Extremely rare and cool packages

[BeeKool]

A guy in town used to have one of those "midnight express". I didn't realize it was a production model. Thought it was just a really cool custom mod. on a somewhat unattractive late 70s truck. Looked just like the one in the picture.

 

[Paul Boucher]

My dad had a warlock that the dealer put the midnight express options on when I was growing up. I loved that truck, thought it was so cool with the wood inlays and wood side rails.

My mom is from Cincinnati, so I have always been a fan of the Bengal Charger, although I think those were dealer mods, not factory. Either way they are awesome!

I have never seen "The Dude" truck before, but holy cow do I want one now! And The Big Lebowski totally missed out by not having him drive one in the movie!

 

[aceofspades]

LOL, just realized the picture in that article is my car. Here's another angle.

 

[68BENGAL R/T]

Hey Paul,
Just happened to see your post. Here are a couple pictures of my '68 440 Bengal Charger R/T.

 

[Paul Boucher]

Hey Paul,
Just happened to see your post. Here are a couple pictures of my '68 440 Bengal Charger R/T.View attachment 504582 View attachment 504583

Man I just love this car! As a Bengals fan it has to be one of my all time favorite Mopars!

Also, I graduated from East Carolina University, home of the Pirates, so I think I like your pool Pirate ship as much as the car! I am afraid to show this to my wife as I might be doing some building this weekend if she sees it!

 

[BeeKool]

Not sure how rare it was. But I always liked bench seats w 4sp.

 

[roadrunnerh]

I never saw a denim truck or snapper Fury.

 

[rumblefish360]

How rare are Magnums (GT only, I think) with the two tone (black or blue and silver/grey) paint options? I wold love to get any Magnum, but a GT with the blue over sliver/grey is is the ultimate dream.

There are production numbers floating around the net somewhere so try moparstyle.com or MagnumGT.com.

I beileve the color was black and silver, not blue. Awesome 2 tone job I'd love to copy one day.

 

[kkritsilas]

There is a dark blue (Nightwatch Blue?) and silver Magnum GT in the 1978 sales brochure. Doesn't mean that there were every any made/delivered that way, but its a great colour combination in the brochure picture.

 

[440+6]

This one.

 

[Matthew Maloney]

A guy in town used to have one of those "midnight express". I didn't realize it was a production model. Thought it was just a really cool custom mod. on a somewhat unattractive late 70s truck. Looked just like the one in the picture.

Unattractive late 70s truck ?!?. Those were some of the nicest looking dodge trucks made. You want to see an unattractive dodge truck go look at the 61-72 models. Now thats unattractive

 

[BeeKool]

Unattractive late 70s truck ?!?. Those were some of the nicest looking dodge trucks made. You want to see an unattractive dodge truck go look at the 61-72 models. Now thats unattractive

I prefer the older models

 

[Matthew Maloney]

To each their own i guess lol

 

[Northeast300]

I love Ugly Cool stuff LOL!

 

[lowend1]

Unfortunately, they messed up on the facts re the 300. The actual total was 4292 produced (out of a planned run of 5,000), of which (IIRC) 3,811 were US cars. Included in the remaining 481 were the A84 "trim package" units (318-V8 - no HP drivetrain/suspension) built for the Canadian market. I think there were only 7 Chianti Red (not Rallye Red) 300s made, also grouped in with the Canada cars.

 

[kkritsilas]

There are production numbers floating around the net somewhere so try moparstyle.com or MagnumGT.com.

I beileve the color was black and silver, not blue. Awesome 2 tone job I'd love to copy one day.

There is a 78-79 Magnum owners group on Facebook. The dark blue over silver does indeed exist. It is a '79 only, and there are both pictures of such cars, and a couple of the members own cars with factory original paint. The dark blue is Nightwatch blue (SC9 paint code, I think). Still , not common, but they do exist. They said '79 only, no '78s. The black over silver was available in both years.

 

[Northeast300]

Unfortunately, they messed up on the facts re the 300. The actual total was 4292 produced (out of a planned run of 5,000), of which (IIRC) 3,811 were US cars. Included in the remaining 481 were the A84 "trim package" units (318-V8 - no HP drivetrain/suspension) built for the Canadian market. I think there were only 7 Chianti Red (not Rallye Red) 300s made, also grouped in with the Canada cars.

The numbers I have read everywhere, including a letter I have from Chrysler Historical Services, are the 4,292 out of the 5,000 slated to be built per customer order as well. The 3,811 were true 300s with the remainder being the trim packaged 318 cars and the 5-7 red painted versions.

 

[moparnutcase]

Numbers wise I am unsure, but my '77 Cordoba with T-tops and Crown Roof Package has to be on the "rare" side. I saw on another forum where someone stated that supposedly only 5% of Cordoba production received the Crown package. If that statement is true it would make my car 1 of 184 without breaking it down into any other options.

 

[RWG75]

Really surprised the Daytona package made the list. The odd historical footnote on these things is that is was originally intended as a lower cost than SE package intended to jump start Charger sales which were about 1/10 th of the Cordoba. Pretty dumb idea using that name for that goal. Probably dumber than not making it what it could have been like they tried to do later with the Aspen Super Coupe.

I also never understood how the Daytona has largely been ignored and Cordoba 300 has the following it does. Don't get me wrong, its a cool package but I'd think putting a 300 badge on a Doba would get the same back lash from purists that putting a Charger badge on a Doba did - especially compared to the legendary letter cars.

Bringing that package back one last time before the death of RWD for a couple decades might have a been more historically correct on a NYer coupe with a 440. see also: 300H which probably would have made my list.

 

[Crizila]

I came across this link on facebook, looks like our 300s made the list!

http://gearheads.org/extremely-rare-and-cool-special-edition-packages-mopar-chrysler/

Check out www.streetsideclassics.com and punch in 1979 Chrysler.