Random Hemi E-Body of the Week

[JS29]

I just got back from the Syracuse Nationals show, And met the guy I first met A couple of years ago who has A 71 hemi challenger that bought NEW. I told him about this site, about this tread and about @RzeroB gave his wife the info about this place. hope he joins up, and tells all of you guys his story!   

[Morty426]

I just got back from the Syracuse Nationals show, And met the guy I first met A couple of years ago who has A 71 hemi challenger that bought NEW. I told him about this site, about this tread and about @RzeroB gave his wife the info about this place. hope he joins up, and tells all of you guys his story!   

Any details on the car?

[RzeroB]

I just got back from the Syracuse Nationals show, And met the guy I first met A couple of years ago who has A 71 hemi challenger that bought NEW. I told him about this site, about this tread and about @RzeroB gave his wife the info about this place. hope he joins up, and tells all of you guys his story!   

Cool.    I believe that I might already have it in the works. 

[JS29]

His story of ordering A new ford, friend worked for A dodge dealer and talked him out of B5 and convinced him to go FC7 and the dealer would not fix the paint that gave him trouble. I don't want to steel his thunder, so will let him tell it. he lives less than an hour from me. 

[RzeroB]

Late July ... the production year is coming to a close ... quickly. If you didn't get your order in by now ... you probably missed out. Kind of like being in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and an 0-2 count. Not likely ... but you could get lucky ... like our last two entries for the month. One, Mark alluded to in his post, will be featured on the last day of the month to give the owner time to join up and tell his story himself. The other we will post up now as our next to last featured car for the production year.

Today's feature car doesn't really need an introduction as it seems everybody already knows it. Why? With a scheduled build date of June 14th (SPD 614), it is reportedly thee last '71 HemiCuda ever built ... and nobody seems to love it very much. Yep! We're talking about BS23R1B429180 ... see, you knew it! It's a very nice and significant car as it is the last of it's breed ... but nobody seems to want to own it for very long! If you follow the auctions, it's like it has a standing reservation with the big auction companies as it is at auction almost all of the time! If you don't, just Google the VIN and you will see what I mean ... it's everywhere! It's like the "Rodney Dangerfield" of HemiCudas ... it "gets no respect!"



BS23R1B429180 is 1 of only 107 made for the U.S. market, and of those 1 of 59 with a 4-speed. It is finished in GB5 True-Blue with a H6X9 black vinyl interior. With the highest known VIN for a 1971 HemiCuda, this car is widely accepted as being the last HemiCuda ever built.



The last HemiCuda ever made is somewhat sedate and not equipped with a bunch of attention getting options that these cars were known for. No Hi-Vis paint, no dual Racing Mirrors, no Rallye Wheels, no Go-Wing spoiler, and no in-your-face billboard stripes. Instead this HemiCuda was equipped with the A34 Super Track Pack 4:10 geared Dana Axle Package, A62 Rallye Gauge Package, B51 Power Disc Brakes, H31 Rear Window Defogger ... and the booming 2w R11 Music-Master AM Radio. Not very flamboyant, but a very effective end to a legend.

So why don't any of it's owners want to keep it for a while? It's a significant car and the exterior looks great ...



The interior looks factory fresh too ...



The Elephant looks well preserved and ready to stomp ...



I don't know why "Rodney" HemiCuda doesn't get the respect it deserves? Maybe it's got something to do with it's history and the all important documentation? I just don't know ... What's that? The grill? Yes, there is something peculiar with the way the grill was finished with the inner parts of the "cheese-grater" being painted blue instead of argent ... but that can't be it!



I don't know, but in my opinion it's a fine car with a very significant place in Mopar muscle car history as being thee last HemiCuda ever made. If you want to see the ad from it's latest appearance at auction, bang it here to see the ad from the Barrett-Jackson 2018 Scottsdale event https://barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1971-PLYMOUTH-HEMI-CUDA-210229

[Chryco Psycho]

Seems perfect to me , just a few million short of owning it 

[Morty426]

Seems perfect to me , just a few million short of owning it 

Shouldn't the grill be argent?

[RzeroB]

I just got back from the Syracuse Nationals show, And met the guy I first met A couple of years ago who has A 71 hemi challenger that bought NEW. I told him about this site, about this tread and about @RzeroB gave his wife the info about this place. hope he joins up, and tells all of you guys his story!   

As Mark mentioned, I was hoping Bill and Judy would show up here on the site and tell their story about their '71 Hemi Challenger RT. It's always better to get the story straight from the source versus a roundabout manner from other sources. Maybe they're here already and just laying low but I haven't seen any indication of it? As such, I'll just muddle through the preliminary stuff of the story as best I can trying not to screw it up and hope that they chime in at some point with some of the finer details. It's almost anti-climatic since you guys have known it was coming for a week or two now, so without further ado, lets bring on on last featured car for the production year ...



