I owned this car for 18 years and thought it was pretty cool. I pulled 4 of these sheets out of the car myself and no one else was in there before me 40 years ago. Only thing I always wished had been different was the engine code but it could have been worse.
Well yeah! That's definitely a cool car! 4 of them? Wow!!
:lookatthat: That would be a cool car!!! Or should I say, that is a cool car! Hope it's still around.
It's still around and has been lovingly restored. I bought it off the original owner in 78 or 79. I didn't like the faded colour but the car was totally intact and super solid so that is why I purchased it. I just wanted a Challenger with a good body, I kept it in terrific shape except for adding more power (Hemi) as well as a Dana and a shaker. Before I sold it though I made sure it was all back to original including matching #'s engine.
Really cool car - does KissAlien own it now? or is that another one.
Yes, that's the car.
Certain paint / top / stripe / interior combos set some cars above the rest. And a "lowly" 383 car with good options bumps it above a poor colored or optioned 440-4 car, etc. Having 15" wheels puts it in a class by itself, like that purple project that surfaced not too long ago. There just aren't many of them and they are special. Yeah there's still always a 440-6 car similarly optioned out there to take the wind out of your sails I guess, but still these are the particular cars that really make the hobby interesting. The people that had the foresight to option these out a certain way when they were ordered deserve a :woohoo:
And a lot of the other FM3 cars whether hardtop or convertible, have either a black or white stripe, I think? So to have the pink stripe really sets this car off.
My friend Glenn has a FM3 U code auto with the Magenta stripe....he never takes it out so I think he'll just end up selling it when the right offer comes around... :alan2cents:
It's a retina-popping color combo. I'm not saying it's really my thing, but I think it's cool they built them. Here's the 440-6 convertible, first pic I took at Englishtown, the others I found on the net.
another of the same 383 car I believe.
The 440-6 hardtop really needs the pink stripe to be a "10" IMO :bricks: Right now it's only a 9.99 LOL.
Yes: FM3 wasn't really a big deal to me however With the FM3 I really prefer the magenta stripes, black vinyl roof, rear spoiler, body coloured rally mirrors and hood blackout on the R/T hood. I just feel the FM3 is so wild that it looks best when complemented that way. The 15X7 rallys really help too, the bumper guards and sill plates are neat but aren't as essential to the overall effect.
I also am not really a fan of FM3 on Cudas because they don't have a hood blackout or longitudinal stripes.
But of course that is just personal taste.
I had a chance to buy an FM3 T/A when I owned this car but it had no vinyl top and a white interior, so that is why I passed on it. It was just way too much FM3 for me although the T/A hood certainly helped.
A couple more 440-6 hardtops - one from the late Daniel Banker's collection I believe, and the other is or was in the Harold Sullivan collection. I think everyone who had a chance to own one of these cars is very fortunate, congrats!
obviously a COOL car 8) they don't need multiple carbs to be cool!
very interesting, 4-weeks + late :huh: wonder why? - "In Plant/In Process" on Wednesday April 22, 1970
I wonder if they were waiting for paint? Crazy I know but maybe.
That is a way cool car
In Hayward CA there was an FM3 383 R/T running around that I thought had a black stripe.
I know where an A66 is with a black vinyl top and a 4 speed.
When I bought the car (I can't remember if it was 78 or 79) the stripe appeared to be white as it was severely faded. Where the stripe wrapped into the door jams it was Magenta but at first look I thought the pink paint had bled into it. It was a few decades before we ascertained the Magenta stripe code. Anyway, I think that by about 1975 or so most of them would have been faded and I think that led most people to change them to black or white or just leave them faded to white. So by even 80 or so not many people knew about the Magenta. Just a guess on my part.
:thinking: I can't recall ever seeing any FM3 cars around my neck of the wood's, let alone the magenta stripes. I wouldn't have known about it ether, and could see ware shelden thought they were white. I would probably thought the same. I probably would have not liked it back then, but now i think it's pretty cool. and with the magenta stripe it will get attention. :cool:
These shots are far away but you can see how they were washed out. circa 1979.
A few fun facts;
Rear valance missing because it was a bit damaged when the original owner had it and I mounted it to my 71 to sell it, I bought a new one from Chrysler for this car.
Gas cap is chrome. I bought this car off the original owner and he took it on a trip to Las Vegas and lost it at a gas stop. So he stopped at a Chrysler dealer and of course the replacements were chrome.
Headlight doors are off. I am at work 100 miles away from home and travel home around 2AM on Fridays. I generally average the trip in 1 hour and I had planned to setup the Aircraft landing lights on the trip home. Lots of Moose on the way home and I want to see them so I can bring the speed down in time. (I know it's hard to relate for owners of these collector cars today but running a car like this at up to 140MPH or so for an extended time to get somewhere in a hurry was what we did back then). When I bought the car on a Friday the 383 had a stretched timing chain so the very next day I had already swapped in a beefed 440 and with the 3.23 this car would pull an honest 140MPH right the way it sits here and I had already done that by this photo.
In the same time frame (78 & up) I had a U code R/T SE with 3:23 gears, 140 was doable but the front end gets really light, 120 feels pretty stable.... FWIW on the thread title... The only possible answer is "Obviously"...
Randy: You are correct, one thing I did find when I swapped the Hemi into this car is that it handled better at high speeds. The added weight on the nose made the car feel better at high speeds, not as good as a 71 B-body but better.