If people still collect cars 50 years from now, the hunt will lack some of the variety of yesteryear. Take pony cars such as this Dodge Challenger, for example. The original owner (or purchasing dealer) was able to select from dozens of options to personalize their new car, whereas today, there are just a handful of option packages and colors to choose from. Want heated seats? They only come in this $3,000 package. Want to delete those stripes? You can’t, it’s part of the package. Before I start shaking my fist at a cloud, let’s take a look at this solid Challenger R/T project on eBay in Allen, Texas. It was built in Los Angeles and spent most of its life in Southern California, and although it’s had a rough life, it’s a complete car offered at a typical Mopar muscle car price: $31,500 obo.
Let’s start with the Jekyll and Hyde color scheme. The original color was a subdued (for 1970) Dark Burnt Orange Metallic, which will undoubtedly look spectacular in the sun. It also had the “Gator Grain” vinyl top and stripe delete, so in terms of Mopar muscle, this was a sleeper. Notice the trailer hitch; you don’t see many modern Challengers doubling as tow vehicles in 2025.
The original engine was the standard (in R/T models) 383 Magnum, which was rated at 335 horsepower and 425 lb.-ft. of torque. This is not the original engine, but it is a 1969 High-Performance 383. Judging by the headers (complete with firewall decal), I’d say that we know why the original engine has been cast to the winds: Somebody liked to have a good time. The transmission is a four-speed, which is numbers matching. To make sure the 383 was giving its all, the original owner specified manual steering (but also power front disc brakes). Have it your way, indeed.
The interior is complete and aside from carpet and upholstery, it doesn’t look too bad. Unfortunately, you’ll have to find a pistol grip shifter to replace the boring, not-pistol-grip shifter somebody installed somewhere in the hazy past. You can see the original burnt orange paint on the A-Pillar (not bad, huh?).
This is where the price tag starts to make a bit of sense; most Challenger projects will require a bank account just for metal repair, but this one is fundamentally rust-free (well, I might double-check the roof if I were dropping this kind of coin). There’s no getting over the fact that only the well-to-do need apply, but if you’re looking for a Challenger R/T project, this one is hard to beat. We all know that the best way to make a small fortune restoring a car is to start with a large one, but some of us enjoy the journey, and this will be a beautiful Dodge when it’s done.
Manual steering was the way to go considering Chryslers horrible power steering, though with a big block, I’m not totally sure about that. A six or small block, no choice, manual all the way. Too bad the original owner didn’t consider that. 340 was a great engine, though a 318 4sp was still very nice and got you a lot in the way of reliability, MPG, low insurance costs. I had a buddy with a 318 4sp and a nice 3.23 rear end ratio, just about perfect.
When it was featured here last April, one of the comments said had it listed on their website for $35,000. The pictures look to be the same, you’d figure they would have cleaned it up or taken new pictures during that time since the ad wasn’t working.
This would have been a fun car to have, it’s hard to go wrong with what is generally a trouble free 383 and a 4spd. Why was it replaced, who knows, most people didn’t put a lot of value on matching numbers for a couple of decades. It was often easier to find a core or used engine rather than rebuild the original and wait for a machine shop to fit it into their schedule and perform the work if it was someone’s daily driver.
Steve R
Anybody know .. was the luggage 🧳 rack a factory piece ?
They were. I’d seen one on a car, a convertible challenger, used to showcase all the options available. As far as the engine goes, it’s a good year block to have. My car had a replacement block, pretty valuable to have, higher nickel content.
Thanks J. 👍
Yes, but the one included here most certainly isn’t factory.
I remember a 70′ R/T Challenger 440/6pk pulling a dragster at Baylands. It was a regular back in the early/mid 80’s. Also, regarding trailer hitches. My brother spotted a Black 70′ Buick GSX pulling a mid size camper trailer. This was in the early 2000’s making it even more remarkable. I had two 383 68′ Chargers myself 1) auto/ 1) 4spd with trailer hitches after high school early 80’s. It seems strange today but, back then they were just cars. Emphasis on “just cars”.
You are right, there also wasn’t the prevalence of pickup like their is today. Sure, many families had a station wagon few had any form of pickup, we had a station wagon, my mom hated when my dad would want to fill up the back with stuff to take to the dumps. A couple of times a year I’d go with my dad and we’d rent a small open trailer either to pick something up or go to the dumps with things that were too big or too dirty for my moms station wagon.
Steve R
Some of us still do. I fitted a hitch to my ’69 Skylark so I can tow my racetrack camper to (surprisingly) racetracks.
Way to much money for this car .
A solid non rusty e body has great value, but, it is about $100k away from perfection, so, you’re into it for 130k, and unless its a hemi or 6 pack I doubt it’ll be worth 130k. Maybe, I just don’t see it.
Had a friend in high school(1977)that bought a nice gold ’70 R/T SE 383 4spd cheap. Another friend was a mechanic wiz and he built him a hot 440 Six-Pack. That thing was a strong running machine! Good times…
Really? $31K??