Random Hemi E-Body of the Week

[anlauto]

Nice to see them restored with the bench seat column shift

[750-h2]

Most auto on the column Hemi's were purpose built. My friend recently bought a 69 COPO Camaro and it is also an auto on the column. Super tough cars in my opinion!    

[Chryco Psycho]

I would never order one with an auto nevermind column but cool cars anyway !!

[Topcat]

I think many had bench seats since Drive In movies and fast cars then; just went well together.  My theory.

[cuda dad]

I have learned that bucket seats were referred to as "birth control seats" back in the 60's and 70's.

[Culvers]

BS23R0B207656 is 1 of about 652 made for the U.S. market, and of those 1 of 368 with an automatic. It is finished in the rather rare color of FY6 Citron-Gold with V6X black "Hockey Stick" stripes, a V1X black vinyl top ... and a H4X9 black vinyl interior.



This HemiCuda is actually very nicely equipped as it has the A01 Light Group Package, A21 Elastomeric Front Bumper Package, A32 Super Performance 4:10 geared Dana Axle Package, A62 Rallye Gauge Package, A67 Rear Window Louvers Package, B51 Power Disc Brakes, C36 painted Sport Mirrors, J81 Go-Wing, R35 AM /FM Radio and S77 Power Steering among other things.



And here it is ... the bench seat interior with the column-shift automatic (yes we know the Tuff Wheel wasn't available in E-bodies). The funny thing is that the base Cuda came standard with bucket seats - so whoever ordered these cars had to specifically order the bench seat in place of the standard buckets.

I have a fender tag in my little registry for this car, but it seems to be a fake

[RzeroB]

Thanks Culvers, to my untrained eye the only thing that looks "fake" to me is that maybe it's just a little too perfect? 

[6bblgt]

 But what color is it?   

[RzeroB]

Speaking of intrigue ... next is a beautiful looking Sublime green Hemi Challenger RT ... but with a dark secret.



JS23R0B157786 is 1 of about 287 made for the U.S. market and of those 1 of 150 with an automatic. It is finished in FJ5 Sublime with a V9X black Bumblebee stripe, V1X black vinyl top and a H6X9 black vinyl interior. It's a stunning looking vehicle!



You may be asking yourself "what is a Hemi Challenger RT doing outside during the winter with all of that snow?" As it turns out this particular Hemi Challenger is no stranger to cold and snow as it was sold new to a Mr Van Waldick out of Laythan Dodge in frigid Watertown NY.

I know what you're thinking "Watertown NY ... frigid?" Oh believe me yes it is! Having spent three frosty years there courtesy of the U.S. Army, I felt it was colder there than the years I spent living in Anchorage Alaska! Brrrrrrrrrr!!



As we can see from the fender tag, Mr Van Waldick modestly optioned his Hemi Challenger RT when he ordered it. It looks like he checked off the B51 Power Disc Brakes, a C16 Center Console, a G34 Painted LH Sport Mirror, the mighty R11 AM Music Master AM radio and most importantly the stout A32 Super Performance 4:10 geared Dana Axle Pkg. Interestingly Mr Van Waldick got a little "present" from the factory with his Challenger ... a HRX9 black leather interior even though he didn't order it that way ... thanks Ma Mopar!!



Mr Van Waldick, being a life-long resident of Watertown, was accustomed to the cold weather. When he took delivery of his brand new Challenger in the late fall of 1969 he didn't park it in his garage to await the coming of spring, no, he drove it! In fact, he drove it a lot and quickly garnered a street reputation as a force to be reckoned with! This rear-end view of his Challenger was probably a common sight to all of those who tried to "challenge" him in his Hemi Challenger!



