On the thread about Australian Falcons the Chargers were brought up. I have seen pictures of them before but know nothing about them. I had always thought they were basically the same as an American Barracuda. Now I see that they are not. Tell me more?
Highly sought after. You know how 69 Chargers are crazy money here? Think top dog Mopar down under. Rare, went through the same many owner, rented mule phase.
They were cheap back int the day, so the laws of attrition got to them. They made a 318 Auto and a 340 Auto [E55] in the 770 spec trim. But the 265 Hemi sixes were the fast ones E38 and E49's They were lightweight [under 3000 lbs for a street trim car] and the E38's were lightest. The Charger development was done by the "skunkworks" as a secret project in Adelaide Australia [Head office didn't know about it] The Test mules were shortened Valiant Utes Chrysler only spent AUD $2,000,000 cutting six inches out of the wheelbase of its Valiant saloon and 150kg off the weight to quickly create the pillarless, two-door, fast-back Charger. At one stage, it got 50% of all Chrysler Australia sales. I am glad I grew up when they were a cheap plentiful and depreciated car [I was 21 with a "works" E38] here's the South Pacific Production Touring Cars in 1972 with a Charger on the front row.
Love the "Hey Javelin"/"Hey Charger" commercial! The cult classic, "The Man From Hong Kong" used one to full advantage. I truly wish more US magazines, at least what's left..Would EDUCATE us Yanks on those Aussie muscle cars!
Harv thanks for the memories a fellow I knew had a ute built up to E49 standards and he showed me a brand new body shell he purchased to build a Coupe E49, lost touch with him so not sure if it happened I had a Torana XU 1
Late 1970s there were a few used car dealers in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne with only fast Aussie cars in the forecourt. Roll up in a '68 GTS Monaro and they were only to happy to let you take a test drive in whatever took your fancy. For me it was 20 minutes of fun in a hot Charger or Torana XU-1. Kevin Dennis Motors was making a name for himself with XU-1 Torana,s that were modified from hot straight six to V8. Don,t know if that was legal at the time . This was about the same time as the Govenment ban on those new super fast V8s that were on the showroom floor. I think that came from the Holden Torana SLR-5000. ( 4 door too ) In another older thread somewhere on the hamb a U.S. member commented that Aussie supercars had extremely long names with all the ID numbers
308 LJ Toranas and the Phase IV GTHO Falcon are the main culprits. Chrysler helped too… the Chargers had almost as much grunt from a 6. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercar_scare Evan Green is not popular in a lot of circles. cheers, Harv
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