Original Dodge Challenger

[aeropilot]

I've just remembered that I actually known someone in the UK who owns one, albeit its been off the road for some time now, but he's owned it since the early or mid 80's from memory

[neutral 3]

mikial said:

Anyone know what happened to her ??

Helle.
She was the girlfriend of a pal of mine. Richard.. After they split up she married a very tall window cleaner , Bob.
I kid you not.

No way !! Really ?? I can still see her walking right past me in Clerkenwell as I walked into that agents !
She seems to have stopped doing Car and Bike shoots in 83. I seem to recall Page 3 girl Tessa Hewit ( my old Boss g / f knowing her ) as I was collecting shots of Tessa from that agents.

[neutral 3]

mikial said:

neutral 3 said:

mikial said:

Circa 1973 .

My 1970 440 RT Challenger. Location then was Crossoak Lane , Salfords , Surrey.
Nearby was the A23 pre M25. Drove that bad boy every morning up to Billingsgate Mkt at 4 am.

American auto parts in Wallington , Steve Thompson in Thornton Heath. Suppliers and mechanics.
Preceded by a 1966 260 Tiger. Followed with a 454 manual Corvette. Part exchanged the 'Vette for an orange LHD 2.2 911 E .

OMG !! Any more photos ?
Can you recall the reg number ?
I've often wondered how many Challengers came to Blighty during the 1970s,

No more pictures I'm afraid. I lost all when my PC crashed and burned and no back up.
GGY rings a bell but that could have been the Z28.
It's 45 years ago.

What a shame !! How about the Z/28 or Stingray or 911 ?

And you don't by any chance remember a blue 69 Shelby GT 500 that was in east London in 1982 ?
I had a mad tear up with In in my tweaked 3 Litre Capri one day and saw it several times after. Would love to know what happened to it !

[P5BNij]

Santa Pod this morning, quite a few Chally's there, I've never seen more than two in the same place before...









I've been home for a couple of hours now but I can still hear, taste and smell them..!

[neutral 3]

Not been to the Pod since a 1980 run what you brung. on my H1500. 13.7 @ 97, with road gearing on it.
And il take the blue one. Always preferred the bumble bee stripe to the side stripe.

[P5BNij]

I was surprised how small the Challengers looked in the flesh, well relatively speaking that is. Anyway, I'm well and truly hooked on this V8 malarkey.

[neutral 3]

Good shots!
I well remember thinking how wide and large it looked compared to the other cars in our street at the time, but now they don't seem as big.

[newsatten]

As Mentioned earlier a first gen WILL fit in a single garage! i have to place mine just short of the pier on an outside wall and with the aid of some wall mounted carpet i can open the drivers door just far enough to get out! lol

My one was on Top Gear way back when, pics are rubbish but all ive got, the dark ones from TG, the blurry pic is apparently prior to being restored and painting in Plumb Crazy, which it aint! its a bittsa BMW shade!

It was also filmed for the Jonny Depp flick Dark Shadows, but never made to cut?

[newsatten]

There's a second Chally lurking in the corner.........

[aeropilot]

This is a nice one.............and a snip at only $395k.....

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/dodge/...

[newsatten]

Back in 78' my Dad and i had a pair of SS 396 Camaro's the one in the pic is a 68', the other was a 69'

Blimey the back streets of Folkestone look a bit grim!

[aeropilot]

newsatten said:

Back in 78' my Dad and i had a pair of SS 396 Camaro's the one in the pic is a 68', the other was a 69'

Blimey the back streets of Folkestone look a bit grim!

Thrush sidepipes..... a defining image of the 1970's

[aeropilot]

One of Petrolicious great videos, about a one family from new owned '70 Hemi Challenger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Sxtw-SQcg

[P5BNij]

neutral 3 said:

Good shots!
I well remember thinking how wide and large it looked compared to the other cars in our street at the time, but now they don't seem as big.

I just wish they were more affordable, some of the prices being asked at the moment are in quality Ferrari Dino 308GT4 territory, same goes for some of the Chargers on sale. Picked up a couple of Mustang and Camaro books at Pod yesterday, much more affordable!

[aeropilot]

P5BNij said:

I just wish they were more affordable, some of the prices being asked at the moment are in quality Ferrari Dino 308GT4 territory, same goes for some of the Chargers on sale.

What's quality 308GT4 prices in UK, £50k plus....? So, $US65k or so, in which case, yeah, decent 1970/71 year Chally's will be in excess of that price range, and Chargers even more than that.

However, 72 and 73 Chally's are cheaper if you don't mind the later cars. You'd get a nice 73 Chally bought and shipped to UK for £25-30k.

Sadly, while prices have dropped in USA since the peak prices of 2014/5, they are still expensive for what they are.
I still wince at the low prices I remember back in the early 90's when I almost bought a Shelby, and what they are worth now...!!

