1973 Dodge Charger Rallye - Total Recall

By mid-1972, things had changed significantly in the muscle car market. Not only were most of the big-engine options gone; so was the attitude that had highlighted the cars built just months prior. Moreover, compression on what engines were left had fallen, the heavy-duty driveline hardware was on its way out, everything was designed with bulky bumpers, and paint and graphics were considered pass. Still, for a college guy like Chuck Hughes, there was still hope.

In July of that year, his buddies at Brohawn's, the local Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealer in Cambridge, Maryland, let him actually take home the latest dealer albums to put together the '73 Charger of his dreams. The hot ticket was no longer the R/T (sorry, Jim, they're all dead), but you could get a Rallye version, which had performance-oriented themes. The standard B-engine was the ticket for 1973 unless you had deeper pockets for insurance to put a 440 under the bonnet. So it would be a 400 four-barrel backed by a Torqueflite and 3.55 rear for Chuck.

To say he enjoyed his new car would be an understatement; he drove it 180,000 miles, finally trading it in the '80s when the rust problems inherent to high-mileage Northeast iron had begun to show themselves. He is humorously hesitant to admit just what he traded it for (it was a brand X car since Chrysler was all K-car all the time at the moment), but suffice to say, it wasn't like the old days. By the mid-'90s, he decided to try to go back to the past again.

What is sometimes forgotten as we look back on those days is that performance cars from 1973 are harder to find than, say, cars from 1969. Chuck wanted another big-block Rallye. His old car was found slowly decaying in St. Michaels, Maryland, but was a no-go; the owner was "gonna restore it one of these days." It's probably still there. There wasn't much turning up in Hemmings or Mopar Collector's Guide, either.

Finally, in March 2001, a '73 Charger Rallye did surface for Chuck. Originally sold in Georgia, the 70,000-mile machine was located in Michigan. What's more, it was a near twin to the one Chuck had purchased almost 30 years earlier-GB5 Blue paint, Rallye package, and performance engine (though it was a final-year 340 rather than the 400). The only real difference was the interior color and the optional side mirrors. What's more, the car was a solid driver.

But owning a somewhat nice car wasn't quite the same as having a '73 when it was brand-new, so Chuck and his son Charlie (Charlie is actually the proud owner of the car at 7 years old) began the process of a complete restoration on the car once it was back in Mason-Dixon territory. Chuck will be the first to admit that he was somewhat frustrated with the way some of the hobby's suppliers treated him. At this point, these cars didn't have the appeal of their '71 and earlier kin. However, he did find big help in dealer Tony D'Agostino, who happens to be down in southern Delaware, not too far from where Chuck lives on Maryland's eastern shore. "Without Tony's help, my resto would not be this complete," says Chuck. "I wanted NOS stuff. He located it for me and spent the time with me talking about the car so he knew what I needed. It made a real difference."

So as the pile of gathered parts grew, Chuck was busy getting ready for the rebuild. The engine was brought back to completely stock form, with the only change being a late model Edelbrock intake and AVS-style Performer carburetor. The rest of the driveline has also been serviced and detailed; it is a numbers-matching combo. Anything that Tony could find in terms of NOS pieces was replaced.

Meanwhile, a car restorer in Easton, Maryland, named Tommy Blades got a chance to work on some vintage Mopar iron. Chuck says he wanted to be involved and was sort of a "go-fer" as Tommy did the body, paint, and reassembly. The two of them worked together and the restoration is just what he had planned. The interior and fresh top skin came together with the help of Carroll Beauchamp at Delmarva Auto Glass in Salisbury. The end result was one that anyone would be proud of.

In reality, even with 2,415 examples built, Charger Rallye 340s are not a dime a dozen. As the prices on their big-inch kin continue to increase, the '72-'74 Chargers have come into their own. They are well-built, comfortable vehicles with the styling that had helped bring the model to prominence (plus that guy Petty was winning a lot of races with them). For Chuck, however, that Charger Rallye was also a way to return to those days when he joined the muscle car craze, even as it wound down in 1973.

Fast Facts
'73 Dodge Charger Rallye
Car Owner: Charles Hughes, Cambridge, MD

Mopar Power

• Engine: This one is just like new-back in the day. A standard rebuild was done with minor changes like the Edelbrock intake and carb, but for the most part, this was recreated to look right. Tony D'Agostino helped with many NOS pieces to detail the engine, and a proper-looking Mopar service replacement battery rounds it out. A set of Flowmaster mufflers was the only addition to the exhaust system.
• Transmission: Rebuilt 727 TorqueFlite
• Differential: 8 3/4 with 3.55 gear and Sure Grip.
• Horsepower and Performance: The 340 was factory-rated at 245 brake horsepower.

Sure Grip

• Suspension: Stock
• Brakes: Rebuilt stock
• Wheels: Factory 14-inch road wheels.
• Rubber: Just like the old days, G70-14 Goodyear raised white letter rubber is on all four corners.

High Impact

• Body: Chuck admits Tommy spent a lot of time after the disassembly scraping red Georgia clay out of the undercarriage. Once that was done, Blades Enterprises in Easton did the final prep. Carroll Beauchamp did the vinyl top. Options on the body included painted outside mirrors, exhaust tips, fender-mounted turn signals, and hoodpins on the "blistered" hood.
• Paint: Tommy Blades also did the spray using a deep DuPont Chromabase color computer-matched to the GB5 Blue OE tint and organisol paint for the hood.
• Interior: Carroll Beauchamp redid the seats and interior; pieces came from Just Dashes and Legendary. Like the car Chuck ordered back in the day, this Charger was factory equipped with the Tuff wheel, in-dash tach, AC and console-mounted Slap-Stik shifter. If you bought a Rallye, you also got that cool 150-mph speedo on early order '73s.

Best Performance: Big smiles and several show awards.

Special Thanks: Tony's Parts, Harrington, DE; Tommy Blades, Easton MD; Carroll Beauchamp, Salisbury, MD; Charlie McMahan, Cambridge, MD; Tommy White of Aloha Automotive; and many vendors at Carlisle.