on Friday — either Fisher’s or Dolly’s — and order a box of their home-made caramel corn,” Ira recalls. “I wasn’t much of a fan of the taste and didn’t eat too much of it, but it smelled great and my mother loved it. To this day, when I smell caramel corn, I think of my mother and seeing her carefully getting out of the old Dodge pickup truck with a smile on her face and a box of caramel corn tucked under her arm.”

Ira is grateful to Bill Brown for selling him the truck and giving him a second chance at making it part of the Stephens family legacy. Opportunities to reacquire family heirlooms normally don’t happen in one’s lifetime. Once vehicles are sold, they’re usually gone and don’t find their way back.

This family heirloom isn’t likely to leave again, at least in Ira’s lifetime. 

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If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

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This old Dodge was a former spray truck. It was used hard on the farm and when it was time to retire, it was parked out in the pasture, with the spray rig still attached!!!! This Dodge was a workhorse! It is a 3/4 ton, 4X4, V-8 with a manual transmission. It is amazingly solid with hardly any rust damage at all! 

Chad Ehrlich is always dragging cool, old iron in his salvage yard, Nobody Else’s Auto. Be sure to subscribe to the “Nobody’s Show” Channel on YouTube to keep up with all of the new inventory that Chad is hauling in! You can also follow him on Facebook under “Nobody Else’s Auto.”

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The post As found by Chad: 1973 Dodge 200 4×4 appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Longtime Old Cars reader, Bob Derlunas has owned this gorgeous Coronet for over 53 years. It has become a member of the family.

This is what Bob had to say about his Dodge 440…

“I’ve been a subscriber since 1978 and decided to show you my car which I’ve owned for 53 years. It has 170,000 plus miles on it but the poly 318 was refreshed. I added a/c, disc brakes and dual exhaust. The car is family. I had it in high school, on my wedding day and brought two of my three new-born children home from the hospital in it. When I need to relive the easy days of my youth, I turn on the music from the 60’s and go for a drive. I hope you like what you see.”

If you would like your car featured in Reader Wheels click on the link below and tell us a little bit about your ride.

CLICK HERE

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The post Old Cars Reader Wheels: 1966 Dodge Coronet 440 appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.