1973 Dodge Challenger rallye from North America - Comments

Radiator, hoses. belts, engine rebuild twice. rear leaf springs, distributor, thermostat & housing. fan in front of radiator twice.etc.etc.

I bought this vehicle in 1986 from a dodge dealer, this was one of the workers cars and they done a few things to it. They replaced timing chain, vinyl roof, and paint & body. It had a low positraction rear end. Top speed 103 mph on flat ground,106 mph down hill. It had a slapstick auto trans and the rear windows rolled down. Metal flake blue with the Rallye package. Chrysler never improved the outer door handles. They were pot metal and could break in freezing weather. And they would. Basically I bought this car with way too many miles on it as a daily driver and it was a money pit! Gas mileage was 13-14 highway, less in town. Oh it was a pretty car and quick off the line. Back in 1986-87-88-89-90 you could walk away from a lot of cars off the line and the highway. Except for the 1986-87 Buick Gran nationals I encountered. And the Corvettes. Those Buicks must of had a top end way over my 103 mph. A lot of girls would honk at me in my Challenger and people would leave notes on it, wanting to buy. People scary people would mess with me on the highway at night, either riding my tail with they, re brights on for miles, and an older couple in an import that tried to run me off the road for reasons to this day I wonder about. In both of those situations (just 3 situations 1 other too) I was merely slowly out accelerating them to change lanes. I was not doing the "kowalski" thing at all, like in the movie "vanishing point" I didn't even floor it. It was a fun car, but I sold it and bought a low profile sedan. I kept a radar detector because oh yeah police would occasionally follow the muscle car. It was a lot of fun and stress and money for 4 years. So enough was enough. The car cornered good with the 340.,and front disc brakes.1973 first year for electronic ignition. The Challengers sat lower than the Cudas even. Twice in 4 years I was followed home (I worked 32 miles away at the time) so I would lose the person by driving aimlessly in circles some where. And again these people that followed me may have innocently just wanted to look at and buy the Challenger, who knows? I kept an alarm system on it though.

Maby I missed it - I'm presuming the vehicle was in poor mechanical condition to obtain a top speed of 103 m.p.h. with an engine like that. I'm not trying to be rude - I think a mint condition vehicle of the same would see the far edges of 140.

It's a 73...smog devices were in play.

About the low top speed, notice that lower rear end gears than original was installed.

Smog devices are easy to tear out and forget about. ;-)

Those are some pretty creepy experiences. I've owned a '73 Charger and '71 Barracuda since 1987, and luckily never had unsettling experiences like people trying to follow me home, or mess with me on the road.

Actually, the Charger used to attract some weird people. They would come up to compliment the car, but they often had beer on their breath in the middle of the day and were almost always pretty scraggly and wanted to hang around and talk longer than most people would think is normal. I also began to think that it might be attracting the wrong kinds of people.

In the past couple of years, though, it seems like more normal kinds of people have started noticing it. But then, my cars are totally stock, so they don't really look as though they're "looking for trouble."

Your Challenger sounds like fun. What kind of 0-60 times can you get and is it the stock engine?

6:08

That's the spirit! The smogger garbage from the 1970's deserves nothing more than a cold, lonely ride filled with obscurity, down to the local land fill sites, never to rise again. A large garbage can labeled smogger parts should be at every service station and every garage too.

Anyone have a new Challenger. Do up a review. They sound great and look pretty good too, I'd rather have an original though. The only thing that didn't please me was the interior. It looks like it was cloned from a Charger or a Magnum or something. You would think that with a $60,000 price tag they could have come up with something a little different.

It also seems that the powers that be (the government and the auto makers) still don't get it either. By having such a steep price tag, they still are not including the people who originally were intended to buy muscle cars. Perhaps they believe that they are saving the world by forcing people to wait until their 40s or 50s to buy such a car, as though they just become better drivers as soon as they hit a certain age. I know lots of young drivers that are quite capable of driving muscle and sports cars, and with the help of a driving school and a little polishing of their skills, could probably out perform most of us on the road.

P.S. Growing up has nothing to do with being a good driver, it gives you time to hone good skills and also develop and hone bad habits as well. Shame on the government and the automakers!