Two years before the Charger body style most people recognize even existed, Dodge released a genuinely different fastback, and this rare, 426 Hemi-powered 1966 example, pulled from the respected Brothers Collection, makes the case for why that first-generation car deserves more credit. V8TV’s Muscle Car Of The Week reaches episode 116 with a car one commenter already calls ‘the most underrated Charger.’ See what made Dodge’s original Charger formula work before the more famous redesign took over.
Every iconic car design has an origin point that gets overshadowed by whatever came after it, and the Dodge Charger’s is a particularly stark example. Ask most people to picture a vintage Charger and they’ll describe the 1968-70 body style that starred in a hundred car chases and magazine covers. But two years before that shape existed, Dodge released a completely different Charger, a fastback built around a genuinely new idea for the brand, and one of the rarest versions of that first-year car happens to be sitting in a private collection with the single most feared engine option Chrysler ever built under its hood.
Before the Charger Everyone Recognizes
Dodge’s original 1966 Charger arrived as a genuinely new proposition for the brand: a fastback body style layered over the existing Coronet platform, with a high-tech interior featuring four bucket seats and a full-length console that looked more like something out of a concept car than a mainstream Dodge showroom model. That design broke sharply from the more conservative styling Dodge had offered up to that point, positioning the Charger as something closer to a personal luxury-performance hybrid than a straightforward muscle car.
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A Fastback That Broke From Dodge’s Playbook
The 1966 Charger’s sweeping fastback roofline and hidden headlights gave it a distinct silhouette unlike anything else in Dodge’s lineup at the time, years before the more famous 1968 redesign would lean even harder into aggressive, coke-bottle styling. That first-generation shape only lasted two model years before Dodge moved on to the body style most people now associate with the name, which is a major reason why well-preserved 1966 and 1967 Chargers remain comparatively rare and under-recognized today.
Why the 426 Hemi Made This Car Rare
This particular example is powered by Chrysler’s legendary 426 Hemi, an engine option that carried a significant price premium and was ordered on only a small fraction of first-generation Chargers built. The Hemi’s reputation as one of the most powerful and feared engines of the muscle car era means any car equipped with it commands outsized attention from collectors, and a Hemi-powered example of the rarer first-generation Charger body style sits at a genuine intersection of two different kinds of scarcity.
Life Inside the Brothers Collection
Like other cars featured in this long-running video series, this Hemi Charger belongs to the Brothers Collection, a private stable of significant muscle cars that Muscle Car Of The Week and its affiliated V8TV channel have drawn from repeatedly. Cars pulled from a single, consistently referenced private collection tend to carry an added layer of credibility for viewers, since it suggests a level of ongoing care and documentation beyond what a car changing hands repeatedly at auction might receive.
Episode 116 in a Long-Running Series
V8TV’s Muscle Car Of The Week format has built a substantial back catalog of episodes profiling significant American performance cars, and reaching episode 116 in that series represents years of consistent, dedicated coverage of cars that don’t always get mainstream attention. Choosing a first-generation Hemi Charger for that slot, rather than one of the more commonly featured 1968-70 body style Chargers, reflects a deliberate effort to spotlight the model’s less-recognized early years.
How Comments Are Rewriting This Car’s Reputation
One viewer commenting on the video called this “the most underrated Charger,” a sentiment that captures how the first-generation body style has historically been overshadowed by its more famous successor despite offering genuinely competitive performance and a design that was, in its own right, groundbreaking for Dodge in 1966. That kind of grassroots reappraisal, happening in real time in a video’s comment section, is often how underrated cars slowly start climbing in collector recognition.
Why the First-Generation Charger Deserves More Credit
The 1966-67 Charger occupies an unusual position in Dodge history: overshadowed by its own successor, yet arguably more historically significant as the model that established the Charger name and fastback identity in the first place. A rare, Hemi-powered example like this one, preserved inside a respected private collection and profiled on a series with over a hundred episodes of credibility behind it, makes as strong a case as any for why this earlier body style deserves a bigger share of the attention its name usually commands.
What Hemi Documentation Does for Collector Value
Values for well-documented, numbers-matching 426 Hemi cars from any body style have climbed steadily at major collector auctions over the past decade, with genuine Hemi-powered Mopars from the 1960s regularly clearing six figures and often far more depending on documentation and originality. A first-generation Hemi Charger like this one, already scarce simply by virtue of the two-year body style window, sits in an even smaller subset of that already-limited population, which is precisely the kind of scarcity serious Mopar collectors track closely when a car like this surfaces on video.
