Why? How? the designs of the early 70's mopars...

[Wile E Coyote]

I would like to like the group to talk about the third gen muscle era mopars. Does anyone know how they actually came about? I'm so sick of second Charger's for example. I don't care if I never see another one, because I like ours so much better. They are lower, wider, drive much better. We've got the coolest designs, but you never get any history about them? chime in guys......

71-74 Chargers are alright I s'pose... I just need a green go RT to round out my affliction...

 

[hanks73340]

I do like all generations of Chargers but I am partial to the 3rd gens. My wife found ours and helped on the restoration of it. Here it is below after 6 years of restoring.....

 

[Coelacanth]

This was an entertaining read. '70 Charger owner with my own biased opinion...I think a plain-Jane base model 2nd-gen Charger just looks better. Better proportions with the roof more centered, from a profile view, it's a badass western gunslinger's black hat. Maybe for that same reason, I love my '86 Grand National (though that car has zero curves). The 2nd-gens had cool door scallops, hood scallops, that awesome tunneled rear window, great taillights, menacing front grille with pop-up headlights...a plethora of cool design elements even with the base models. My best friend bought a '71 Charger shortly after I bought my '70, it cost him $50 after the seller had to discount him for money he owed to my buddy. I like the '71 Charger more than the latter years. Those cheap plastic protruding sidemarkers are the fugly, and I prefer the rear quarter window line upcurves more on the '71/'72.

My buddy's '71 was a plain vanilla at first but he added the bulge hood, rallye doors and pop-up headlights. With those features added, the early 3rd-gen Chargers look pretty cool. Without the bulge hood, they just look too snouty to me, the front just looks a bit too long, too flat and drawn out compared to the 2nd-gens.

I wasn't expecting the comparisons to Pontiacs, but it's legit.

All that being said, the OP first post comes off as sounding like there's a bit of "little brother" inferiority complex going on. I would be happy with any Charger ending with the Cordoba Chargers. No thanks to that!

 

[Kern Dog]

This thread got me thinking and with that, I often drift away from the original point.
As the Mopars evolved in the 70s, I’m told that there were all sorts of influences from a variety of sources to change the cars to meet requirements.
For as much as we now praise these “muscle cars”, many car owners needs do change. The same holds true today. If you have no kids, sometimes the 4 doors or minivans have zero appeal. That is how it has stayed for me. The One explanation for the downfall of these cars is that the market for cars with higher insurance rates dropped off. Another excuse is that the emission regulations choked off power and buyers just backed off. I wonder how true that is. The Pontiac Trans Am flourished in the 70s despite the HP ratings going down each year.
Ma Mopar made some great cars but face it… in most cases, our guys played catch-up to the others in many ways. The 66 Charger looked like an AMC Marlin. The 68-70 B bodies looked a lot like the 66-67 GM Chevelle/Cutlass cars. The 68 Charger rear window was a rip off of the 66-67 Chevelle/LeMans. The long hood-short trunk E bodies looked like a cousin of the 69 Camaro, the rounded shapes of the 71-74 B bodies looked like the 68-72 GM intermediates.
I’ve often wondered why Ma Mopar went with the weird transverse torsion bars in 1976. It occurred to me the other day that it was probably because 1976 was the first year that catalytic converters were mandated. Our guys mounted them next to the manifolds….. right where the longitudinal torsion bars used to be. The further downstream you put the converters, the less effective they are. Anyone that has done a coil over conversion up front finds out immediately how much room there is now for headers with the torsion bars gone. Chrysler spent so much time singing the praises of torsion bars, they had to keep them in one form or another. They kept these transverse bars to the end of rear wheel drive cars in 1989 at which point they were on the FRONT wheel drive bandwagon.

 

[71dodgechargerrt]

Here's a green one for you.

 

[whayden2003]

JOHN HERLITZ

Pretty good read about John Herlitz. Some nice photos and such.

 

[chargervert]

This was an entertaining read. '70 Charger owner with my own biased opinion...I think a plain-Jane base model 2nd-gen Charger just looks better. Better proportions with the roof more centered, from a profile view, it's a badass western gunslinger's black hat. Maybe for that same reason, I love my '86 Grand National (though that car has zero curves). The 2nd-gens had cool door scallops, hood scallops, that awesome tunneled rear window, great taillights, menacing front grille with pop-up headlights...a plethora of cool design elements even with the base models. My best friend bought a '71 Charger shortly after I bought my '70, it cost him $50 after the seller had to discount him for money he owed to my buddy. I like the '71 Charger more than the latter years. Those cheap plastic protruding sidemarkers are the fugly, and I prefer the rear quarter window line upcurves more on the '71/'72.

My buddy's '71 was a plain vanilla at first but he added the bulge hood, rallye doors and pop-up headlights. With those features added, the early 3rd-gen Chargers look pretty cool. Without the bulge hood, they just look too snouty to me, the front just looks a bit too long, too flat and drawn out compared to the 2nd-gens.

I wasn't expecting the comparisons to Pontiacs, but it's legit.

All that being said, the OP first post comes off as sounding like there's a bit of "little brother" inferiority complex going on. I would be happy with any Charger ending with the Cordoba Chargers. No thanks to that!

I took care of the ugly side marker lights on my 73 Charger.

 

[Coelacanth]

I took care of the ugly side marker lights on my 73 Charger.

I dig that. Sure looks a lot better than those cheap-looking plastic protruberances.

 

[chargervert]

I dig that. Sure looks a lot better than those cheap-looking plastic protruberances.

The original marker lights look like they came from a trailer from Harbor Freight!

 

[whayden2003]

The original marker lights look like they came from a trailer from Harbor Freight!