The Dodge Charger nameplate started somewhere unexpected: a fastback built on the Coronet platform in 1966, with a console-heavy interior most fans have completely forgotten. Order one with a 426 Hemi, as this Brothers Collection car’s original buyer did, and you get one of the rarest Chargers in existence. V8TV’s Muscle Car of the Week digs into everything the 1968 redesign later overshadowed. See where the Charger legend actually began.
The Dodge Charger nameplate has worn a lot of different identities since 1966, but almost none of today’s fans picture the car that actually started it: a fastback built on the Coronet platform with a full-width electroluminescent instrument panel and four bucket seats separated by a full-length console. Fewer still picture that same first-year Charger with a 426 Hemi under the hood, an option so rarely ordered that surviving examples are genuinely scarce more than half a century later. V8TV pulled this particular car from the Brothers Collection for its Muscle Car of the Week series, and what makes it worth the feature is not just the engine, but everything else about the 1966 Charger that history has quietly forgotten. Episode 116 exists precisely to set that record straight, one detail at a time.
The Charger Before the Charger Became the Charger
When Dodge launched the Charger for 1966, the car had almost nothing in common with the E-body muscle icon that would take over the nameplate in 1968. The first Charger was a fastback conversion of the mid-size Coronet, distinguished by hidden headlights, full-width taillights, and a genuinely futuristic interior built around four bucket seats and a console that ran the entire length of the cabin, paired with an electroluminescent instrument cluster that glowed rather than relying on simple bulb-lit gauges. It was marketed as a personal luxury performance car more than an outright muscle car, splitting the difference between a Mustang fastback and a proper family sedan in a way that made it genuinely unusual for its era.
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Ordering a Hemi in 1966 Was Not Simple
The 426 Hemi was available across Chrysler’s mid-size lineup by 1966, but ordering one in a first-year Charger meant checking a box on top of an already premium personal-luxury package, which pushed the final price well beyond what most buyers shopping this segment were prepared to spend. That combination of cost and rarity is exactly why Hemi-powered 1966 Chargers were never built in significant numbers to begin with, and why decades of attrition, since Hemi engines were frequently swapped into more common cars or simply used up racing, have left genuinely surviving examples in short supply today. A buyer walking into a Dodge dealership in 1966 asking for exactly this combination was a genuine rarity in real time, not just in hindsight, which is part of what makes documented survivors this desirable now.
The Brothers Collection’s Recurring Role
This is not the first time V8TV has pulled a genuinely significant car out of the Brothers Collection for its Muscle Car of the Week format, and that recurring access is a big part of why the series has been able to reach episode 116 without running dry on cars worth featuring. A private collection built around cars this rare gives the show a pipeline that a typical dealer inventory or auction consignment list simply cannot match, especially for a car as specifically obscure as a first-year Hemi Charger.
Why the First-Year Charger Deserves More Credit
The first-generation Charger tends to get treated as a footnote before the real story starts with the 1968 redesign, but a Hemi-powered 1966 example is a reminder that Dodge was building genuinely serious performance hardware from the very beginning of the nameplate, not just once the styling caught up to the engineering. It is easy to let a nameplate’s most famous era overshadow everything that came before it, but a car like this one argues that the earliest chapter deserves at least as much attention as the one Hollywood eventually made famous.
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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