[P5BNij]

I know I've only been looking for a short while but it appears to me that the asking prices of most of the really good US muscle is much higher than I was expecting, at least here in the UK anyway. Decent '64 to '68 Mustang Coupes vary quite a bit but seem much more affordable though, depending on spec. My eyes have certainly been opened these past few weeks and the more I look, the more I realise there are cars I'd consider buying now that I wouldn't even have given a passing glance to, say just a few years ago. By that I mean some of the mid to large size stuff like pre- wide track Impalas, Buick Rivieras, Dodge Coronets, Chevy Chevelles or Olds 442s etc.... I'm still learning about all these cars and am finding it fascinating.

[aeropilot]

While the 69-70 period is often considered the prime high water mark as far as US muscle is concerned, the prices of stuff from this period are thus similarly high for this reason, and while stuff like Hemi Cuda's, BOSS 429 Mustangs, COPO Camaro's, SS454 Chevelles etc would certainly feature in my lottery win fantasy garage, my real favourites have always been the earlier stuff to this era.
Stuff like a '67 Ford Fairlane GTA with a cammer, '67 Plymouth GTX Hemi, '64 Plymouth Sport Fury Max Wedge, '63 Ford Galaxie R-Code, '62 Pontiac Catalina SD421, '61 Chevy Impala 409 Bubble Top float my boat far more, and while all of those are also seriously expensive and rare collectors items, homage replicas of those can be had/built for quite reasonable money.....as long as you have a big enough garage to fit one into of course

[P5BNij]

The trouble with your replies aero is they make me want to do more 'research' on each car you mention! The 'Muscle Car Of The Week' channel on youtube isn't helping much either! If I could stretch to a decent Challenger I wouldn't hesitate but it looks like I'm more likely to plump for a Mustang, Cougar or first gen shape Firebird, it all comes down to garage size and access for me. Unless I move....

[aeropilot]

P5BNij said:

If I could stretch to a decent Challenger I wouldn't hesitate but it looks like I'm more likely to plump for a Mustang, Cougar or first gen shape Firebird

Mustang would be my choice, not just because I like them (depending on model year) but also because of the parts availability and back-up, which is better than the other choices. Cougar will be a problem parts wise (other than the mechanical bits which are all largely generic Ford stuff) and again first gen Firebird has only one collectible model, the '69.5 Trans Am, and there's not enough of them built/left to have created enough of a specialist parts supply.
Mechanical bits and service items won't be an issue, but if you ever need trim and other items including body bits, life gets harder.

This is why Mustang, Camaro, Corvette and Tri-Five Chevy stuff is so popular, the parts supply industry supporting these cars is huge and pretty much everything is available from lots of sources online and only a finger click away on t'interwebby. Does make life easier from this side of the pond

[P5BNij]

aeropilot said:

P5BNij said:

If I could stretch to a decent Challenger I wouldn't hesitate but it looks like I'm more likely to plump for a Mustang, Cougar or first gen shape Firebird

Mustang would be my choice, not just because I like them (depending on model year) but also because of the parts availability and back-up, which is better than the other choices. Cougar will be a problem parts wise (other than the mechanical bits which are all largely generic Ford stuff) and again first gen Firebird has only one collectible model, the '69.5 Trans Am, and there's not enough of them built/left to have created enough of a specialist parts supply.
Mechanical bits and service items won't be an issue, but if you ever need trim and other items including body bits, life gets harder.

This is why Mustang, Camaro, Corvette and Tri-Five Chevy stuff is so popular, the parts supply industry supporting these cars is huge and pretty much everything is available from lots of sources online and only a finger click away on t'interwebby. Does make life easier from this side of the pond

You're right of course regarding back up for the Mustang and for me it's the looks of the '67 / '68 model years as much as anything. Just got back from a little jaunt round the Cotswolds, stopping off briefly at Overbrook near Chipping Campden for a sly shuftie at this GT/CS... https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1106028 a lovely looking car but sadly out of my reach. There's a '68 Coupe on my doorstep which has just appeared on ebay but the condition doesn't appear to be as good as some others on offer at the same price (£26k), it also has some modern bits added here and there whereas the others are much more in period (some have history too). Plenty more out there though, which helps. Everyone I've spoken to at shows recently has driven home the point about spares back up for Ford and Chevy stuff being excellent and affordable

I think this is currently the only early Cougar for sale in the UK, it's restored so shouldn't need a hoard of parts to go with it but I suppose it's always handy to have them if you can find them... https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1003007 … I really do like it!

This early Firebird has a column shift auto which surprises me (not really up on these yet though), it looks quite plain too... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173884316715?ul_noapp=t... but will fit my garage.

Apologies to the OP for veering off topic again but this stuff is highly absorbing

Edited by P5BNij on Monday 13th May 16:52