Chrysler had a problem in 1968: the Plymouth Road Runner was selling so well that the Dodge division was watching the money go past its own showroom windows. The answer arrived at the Detroit auto show wearing a bee on its tail and carrying the lowest price tag in the Dodge lineup. Only 125 buyers ticked the one box that turned it into something else entirely. Read on to find out which one.
Posts Tagged: Hemi
The 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 launched with a waiting list before most buyers ever sat in one, thanks to a shortened LC platform, a numbered dash plaque, and a 425-horsepower Hemi under the hood. Riding on the same bones as the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger, it kept the long-hood look that made the original Challenger famous. Only 6,400 were built for the U.S. market, and nearly every one sold above sticker.
Edmunds pits the new all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack against the V8 Challenger Scat Pack it is meant to replace, testing whether synthesized exhaust sound and instant torque can stand in for six decades of Hemi V8 identity. The comments are split just as sharply as the reviewers, skeptics call the fake engine noise a gimmick, while at least one real owner insists the EV is objectively quicker and better-handling. Depreciation has already reshaped the value argument since launch. Watch to see where Edmunds lands.
Ramo Stott’s #7 Superbird won four races across ARCA, USAC, and NASCAR-adjacent competition in the early 1970s, and current owner Doug Schellinger has spent years turning its scars into documented history, down to a rear window that Stott himself deformed with a blowtorch to pass tech inspection. Every ding, weld, and mismatched panel on this car has a story and, often, a photograph to back it up. Read on to find out how a blown engine and a stubborn NASCAR inspector shaped one of the most authenticated winged cars left on the road.
A stock Dodge Hellcat’s factory tires look aggressive enough to pass for an aftermarket upgrade, but every size on every trim rolled off the assembly line exactly as Dodge specified it. From the original 2015 car’s 275/40ZR20s to the Super Stock’s massive 315-width rear tires, the rubber underneath a Hellcat does as much work as the supercharged Hemi on top of it. Read on to find out exactly how much of a Hellcat’s quarter-mile time comes down to what’s bolted to the wheels.
Only 71 buyers ordered the Hemi R/T package on a 1971 Dodge Challenger, and this triple-black example, sourced from The Brothers Collection, is one of the last built before Chrysler discontinued the 426 Hemi entirely. One viewer compared it to a villain out of a Stephen King novel. Watch the full walkaround to see why even self-described Chevy loyalists admit this car earns the respect.
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 1969 Dodge Dart, nicknamed ‘Poison’ by Pennsylvania’s Spuds Garage, wears a Hemi that has nothing in common with what left the factory — and a stance that’s already splitting opinion in the comments. Between wheel debates, tire recommendations, and genuine appreciation for the build’s sound and presence, the reaction says as much about Mopar culture as the car itself. Watch the turnaround and see what all the arguing is about.
Nearly 3,000 vehicles spanning prewar sedans to modern Hellcats fill the show field at Chryslers at Carlisle every year, drawing Mopar die-hards willing to argue over a date code for hours. This piece walks through why Carlisle became Mopar’s unofficial capital, what makes the swap meet and car corral half the draw, and why factory-correct detail matters so much to this particular crowd.
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.
Most Hemi Dart stories are about the famous 1968 factory lightweights built for NHRA Super Stock racing around the 426 Race Hemi. This 1968 Dodge Dart GTS tells a different one: a first-generation Chrysler FirePower Hemi, bored from 331 to 342 cubic inches, tucked under a completely stock-looking hood and fenders. It’s an engine most Mopar fans forgot Chrysler ever built into a Hemi lineage at all. Read on to find out how a discontinued 1950s engine ended up hiding inside a 1968 A-body.
A Michigan collector’s wanted ad for any Plymouth Barracuda, in any condition, reflects just how scarce genuine survivors have become since Plymouth’s 1970 redesign turned the car into one of the era’s most sought-after E-body muscle cars. That redesign also produced the one-year-only AAR ‘Cuda, a homologation special built for Trans-Am racing that still drives collector demand today. Read on to find out what makes the 1970 model year so different from everything that came before it.
This 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee wears a 472 cubic-inch Hemi under its hood — bigger than anything Dodge offered from the factory in this body style — backed by a four-speed manual transmission. Photographed at Fast Lane Classic Cars in St. Charles, Missouri, it’s the kind of B-body Mopar that inspired decades of grade-school parking-lot burnouts and grown men promising to buy one the day they win the lottery. Watch to see what a stroked Hemi and a cartoon bee badge can still do to a crowd.
Only about 70 of the roughly 503 Dodge Charger Daytonas built for 1969 left the factory with the 426 Hemi rather than the standard 440 Magnum. The 18-inch nose cone and 23-inch wing were worth a reported 20 mph at Talladega, and Buddy Baker used one to record the first 200-mph closed-course lap in stock car history. Dealers still could not sell them, and some removed the aero parts to move the metal. Read on for what a genuine Hemi Daytona has to document today.
The 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda convertible is the rarest and most valuable muscle car most enthusiasts will never see in person — only 14 were ever built. Back in period, buyers largely ignored it, put off by insurance costs and a price tag that made little sense for a mid-size car. Decades later, that same scarcity has pushed individual examples toward eight-figure sales. Read on to find out how a commercial failure became the most expensive muscle car in the world.
