Can you guess which year is this Challenger made in?

Two subtle styling changes — a split grille and reshaped taillights — are the real giveaway for identifying this Challenger’s model year, and they mark something bigger than a trim update. This was the final year buyers could order the legendary 425-horsepower 426 Hemi in a Challenger.

Classic black 1970s muscle car parked outdoors.

Identifying this Challenger by year comes down to two small design changes most people wouldn’t notice unless they already knew to look: a split grille and reshaped taillights. Everything else about the silhouette carries over from the year before, which makes this one of the trickier ‘guess the year’ Challenger photos to nail on a quick glance — especially since it also happens to be the very last year a legendary engine option was available at all.

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The Grille Gives It Away

This model year’s Challenger split what had been a single-piece grille into two distinct sections and reshaped the taillights, the two most reliable visual cues for telling it apart from the previous year’s near-identical body. Everything underneath — wheelbase, overall proportions, the Shaker hood option — stayed largely the same, which is exactly why the grille and taillights do most of the identification work here.

The Last Call for the 425-Horsepower Hemi

Under the hood, this was the final year buyers could order the 426 cubic-inch dual-four-barrel HEMI V8, rated at 425 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque, in a Challenger. Tightening emissions and insurance pressures meant every performance engine option after this point either got detuned or disappeared outright, making this the true end of the line for one of Detroit’s most famous engines in this body.

A Rare Car Even When It Was New

Total Challenger sales fell sharply this year, down to well under half of the prior year’s volume, and the Hemi option — always the rarest and most expensive choice on the order sheet — accounted for only a small fraction of an already-shrinking R/T production run. That combination of declining demand and a soon-to-be-discontinued engine is exactly why surviving numbers-matching Hemi cars from this year carry such a premium today.

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