Say "hello" to JS23R1B435191 and it's one and only owner Bill (on the right). It is 1 of only 70 made for the U.S. market, and of those 1 of 58 with a 4-speed. It is finished in FC7 Plum-Crazy with V6W white RT stripes and a H6X9 black interior.

Bill is more of a blue kind of guy and is wearing a very comfortable looking pair of blue-jeans and a matching blue shirt. Bill's love of blue runs deep as he was (prior to buying the Challenger) a pretty die-hard fan of the Blue-Oval brand. Without trying to paraphrase the story, here is an excerpt from Dave's (aka "69_Six_Pack") thread about Bill and his Challenger over on Moparts ...

"The story on how he came to own the car was pretty cool. He said he was a 100% Ford guy and had just ordered a 1971 Boss 351 Mustang, went to work on the midnight shift and when he got home he got a call from the local Dodge dealer. He had heard he had ordered a new Mustang and wanted him to come down to the dealership to check out the Challenger. He told him that there was no chance he was buying a Dodge but decided to drop by for some fun, As they sat down at the desk and went through the Challenger and the options they ended up building Hemi Challenger that was equipped with close to the same options that he had ordered with his Mustang, that is why you see the spoiler package. The first shocker came when they tallied up the price...the Challenger and the Mustang came within $22 of each other! Pretty much a no brainer at the point but Bill (the Challenger owner) thought to himself not soo fast...no why these guys are going to be able to match what the Ford dealer is giving me for my trade.a 1967 Ford Fairlane GT 390 4-Speed. What about my trade Bill said....will how much was Ford offering?...I am not telling you that Bill said chuckling. Anyway the Dodge boys go out and check out the trade in....come back in and say its worth $1500....Bill puts his head down....well what was Ford offering? $1100 says Bill....the Dodge sticks out his hand and says I guess we have a deal....and that's how a Ford guy comes to own one of fifty eight or so 1971 Hemi Challenger R/T's."

I think that's a pretty cool story!! When I think about it, I think it's amazing that Bill was swayed to change brand loyalties!! Must of been one heck of a salesman who managed to get Bill to switch from the Blue-Oval to the Pentstar!! Just goes to show what a progressive open-minded kind of guy he is ... I think I would have been too closed-minded to have done it myself.

Here's the link to Dave's thread on this car over on Moparts  http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/2242876/re-is-this-71-hemi-challenger-in-the-running-for-the-last-hemi.html

Anyway, let's continue on with the car and take a peek at the fender tag ...



Looking at the fender tag we can see that this Hemi Challenger is equipped with the A33 Track Pack 3:54 geared Dana Axle Package, A45 Aero Package (front and rear spoilers), B51 Power Disc Brakes, C16 Center Console and the mighty 2w Music Master AM Radio among other things.

However, what is most significant about this fender tag, and this car, is it's VIN of 435191 and it's Scheduled Production Date of 616 (June 16th). It is 6,011 assigned VINs and two production days later than the last known '71 HemiCuda 429180. Therefore, this car, 435191, is not only 1 of 70 '71 Hemi Challenger RT's, but is also generally accepted as being THEE last Hemi E-body ever made!! How cool is that??!!

But it almost didn't come to be. Per Stanley Davoy's conversation about this car on Bryan Blakes "Factory 426 Hemi Cars (no clones)" facebook page, Ola Nilsson commented that initially Dodge rejected Bill's order for the car because it was submitted too late in the model year and Hamtramck was weeks behind on production with the orders they already had. Bill and the dealer persisted, some "strings were pulled" and the car was eventually built at some point, but so late that according to Scott Robinson, Bill had to wait all the way until Sept 14th 1971 to take delivery of the car!!   

Here's the link to Stanley's conversation on this car over on facebook  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1171144466239400&set=pcb.1034063833344842&type=3&theater

And if for some reason you can't get the above links to work, here are some additional pictures from those two sources ...



Notice anything interesting here?? Correct!! This car has BOTH the Dodge AND Plymouth style fron spoilers on it!! Front spoilers were not installed at the factory but instead were shipped in the trunk and the dealerships installed them. Apparently Hamtramck was clearing out the spoiler bins and tossed both sets of spoilers into the trunk of this Challenger and the dealer dutifully installed them both!!



Nice looking interior. I don't know about you, but I think the '71 Challenger H6?? vinyl bucket seats were perhaps the best vinyl interior of any year E-body ... just saying.



The elephant looks as potent today as it ever was. Bill supposedly raced it "back in the day" ... I wonder if he still "leans" on it every now and then to give it proper exercise??

