1970 Dodge Charger vs. 1970 Dodge Challenger: Mopar’s Toughest Family Feud

Dodge gave muscle car buyers an impossible choice for 1970: the aggressive, hidden-headlight Charger with NASCAR-bred styling, or the brand-new Challenger, a pony car built on E-body bones shared with the Plymouth Barracuda. Both could be ordered with the fearsome 426 Hemi, though fewer than 400 buyers of either car actually checked that box. Read on to find out why Mopar fans still argue over which one deserves the crown.

Pull up to a Dodge dealership in the fall of 1969 and salespeople had a genuine problem on their hands: two brand-new muscle cars competing for the same buyer’s money, and neither one was obviously the wrong choice. The Charger had spent years building a reputation with hidden headlights and a fastback roofline shaped as much by NASCAR wind tunnels as by design studios. Sitting right next to it was something Dodge had never built before, a pony car with E-body curves borrowed from the same platform as the Plymouth Barracuda, aimed squarely at the Mustang and Camaro crowd. Both could be ordered with the same terrifying 426 Hemi under the hood. Which one actually belonged in your driveway depended entirely on what kind of muscle car person you were.

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Two Cars, Two Completely Different Missions

The Challenger arrived for 1970 as Dodge’s answer to a fight it had been sitting out, going head to head with the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro on the same E-body underpinnings Plymouth used for the Barracuda. The Charger, meanwhile, had already earned its stripes as a big, brawny fastback with racing pedigree, its hidden-headlight nose and swept-back roofline tracing straight back to the aero-focused Charger 500 and Daytona programs. Where the Challenger leaned into curvy, tucked-in pony car proportions, the Charger stayed wide, flat, and unmistakably a full-size muscle machine built for a different kind of buyer entirely.

The Engine Bay Didn’t Play Favorites

Order sheets from both cars ran through the same terrifying options list, topped by the 426 Hemi and the 440 Six Pack. Dodge built just 356 Hemi Challengers for 1970, a number so small that finding one today at a car show is basically an event in itself, while the 440 Six Pack found its way into roughly 2,035 Challengers split across hardtops, Special Editions, and a handful of convertibles. Out of 18,512 total R/Ts built that year, the vast majority of buyers actually went with the more sensible 383, which says plenty about how rare the top-tier engines really were even when new.

Why This Argument Refuses to Die

Both cars have become blue-chip Mopar collectibles, but scarcity cuts differently for each. Hemi Challengers and Hemi Chargers alike command serious money precisely because so few left the factory that way, while the more common 383 and 440 cars have become the entry point for enthusiasts who want genuine E-body or B-body muscle without a six-figure price tag. Fifty-plus years later, the fight between these two is still one of the most fun arguments in the whole Mopar world, and there’s still no clean, universally agreed-upon answer. Online forums and Mopar-specific car shows still dedicate entire threads and side-by-side displays to the debate, proof that neither camp has any intention of conceding the argument anytime soon.

The Charger’s NASCAR Bloodline

The Charger’s aggressive fastback shape and hidden headlights were not purely cosmetic choices — they descended directly from Dodge’s NASCAR aero programs, where the Charger 500 and later the wing-equipped Daytona chased every fraction of a mile per hour on high-speed ovals. That racing DNA gave the 1970 Charger a visual and mechanical seriousness the Challenger, as a brand-new nameplate with no competition history behind it yet, simply could not claim in its very first model year on sale.

The Challenger’s E-Body Foundation

Sharing its E-body platform with the Plymouth Barracuda meant the Challenger benefited from a chassis specifically engineered to accept the full spread of Mopar’s biggest engines, from a mild slant-six all the way up to the 426 Hemi, without major structural changes between trims. That shared engineering investment let Dodge and Plymouth split development costs while still giving each brand its own distinct sheet metal and identity, a common Detroit strategy of the era that worked out particularly well for both nameplates.

Weight, Balance, and What They Actually Meant on the Street

On paper, the two ran close, with the lighter Challenger claiming a slight edge in 0-60 times and handling thanks to less weight to haul around, while the Charger’s heft translated into a planted, stable feel at speed that made it the better long-haul bruiser on an open highway. Neither one gave up much to the other in a straight line, which is exactly why this argument never really got settled back in period and still doesn’t today among enthusiasts who own both.

Special Editions That Split the Difference

Dodge offered a genuine spread of special trims on both cars for 1970, from the Challenger T/A homologation special built for SCCA Trans-Am racing to the Charger R/T’s own performance-focused trim level, each aimed at buyers who wanted factory credibility rather than aftermarket add-ons. These special editions carry their own premiums in today’s market, often exceeding what a comparable standard R/T or base Challenger commands at auction.

How Rarity Reshaped the Argument Decades Later

Production numbers that seemed unremarkable in 1970 have become the entire basis of today’s valuations, since a Hemi car that struggled to sell new because of its price and insurance surcharges is now precisely what makes it desirable to collectors decades later. That inversion — rarity as a selling point rather than a liability — is common across the muscle car era, but it plays out with unusual clarity across these two closely related Dodge nameplates specifically.

What Period Road Testers Actually Said

Period road tests generally gave the nod to the Challenger for outright agility and the Charger for high-speed composure and interior room, a split that mirrored exactly what each car was designed to prioritize from the outset. Neither magazine verdict settled the argument for buyers at the time, and the debate has only gotten louder as both cars have become genuine collector icons rather than simply competing showroom options.

No Wrong Answer, Then or Now

There was never a clean winner between these two in 1970, and there still isn’t one today. What Dodge actually built was two completely different answers to the same question, and Mopar fans have spent more than fifty years arguing about which answer was better without ever reaching a conclusion anyone fully agrees on. That’s arguably the healthiest outcome Dodge could have hoped for — two nameplates strong enough, on their own merits, to keep the argument alive for generations rather than settling it in a single model year.

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