The American Performance Generation of the mid-and-late-sixties and the (very) early seventies spawned a great many high-speed machines. Virtually all makers with a shadow of self-respect had at least one muscle offering for the hardcore enthusiasts. The bulk of the power freaks came – naturally – from the Big Three, who were in the middle of a rapacious frenzy of reaching new heights of road and track performance.
Chrysler Corporation took the “Road And Track” battlefield to heart. It released the R/T breed of Dodges to retaliate against General Motors’ and Ford’s mean machines. The Charger may be the superstar of the two-letter high-punching club of Mopars. Still, other cousins did exceptionally well in kicking competition’s exhausts when adorned with the proper R/T armaments.
The Coronet is the perfect example – Dodge’s intermediate-platform sales workhorse received the blazon of muscle car-ness in 1967. One year later, it got a fresh styling – along with the rest of Dodge’s lineup – but retained the essential bits.
Engine, transmission, suspensions, brakes, rears – everything was still available for the second year of the Coronet. R/T was pretty restrictive in options for the power-makers: only two engines and two transmissions were on the table.
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But Chrysler cut no performance corners for its grunting Coronet R/Ts: the duo consisted of the standard 440-cubic-inch V8 (7.2 liters) Magnum or the smaller-displacing hemispherical-heads-wielding 426-CID (7.0-liter) Street HEMI alternative. Needless to say, the NASCAR-upsetting optional engine was the expensive choice (and the rare one, consequently).
The performance Coronet was offered either as a hardtop or convertible – no sedans with tire-smoking attitude (that was a 21st-century flick that the Charger was treated with, some decades later). In ’68, 10,280 Coronets with a sheet-metal roof rolled off the assembly lines wearing the R/T brand on their hinds.
The vast majority found its way to U.S. dealerships: 9,964 units – 7,751 equipped with the 440 Magnum engine and a heavy-duty TorqueFlite automatic three-speed box. Far less popular were the four-speeds, with just 1,983 vehicles carrying the clutch pedal to crack the whip on the biggest Chrysler engine available at the time.
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As for the illusive 426 CID HEMI, the numbers are rarer than cloudy skies in Yuma, Arizona: just 130 Dodge Coronet R/T carried the 425-hp (431 PS) HEMI powerplant – all automatics. The manual option wasn’t all that appealing for this HEMI Mopar – only 100 Dodges received the special four-on-the-floor treatment. (About that Yuma, Arizona, reference: the city is credited as being the sunniest place on Earth – a mean of 4,055 hours per year out of 4,456 possible).
One of those “mainstream” R/Ts with a 440 and a not-so-common manual tranny got special treatment. At this point, it would be an excellent question to ask, “How can one already-special car become even more special?” Put a HEMI in it – because there’s never enough horsepower in a muscle car, even a 55-year-old one.
1968 was a year of intense battles in Detroit: Ford sent out the 428 Cobra Jet Mustang, GM upped the ante with the 455-cube (7.5-liter) torque atrocity V8, and the wars were just starting. So Mopar was up against some serious competition, even with the HEMI ace up its sleeve.
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The car in our story was born as a true-blue 440 Magnum big-block with a four-speed and a SureGrip 3.55 rear. Initially, the Coronet wore a Bright Blue Metallic garment with a White-on-Blue interior (Sport Trim Grade) and vinyl bucket seats.
The original engine – the four-barrel 440 V8 – is gone, and there’s no word about it, but it has a more than worthy successor. A 426 HEMI with its eight-barrel, dual-carburetor architecture is linked to an A833 four-speed manual. A 4:10 `Posi-Traction` differential sits at the drivetrain’s business end.
Before you unleash all of Satan’s archangels from the General Motors inferno on this last statement, take a moment and holster your keyboards so as not to shoot the messenger. This reporter shares the description the seller wrote, distinguished gearheads, and the confusion is no lesser than yours.
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Perhaps this mishap fended buyers off a $81,500 purchase since the highest eBay bid – $66,700 – failed to meet that amount. What’s the world coming to if a restored – and upgraded – Coronet R/T is not deemed worthy of a new life?
After the renovation, the Coronet morphed into this Bright White with blue R/T tail stripes, Medium Blue buckets, and Chrome Magnum wheels wrapped in BF Goodrich Radial T/A tires. It retains the 150-mph speedometer and 8,000 RPM tach installed from the factory and the remote-operated driver’s side mirror.
The original AM Radio is gone – and there is no replacement for the entertainment option; quite a shame, considering that this Coronet also came with the rear seat speaker. 22,276 miles (35.842 km) reads the odometer – although the title bears the ‘mileage exempt’ stamp – and the seller doesn’t specify whether this is the actual road age of this Dodge or the HEMI’s post-restoration dowry.