Well there you have it, a years worth of Hemi E-bodies starting with the first Hemi E-body '70 HemiCuda BS23R0B100003 and ending with the last Hemi E-body '71 Hemi Challenger RT JS23R1B435191. Hope you enjoyed the thread and that maybe you saw one or two that you had never seen before. Fun stuff for sure. Thanks!!

[Chryco Psycho]

Beautiful Chall 

[JS29]

Yup that's the one! good guy to talk to. he wanted B5 but the salesmen said they just sold A blue one and convinced him to go FC7. He also said the spoilers were on the car when it came off the delivery truck, Govear said no way and asked him if he was there when it was unloaded. he told him YES he was, And they were on it when it came off the truck. he lives one County away from me, so I hope to see him again.                                                     Mark.

[NOS_Dylan]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and I'm really happy to find all these Hemi E-body data in this thread. I've been working on a personal project about the 12 JS27 Hemi ragtop, and found 2 FC7 that are not accounted for.

One is in this link: https://www.apexautosports.com/portfolio-item/1970-challenger-convert/
It's said to be a real Hemi ragtop and is owned by Dave Christenholz, and is also a 4-speed with black interior, so is it one of the 4 black interior car, 171715, 171916, 229923 and 307215, as all these 4 cars have rallye wheels, or is it just another found?

The other one was present at Chrysler's 100th Anniversary and served as a media test drive car. No further infomation could be found, but I though it should be from Chrysler's factory collection. It has a black Shaker and no stripes.

If both cars are real, does it make 7 FC7 cars?

Thanks!

[Chryco Psycho]

Welcome @NOS_Dylan from Panama

[6bblgt]

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum and I'm really happy to find all these Hemi E-body data in this thread. I've been working on a personal project about the 12 JS27 Hemi ragtop, and found 2 FC7 that are not accounted for.

One is in this link: https://www.apexautosports.com/portfolio-item/1970-challenger-convert/
It's said to be a real Hemi ragtop and is owned by Dave Christenholz, and is also a 4-speed with black interior, so is it one of the 4 black interior car, 171715, 171916, 229923 and 307215, as all these 4 cars have rallye wheels, or is it just another found?

The other one was present at Chrysler's 100th Anniversary and served as a media test drive car. No further infomation could be found, but I though it should be from Chrysler's factory collection. It has a black Shaker and no stripes.

If both cars are real, does it make 7 FC7 cars?

Thanks!

Dave Christenholz broke up his collection around 2007-2008, he sold off some cars & the remaining cars were sold thru a MECUM auction in May 2008

looks like the Challenger was already gone, but I'm sure it is one of the "known" cars (possibly the FC7 JS27R0B owned currently by the "brothers"?)
https://www.mecum.com/news/2008/01/10/vip-preview-of-the-david-christenholz-collection-at-scottsdale-az/2001/

not sure a car used by Chrysler at the 100th anniversary was a real HEMI Challenger R/T convertible

[Cudino]

One is in this link: https://www.apexautosports.com/portfolio-item/1970-challenger-convert/
It's said to be a real Hemi ragtop and is owned by Dave Christenholz, and is also a 4-speed with black interior, so is it one of the 4 black interior car, 171715, 171916, 229923 and 307215, as all these 4 cars have rallye wheels, or is it just another found?

Dave Christenholz broke up his collection around 2007-2008, he sold off some cars & the remaining cars were sold thru a MECUM auction in May 2008

looks like the Challenger was already gone, but I'm sure it is one of the "known" cars (possibly the FC7 JS27R0B owned currently by the "brothers"?)
https://www.mecum.com/news/2008/01/10/vip-preview-of-the-david-christenholz-collection-at-scottsdale-az/2001/

not sure a car used by Chrysler at the 100th anniversary was a real HEMI Challenger R/T convertible

Right you are 6bblgt!  This Christenholz/Apex car is 171916.  I don't know its earliest history, but starting from about 1990 owners included Walt Downer (who started but I don't believe completed a restoration), Dave Christenholz (who apparently had it restored by Aloha, which later spun off to become Apex), Bill Wiemann, and is now owned by the Brothers.  I believe Wiemann was the one who added the blackout hood and white longitudinal stripes that it still has on it now.  Of the 12 known JS27R0Bs 5 are FC7, 4 are sticks with black interiors and one auto with white interior.

- Wade

[NOS_Dylan]

Another interesting found, JS27R0B159854.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/-/131749051768?nordt=true&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l10137

Claimed to be a real automatic Hemi Challenger Convertible. Originally FJ5 Sublime but was repainted to Plum Crazy. Just check the photos.