Most Surviving Chargers Weren’t Built Like This One
Beyond the Hemi option itself, first-generation Chargers also offered a range of more common small-block and big-block configurations that rarely draw the same attention, meaning the population of surviving 1966-67 cars skews heavily toward those less glamorous drivetrains. That imbalance is exactly why a documented, Hemi-powered example pulled from a known private collection carries outsized significance relative to the model’s broader production run, since most surviving first-generation Chargers simply never carried this level of factory performance to begin with. That scarcity is compounded by the fact that many surviving first-generation Chargers, Hemi-equipped or not, have been modified, repowered, or heavily restored over the decades since 1966, making a well-documented, collection-preserved example like this one an increasingly rare chance to see the car close to how it left the factory. For collectors specifically chasing early Mopar history rather than the more heavily documented 1968-70 era, a car like this represents one of the relatively few remaining opportunities to acquire a piece of that overlooked first chapter, still equipped with the engine option that made it worth remembering in the first place. That’s the quiet argument this particular Charger keeps making every time it resurfaces on camera.
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Always liked the styling of the 66 !!
Almost had a 66 383, car, they sold it before I could get there
Always Loved that old charger look. I had a 66 dodge cornet wagon I bought from my dad for a dollar when I was in High School. It had a 318 V8 in it. I beat the hell out of that old car I couldn’t kill it. I remember doing a power burn out with it in the High School parking lot. I dug a hole about 2 or 3 inches deep in the pavement and filled the whole lot up with smoke. Finally sold that old wagon for 100 dollars it had a lot of rust on it and this old man that bought it said to me it’s all lit up. I laughed and said what more do you want for 100 bucks. He drove off in it. Those were the days you could buy nice used cars for 100 to 300 dollars and get a high performance car for 500 dollars.
This was my first Mopar !
Awesome
Love that Charger styling. Was able to buy one new in 69. Still think about that car and fast performance to this day!
That’s not a 66,…… the 66’s did not have tilt / pop up headlights! The 67’s had tilt headlights. Check your info.
Yeah they did. The 66s had hideaway headlights.
Hideaway headlights was an option in 66
I think you should check your info.
Brian James Peters You’d better do some more research. 1966 Dodge Charger Options below : & No mention of any tilt headlights,….. although more bells & whistle’s (options) became available on the 67 in which the tilt headlights were standard.
Performance:
361 V8 (2-bbl., single exhaust).
383 V8 (4-bbl., dual exhaust).
426 V8 (Hemi dual 4-bbl., dual exhaust).
Automatic transmission.
4-speed transmission (361, 383, 426 V8s only).
Power brakes.
Power steering.
Sure Grip differential.
Heavy duty suspension package – heavy duty springs, shocks, front and rear.
Trailer towing package.
Comfort and Convenience:
Air conditioning, integral with heater. (N.A. with 361 V8 with 4-speed transmission.)
Remote control, outside rear view mirror.
Inside glare resistant mirror.
Electric window lifts.
Tinted windshield or windshield and windows.
Retractable seat belts (front and rear).
Transistorized radio.
Trunk compartment light.
Emergency flasher.
Parking brake warning light.
Electric clock, mounted on center console.
Appearance:
White sidewall tires.
Bumper guards, front and rear
Trailer Towing Package:
Maximum cooling system with high-capacity radiator.
Larger transmission oil cooler.
Larger, 7-blade fan.
Fan shroud.
Radiator air seals.
Heavy-duty performance axle, 3.23 ratio.
Heavy-duty suspension, front and rear.
Special 11 diameter, heavy-duty brakes (not self-adjusting).
Heavy-duty, turn signal flasher.
Heavy-duty, stoplight switch.
Wide rim, 5.5 K wheels.
Automatic transmission required. (N.A. with 426 Hemi, 440 Magnum V8s, or with 3-speed or 4-speed manual transmission.)
Heavy Duty Suspension Package:
Heavy duty torsion bars.
Heavy duty ball joints.
Heavy duty rear springs.
Heavy duty sway bar.
The Mopar related information found in this section is believed to be accurate. The 440magnum Network assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in anything that is referenced by or linked to and from this site. This information is provided “as is” and was obtained from Chrysler Corporation, WWW, Books and other Reference Materials.
Wesley Hoke, that is indeed a 66, note the top of the front fender and you will see the lack of a turn signal indicator, 66 .
They ALL had the hideaway lights. ALL!!!
THAT LOOKS LIKE WHAT THEY USED FOR OLD BATMOBILE
Nope
Love them and still do!
I had a “plain Jane” ’66…had the 361″ engine in it, but still very cool!
Super Cool!❤️
I had one silver same exact interior but 4 speed 383 mag bad ads car
Beautiful car
And a weight all its own …lead sled
Awesome car at it’s time, if you had a Hemi, you had a rare car!
I had one
Hmm? I know of one of those if they still have it
Said David Brawner I remember yours.
My uncle in Alabama had a 1966 silver with the 383 automatic. He later gave it to his daughter to go to college in it. She later sold it for 500 dollars.
Sweet Ride
And notice it only has TWO DOORS
Absolutely correct.
The second I laid eyes on the 66 Charger I knew I had to have one, I was 17 and bought a Red 66 383 four barrel 4 speed , I simply thought I had the best car in the world.
“A look all it’s own”. Meanwhile a year prior
Absolutely the best car dodge ever made. I owned several. Wish I still had them all.
I had a 66. 383 with 335hp. Beautiful and very fast.
I remember your 66