February 19th 1970. On that fateful day Mr Van Waldick completed his shift at the paper mill and headed home from work. The big Hemi was thirsty, so he stopped into the gas station to fill it up with premium. Upon leaving the gas station, he hammered the throttle unleashing the big Hemi and the car accelerated like a rocket down the road. Up ahead a tractor-trailer suddenly pulled out of a side street in front of him. With nowhere to go and not enough room to stop, he slammed on the brakes and prayed for a miracle. It didn't happen. The Challenger skidded along colliding with the trailer between the axles of the tractor and trailer, shearing off the roof and emerging out the other side! Fortunately Mr Van Waldick had the presence of mind to duck down across the seats just before the collision occurred and emerged from the wreck shaken but relatively unscathed!

Unfortunately the same could not be said of the Challenger. It was bad. It was hauled off to nearby Dobbin's Salvage for evaluation and disposition. The entire roof had been sheared off by the force of the collision. In doing so, the C-pillars / "sail" panels transferred a lot of that force down upon the rear of the car heavily damaging it. Surprisingly though the front half of the car, other than the top of the A-pillars, received almost no damage at all.

At Dobbins they had a '70 SE Challenger with a Slant-Six that had been in a front-end collision and they came up with the idea to graft the back of the SE Challenger to the front of the Hemi Challenger in order to save it! From what I can gather, they pretty much removed the back-half of the Hemi Challenger around the rear-quarter panel to door seam and then grafted on the back-half of the SE Challenger and roof to make ... a Hemi Challenger RT ... SE??

The car has since had the SE style back window removed and a traditional window installed in it's place. It's been restored and nicely detailed since then too. But with it's collision and resurrection not being so secret, it's has steadily lagged behind in value every time it has come to market as compared to it's Hemi Challenger RT siblings whose pedigree hasn't been tainted by an infusion of Slant-Six powered SE sheetmetal. Still a nice car though and if you don't mind the tainted pedigree, it's a real R-code Hemi Challenger RT that can be had for a lot less than a comparable "pure" one!

[JS29]

Though I had no knowledge of this car, I knew Gorden Dobbens and been to his place of business numerous times. Not surprised he would want a car like that saved.    

[Chryco Psycho]

Still a nice Challenger !!

[750-h2]

For a collectible car like that, I am glad they repaired it instead of doing a rebody.   

[RzeroB]

This is BS23R0B146710 which is 1 of about 652 made for the U.S. market, and of those 1 of 368 with an automatic. It is finished in FE5 Rallye-Red with V6X black "Hockey Stick" stripes and a H6X9 black vinyl interior.



Got to love them Hockey Stick stripes ... I do! I can't make out where that license plate may be from ... can anybody venture a guess?



This HemiCuda is optioned with the A21 Elastomeric Front Bumper Package, A32 Super Performance 4:10 geared Dana Axle Package, A62 Rallye Gauges, B51 Power Disc Brakes, chrome left and right Sport Mirrors (G31 and G33) and the booming R11 Music Master 2W AM Radio among other things.

Note that this car is not coded for a C16 Center Console. Without the center console the automatic should be ... you guessed it, on the column (where do all of these column shift HemiCudas come from?).

Also note the interesting silver tag attached to the fender tag screw. I do not know the significance of the silver tag - the first word says "chrysler" - but the series of numbers after that I do not know what they mean. Almost looks to be the same shape and size as a warranty engine block ID tag? In the old sales ad that I found the seller did say that the car did NOT have it's original numbers-matching engine. What are your thoughts on the tag?



And then look what showed up on Moparts a few years ago (2016)! "Viperakron" announces that he bought the original engine and is looking to reunited it with the car! Wonder how that happened? If a factory warranty engine was installed early in it's life, what would the dealer typically do with the bad original engine that they pulled out? I thought that they were suppose to ship it back to Chrysler for engineering analysis of the failure? Perhaps not. Maybe one of the dealership mechanics took it home instead and it eventually made it's way to Viperakron's hands over the years? What you see in the Moparts thread is all that there is to it ... never says if the engine was successfully reunited with the car or not ... anybody know?

[JP426]

That silver tag looks like a Chrysler ignition distributor tag.

[anlauto]

Yea...that's the tag off of the 426 auto distributor