Photo: YouTube/WD Detailing
In September 1969, the Dodge Challenger debuted on the American market, effectively putting Dodge into the pony car club after a five-year absence. It was the only all-new model launched that year by a domestic manufacturer, so its sales figures were inordinately high, at 77,000. Most were ordered with one of five V8s offered for the new Mopar pony, from the modest 318 up to the 440 Magnum.
As a Dodge fun machine, the Challenger was granted the birthright of being a member of the Scat Pack and admitted into the Road/Track society of high-performance Mopar Fratzogs. Nearly one in four Challengers assembled for the initial model year sported the R/T badge of nobility. However, even the small-block options could deliver plenty of smiles per gallon.
The 340-cubic-inch (5.6-liter) V8 had been powering Chrysler products for two years when the Challenger hit the road, so the newest member of the ChryCo family inherited all rights to bring the grunt engine. The most popular versions of it were packed into the one-year-only Challenger T/A Six-Pack and the AAR 'Cuda 340 Six-Barrel (the Dodge's twin cousin on the Plymouth side of the family).
But those icons, built as homologation vehicles for the Trans American Championship under the jurisdiction of the Sports Car Club of America, weren’t Chrysler’s only 340-powered pony cars in 1970. A four-barrel carburetor variant was offered for the regular cars, and nearly 7,000 buyers put their money where their mouth was and drove one home.
Photo: YouTube/WD Detailing
One of those examples was parked in a barn, packed with two other famous Mopars of the era. The license plate shows that the car was last used on public roads in 1984. That was a good forty years ago, and those years have not been kind to the iconic Challenger. First, the current owner (who has had it for almost three decades) pushed it into the shed and left it to the elements and animals.
Before he tossed it aside, he changed the color scheme to a two-tone design that is strangely familiar to all Mopar fanatics, but also very wrong on a Dodge. It looks very similar to what Plymouth put on their E-body Barracudas, which makes it unpleasant to even look at. Paint preferences aside, the important detail is that the car has no engine, with the good news that the engine is at the owner's home.
When the car was retired “in the 90s,” as the owner recalls for the camera (see video below), its engine failed. The oil pump shaft snapped clean off, leaving some collateral damage to the crankshaft. A rebuild was planned, but never got around to it, and the Dodge pony simply rotted away in its own boredom until the merry guys at WD Detailing came knocking.
Photo: YouTube/WD Detailing
After cleaning out the other two cars that shared the barn with this Challenger (a 1972 Plymouth Satellite and a very rare 1972 Dodge Charger SE Brougham with a sunroof), the last one in line opted for a cosmetic upgrade. This 1970 Challenger wasn’t much to begin with.
Cleaning revealed only its hidden flaws, such as a hole in the floorboard under the rear bench, rotted front fenders, and a trashed interior. Mice have crawled into the headliner, for the love of combustion, and the rest of the interior is nothing to write home about either.
The 340 four-cylinder, eight-cylinder engine currently elsewhere is the matching-numbers unit, rated from the factory at 275 horsepower and 340 lb-ft (279 hp, 461 Nm). The center stack between the front bucket seats reveals a three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission.
Photo: YouTube/WD Detailing
However, we do not know which specific rear end it was paired with. The factory installed a 3.23 open differential as standard, with the Sure Grip option available, and a 3.55 or 3.91 could be ordered for an additional charge. At some point in the distant past, this Challenger was a race car before the current owner purchased it.
Now, since this is a factory-original 340 V8, this Challenger is the proud bearer of the A66 package, which includes a 5.6-liter, 275-horsepower engine, dual exhaust, an R/T-style dual-scoop hood, beefed-up suspension and brakes, 15×7-inch Rallye wheels with E60 tires, bee stripes on the rear (may be deleted), “Scat Pack” stickers on the rear windows, and the removal of the wheel well moldings.
Aside from the hood, nothing remains of the package today, but that doesn't mean this awesome Dodge can't be brought back to life, one way or another. By that I mean the owner can keep the original 340 V8 or go with a resto-mod approach.
The team at WD Detailing has already considered this last perspective from the Hellcat's perspective. Whichever route the owner chooses, the car will need some serious work. Given its condition, what do you think is the best route to take?
