SpeedKore of Grafton, Wisconsin built a 1970 Dodge Charger around a 9.0-liter Mercury Racing QC4v, an engine designed for offshore powerboat racing, then added twin 94-millimeter turbos for 1,650 horsepower and ran it through a Tremec six-speed manual. It was the first time that marine engine had ever gone into a road car. The carbon fiber body proved even more commercially significant. Here is what that swap actually required.
Posts Tagged: Dodge Charger
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.
This isn’t a replica — it’s a genuine 1970 Dodge Charger R/T with real Fast and Furious production history, now owned by a collector who built his career sourcing and preserving movie cars. Bob Hartwig’s path from pilot to Picture Car Warehouse to running his own MovieMachines collection explains exactly how a car this recognizable ended up in private hands. The launch alone is violent enough to shift a mounted camera. Watch to see why this specific Charger matters to an entire generation of car fans.
Dodge built 9,509 Charger R/Ts for 1970, and only about 112 of them left the factory with a 426 Hemi under the hood. This Burnt Orange car has one, backed by a Hurst pistol-grip four-speed and the Super Track Pak option that came with a 4.10-geared Dana 60. Read on to find out why the option almost nobody wanted in 1970 became the one everybody chases now.
This 1969 Dodge Charger 500, reportedly the very first one built and originally used by the Dodge News Bureau for promotion, is one of only 27 built with the 426 Hemi and four-speed manual — and the only one combining that drivetrain with Bright Red paint, a black cloth interior, and power windows. Documented by Chrysler records and Mopar authenticator Galen Govier, it sat in a private Ontario collection for decades in unrestored condition. Read on to find out why collectors value it over a fully restored example.
A 440 bored and stroked to 535 cubic inches, roughly 700 horsepower, Viper-inspired hood louvers, and rear fenders widened enough to swallow 12-inch tires. This 1968 Dodge Charger build is not chasing subtlety anywhere on the car. The bodywork alone tells you what the builder was solving for. Read on to find out what the factory 1968 Charger was, and what it takes to make one put that kind of power to the ground.
Back in 2016, word started spreading that Dodge might drop the V8 from the Challenger and Charger in favor of a twin-turbo V6 — a rumor most Mopar fans, including this outlet, dismissed outright. Years later, the debate turned out to be an early preview of exactly where the industry was headed. Read on to see how a rumor once written off as internet noise ended up getting the last laugh.
A downtown food break turned into an impromptu grudge race when a Honda Civic owner bragging about his stripped, “tuned” 2.2-liter engine challenged two friends cruising their vintage Dodge Chargers — including a bone-stock 1970 model driven by someone who had never raced before. What followed split viewers into two camps and reignited an argument that’s never really settled. Watch to see how it played out.
Mopar’s Crate HEMI Engine Kits let owners of any 1975-or-earlier Mopar bolt in genuine modern HEMI power — 383 horsepower from the 5.7-liter kit or 485 horsepower from the 6.4-liter version — without chasing down custom wiring or tuning. Each kit ships with an unlocked, pre-calibrated PCM that sidesteps the usual factory security headaches of a late-model engine swap. Debuted on two complete builds at the 2016 SEMA Show, the kits have owners of everything from Dusters to Aspens asking if their own project qualifies. Watch the full rundown of what’s included.
This compilation pits classic muscle – a ’68 Barracuda, a Chevy Nova, a Chevelle – against modern Hellcats, Camaro ZL1s, and a Shelby GT500 in a string of head-to-head drag passes. By the numbers, the two quickest cars on the card were both Hellcats, but a 1968 Barracuda wasn’t far behind at a 10.1-second quarter mile. The comment section splits along generational lines, and one line – “like father, like son” – says more about why than any horsepower figure could. Watch to see the full lineup run.
The redesigned 1971 Dodge Charger arrived with all-new fuselage styling and one of the last truly serious muscle-car engine lineups before insurance costs and gas prices closed the era down. Buyers could still order a 440 Magnum, a 440 Six Pack, or the legendary 426 Hemi – though only 63 R/T Chargers left the factory with that Hemi. Here’s the story behind these images and the numbers that made this the end of an era.
This short documentary traces the sixty-year rivalry between Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge, from the Mustang’s accidental creation of the pony car segment in 1964 through the Camaro’s 1967 response and the Challenger’s late arrival in 1970. It’s less about specs and more about how three companies turned a straight-line horsepower race into an entire cultural identity. Watch to see how the story connects to the muscle cars still being built today.
At sixteen, John C. paid $700 in paper-route savings for a 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring, then spent the next few years turning it into a Rallye Red, leopard-interior statement piece that eventually earned him a police citation for riding too high. His story, and the garage full of friends’ cars parked alongside his, capture a slice of 1970s car culture that never made it into any factory brochure. Read on for the full build, the ticket, and the friends who were building right alongside him.
Gas Gears and Glory’s short documentary “The Complete History of American Muscle Cars” traces the genre from its 1960s birth through the decades that nearly killed it and the modern era that brought it roaring back. It’s the kind of overview that names names — Mustang, Camaro, Challenger — while asking what actually made these cars matter beyond their horsepower figures. Watch to see how the story gets told this time around.
A 1969 Dodge Charger SE sat dormant for more than twenty years before Dylan McCool’s Backroad Garage helped move it to a new home, and the metallic blue paint and black vinyl top are still holding up better than anyone expected. It’s a documented factory 383 car, though the engine currently installed isn’t original. Viewers couldn’t stop comparing it to the General Lee — see why this rescue struck such a nerve.
