By Jay Hirsch
The mid-1960s ushered in the short-lived muscle car era. This began with the 1964 Pontiac GTO, when a big V-8 was installed in the low-end Pontiac Tempest. The combination of a relatively light weight vehicle and a powerful engine resulted in a fast, inexpensive car. By the end of the decade Chrysler, Ford and GM all had several variations on the muscle car in their lineup.
For Dodge this was taking the low-end Coronet and installing under the hood either the OHV 383 CID, the OHV 440 CID, or the potent and rare OHV 426 CID Hemi engine. The Coronet was transformed into the Dodge Charger. The 383 V-8 was available with 2 bbls or 4 bbls. The 440 V-8 was either a 4 bbs or the optional 3-2 bbls, which put out 390 hp at 4,700 rpm and had a torque of 490 at 3,200 rpm, or the rare and potent 426 Hemi with 415 hp at 5,600 rpm.
The Charger was 207 inches long and weighed 3,600 lbs. The R/T was a high-performance Charger, which featured the 440 engine with 4 bbls. This was known as the Magnum 440 V-8. The Charger 500 was a NASCAR version of …
