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This 1966 Dodge Coronet claims to be one of just seventeen 426 Hemi cars ever built — a number worth digging into before you take it at face value. Mopar’s own Hemi Coronet production records are murkier than you’d expect. Here’s what the real numbers say, and why it barely matters once you hear it run.
Before the 426 Hemi became the engine everyone associates with the name, Dodge was quietly running two completely different cylinder head designs side by side through the 1950s — a genuine hemispherical head and a cheaper poly compromise, often wearing nearly identical badging. Telling them apart today comes down to details as small as a dimple stamped into a valve cover. Read on to find out how to actually identify which engine is under the hood.
The 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T arrived with a 440 Magnum as standard equipment, which meant the buyers who checked the box for the optional 426 Hemi were deliberately walking past 375 horsepower to get something angrier. Very few did. The resulting cars are among the rarest Mopar muscle machines of the era, and this Brothers Collection example shows why. Read on to find out what made the combination so uncommon.
A modern-day Hyundai fender bender nearly finished off a 1968 Dodge Coronet R/T that a 426 Hemi option couldn’t outsell. Its owner Rick rebuilt it instead, and the car now carries a fitting new name: Mayhem. See what the factory 440 Magnum and a set of line locks can still do almost six decades later.
Dodge’s Coronet R/T did not bother hiding its best engine in the options list; a 375-horsepower, 440-cubic-inch Magnum V8 came standard, backed by torsion-bar suspension and heavy-duty brakes that lived up to the Road and Track name. Buyers chasing even more had the legendary 426 Hemi waiting further up the order sheet. Here is how the Coronet R/T backed up its displacement-war bragging rights on the strip.
The 1969 Dodge Coronet R/T spent that model year quietly overshadowed by a six-pack-fed newcomer and a certain winged fastback stealing every headline. Buried in the order books, though, is a detail that sets it apart from nearly every other Coronet built that year: an engine option so rare that barely more than a hundred buyers ever checked the box. Read on to find out why collectors are finally paying attention.
A 472-cubic-inch Hemi doesn’t appear in any 1969 Dodge brochure, which makes this Super Bee’s engine bay an instant mystery. Was it a factory fluke, a stroker build, or something else entirely? Read on to find out how far Mopar builders have gone to chase more cubic inches than Chrysler ever offered from the factory.
Dressed in conservative, formal styling with no hints of performance, the 1965 Dodge Coronet 500 hid a genuine 330-horsepower 383 V8 under its hood — a true sleeper riding on the same B-body platform that would soon become the fastback Charger. Overshadowed for decades by Chrysler’s Hemi and 440 Six Pack cars, it remains one of the most overlooked ways into real period Mopar performance. Read on to find out what made it tick.
This Rally Red 1970 Coronet R/T convertible was built during the model’s final year, and only 14 buyers that year checked the one option box that made a Coronet R/T genuinely rare. Whether this car is one of those fourteen or a well-optioned 440 example, it’s a snapshot of a nameplate on its way out. Read on to find out what buyers actually chose, and why almost none of them chose the exotic option.
By 1975, the once-fearsome Dodge Coronet name had been reduced to a comfort-focused Brougham trim — but this particular four-door hides a 360 cubic inch V8 under custom flake paint and a genuinely good-sounding exhaust. Read on to find out how a family sedan built for comfort ended up as a Malaise-era show cruiser with real muscle underneath.
A 1970 Dodge Coronet with a six-cylinder and a stock rear end really was pretty pedestrian by today’s standards – but that’s not the whole story. Order the same car as a Super Bee with the 426 Hemi and the right gearing, and documented runs put it in the 12-second quarter mile bracket at well over 100 mph. Factory horsepower ratings from that era were also notoriously conservative, hiding just how much these engines actually made. Here’s the case for why “muscle cars were slow” doesn’t hold up once you look past the average car.