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Before “Charger” meant a full-size fastback muscle car, it meant something else entirely: a performance-oriented trim package on Dodge’s compact Dart. This 1965 example carries that original Charger identity, a full year before the nameplate Dodge fans know today even existed. Read on to find out how a badge on a compact car predicted the direction the entire brand was about to take.
This yellow Dodge looks like an ordinary Dart until you learn what a group of Southern California dealers did in late 1964. Frustrated by the Barracuda and Mustang pulling traffic away, they ordered a factory kit that turned a compact Dart into something wearing a name Dodge would not use on a real car for another year. Sold in one state, finished almost exclusively in one colour, and now almost impossible to find. Read on.