https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/the-original-hemi-charger-is-on-a-hot-streak/#:~:text=Since 2019, values for a,built between 1968 and 1970.
For several reasons, today’s recently departed Hellcats owe their thanks to the 1966 Dodge Charger, like the one profiled and driven here. Though mechanically the original Charger owed much to an existing Dodge model (the Coronet) this was the first time that the Charger name denoted a distinct model, rather than a trim package on another line. The ’66 Charger was also Dodge’s opening salvo in the muscle car wars, mostly because parent company Chrysler forbade it from building a smaller (A-body) car to compete with the Mustang. And, of course, there was the engine.
The Charger debuted in 1966, available with Dodge’s 426-cubic-inch, 425-hp Gen II Hemi V-8. Chrysler engines with hemispherical (well, domed) cylinder heads had been around since 1951, and drag racers had been competing with the Gen I Hemi for years, but as of 1962 Dodge had new ambitions. It was tired of watching GM triumph in NASCAR, a series in which, as of 1962, none of the Big Three were competing, at least not officially. As of the 1964 Daytona 500, Chrysler decided, it would no longer be a bystander in NASCAR, or for that matter, in drag racing. To participate in the stock car series, it needed to build a production car with a version of its racing engine. Thus was born the “Street Hemi.”
For several reasons, today’s recently departed Hellcats owe their thanks to the 1966 Dodge Charger, like the one profiled and driven here. Though mechanically the original Charger owed much to an existing Dodge model (the Coronet) this was the first time that the Charger name denoted a distinct model, rather than a trim package on another line. The ’66 Charger was also Dodge’s opening salvo in the muscle car wars, mostly because parent company Chrysler forbade it from building a smaller (A-body) car to compete with the Mustang. And, of course, there was the engine.
The Charger debuted in 1966, available with Dodge’s 426-cubic-inch, 425-hp Gen II Hemi V-8. Chrysler engines with hemispherical (well, domed) cylinder heads had been around since 1951, and drag racers had been competing with the Gen I Hemi for years, but as of 1962 Dodge had new ambitions. It was tired of watching GM triumph in NASCAR, a series in which, as of 1962, none of the Big Three were competing, at least not officially. As of the 1964 Daytona 500, Chrysler decided, it would no longer be a bystander in NASCAR, or for that matter, in drag racing. To participate in the stock car series, it needed to build a production car with a version of its racing engine. Thus was born the “Street Hemi.”
