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A vividly painted convertible glowing in the sunset light has readers split on whether it is a bold custom win or a paint choice gone too far. Purple has always been a rare sight on muscle cars, historically overshadowed by louder factory reds and High Impact Mopar colors, which makes this one impossible to ignore either way. Cast your vote before scrolling down to see what everyone else thinks.
You’ve found it: a second-generation Dodge Charger with the hidden-headlight grille, the flying-buttress roofline, glossy paint, and a seller asking north of $50,000. The vinyl top looks tight, the chrome is straight, and the V8 fires on the first crank. But on a 1968-1970 Charger, the most expensive problem usually isn’t under the hood. It’s under that vinyl top, in the channel around the recessed rear window, and in the trunk corners and lower quarters you never see on a sunny-day walkaround. Owners who have pulled the back glass on “clean” cars have found the window channel eaten away underneath. Here’s exactly where to look, and what to ask, before you hand over the money.
Tom Lembeck’s Mopar collection includes two of the rarest muscle cars ever built: a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona in Spring Green and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird in Vitamin C Orange, both packing factory 426 Hemi engines. Filmed side by side in Chicago, the pairing even fooled a passerby who walked right past without noticing. Fans in the comments are split on which winged Mopar deserves the edge. Watch to see which one Tom calls his favorite.
Buying a 1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda without doing your homework is one of the fastest ways to turn a dream car into an expensive mistake. Hemmings breaks down the E-body platform, the full engine lineup from the 340 up to the 426 Hemi, and the specific trouble spots and options that separate a great example from an overpriced tribute car. With E-body prices climbing fast, the stakes for getting it right have never been higher. Watch the full buyer’s guide before you write a check.
A naturally aspirated 605 cubic inch Mopar big block making 800 horsepower sounds like it belongs under a modern turbocharged hood, not a classic Dodge Charger. Stroking a factory B/RB big block to this size takes it well past anything Chrysler engineers built at the factory, and it puts this Charger in the company of other 605-inch Mopar builds chasing the same big-inch, no-boost philosophy.
A 383-cubic-inch engine putting down almost exactly 383 horsepower is the kind of coincidence that doesn’t happen often enough for anyone to plan around it — but that’s exactly what this blue 1968 Dodge Charger did on the dyno at a Mopar show in Avondale, Arizona. Three pulls, real numbers, and an exhaust note commenters called worth hearing all the way to redline.
In this scene from The Fate of the Furious, Dom Toretto tries to escape with a stolen nuclear football while an enemy truck launches actual harpoons into his GTX-style muscle car and drags it down the street. It’s one of the most-watched clips Movieclips has ever posted, and the internet has spent years mining it for jokes about Dom’s mythical Family gear. Ridiculous as the physics are, the scene keeps a Mopar muscle car in front of tens of millions of viewers. Watch the clip that launched a thousand memes.
All Speed Customs skipped the Hemi entirely on this 1971 Plymouth Barracuda, dropping a V-10 and a paddle-shift transmission into a body reworked with custom modifications, silver paint, and red accents. The build, nicknamed Medusa, stopped traffic at the 2017 Detroit Autorama with a back-seat ‘wall of sound’ audio system and a fully custom interior. One viewer said it belonged in the Louvre. See why this Cuda broke every rule a numbers-matching restoration would follow.
One of the actual Dodge Chargers used on screen by Dominic Toretto in the original Fast and the Furious now belongs to an Italian collector — and in 2015, he did something most owners of movie-used muscle cars never risk. He ran it down a real quarter-mile at Rivanazzano’s dragstrip in Italy. The pass has racked up nearly six million views since, mostly from people who can’t believe he actually did it.
Tom Lembeck has spent decades building one of the more serious MOPAR collections around, so when he calls this 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Convertible one of his favorites, it’s worth paying attention. The car wears a rare Triple Black specification — paint, top, and interior all finished in black — paired with the potent 440 Six Pack engine, and Tom has owned it since 1999. Lou Costabile sat down with him in Chicago to find out why.
Tom Lembeck has owned this 1970 Plymouth Superbird — one of roughly 135 built with the 426 Hemi — since 2007, and Lou Costabile catches up with him in Chicago for ‘My Car Story.’ Finished in Plymouth’s High Impact Vitamin C orange, the car draws no shortage of comments calling it the most memorable muscle car of the 1970s. Watch to hear Lembeck’s decade-plus history with one of Mopar’s rarest homologation specials.
Tyler’s Neighborhood Garage caught a cold engine fire-up on Thanksgiving morning back in 2014 — no fanfare, just a Texas-tagged Mopar coming to life with a sound one viewer compared to a radial aircraft engine starting. There’s no smoke, no stumble, and one moment at the 2:06 mark that’s still getting viewers to hit rewind years later. Watch to hear exactly why this small clip refuses to be forgotten.
Only about 112 Dodge Chargers left the factory in 1970 with the 426 Hemi under the hood, and restoration shop owner Al Hickey found one hiding in plain sight. Paired with a Hurst pistol-grip four-speed and finished in burnt orange, this R/T carries details serious MOPAR collectors chase for years. Lou Costabile catches up with Hickey and the car at a Midwest MOPAR swap meet. The story behind how it landed in his eighteen-car collection is half the reason to watch.
Tom Lembeck’s 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T packs a numbers-matching 426 Hemi, a factory Pistol Grip 4-speed, and fewer than 12,000 original miles, plus an interior option, a factory Dictaphone, that most Mopar fans have never actually seen in person. Lou Costabile sat down with Tom to walk through what makes this all-original survivor so rare. Watch to see the details that left even viewers stunned.
Tom Lembeck’s 1970 Plymouth Cuda Convertible has been part of his Chicago-area Mopar collection since 2007, wrapped in a Lemon Twist yellow finish and hiding a rare 440 Six Barrel engine under the hood. It is one of the harder combinations to find today: a numbers-matching convertible with the drivetrain enthusiasts specifically chase. Lou Costabile sat down with Tom to hear the full story behind the car. Watch to find out what makes this particular Cuda stand out even in a collection full of Mopar muscle.