Mopar Muscle Cars - The Best Of The Best

02 Somewhere in an office in 1967, somebody had an idea of how to win races, and the 1968 Hemi Dart was born. There were approximately 80 Darts that were sent to Hurst Corporation, modified and fitted with the 426 Hemi. They weren't built for the street, and they featured a fiberglass hood and front fenders, a front bumper and doors stamped out of a lighter gauge steel, and special Corning Glass was used (which did not meet DOT standards for use on public roads). Inside, there was no rear seat, radio, or other creature comforts. The front seats were from an A100 van/truck van and were mounted on custom-fabricated, non-adjustable aluminum brackets. The Hemi featured a pair of Holley carburetors on a magnesium cross-ram intake, and a heavy-duty cooling package was standard, as well as headers. The cars were delivered with no paint on them, just primer and bare, gel-coated fiberglass from the cowl forward. Final cost per car was around $4,500. They definitely performed on the track and would hit 10s in the quarter-mile with minimal modification.

01 Here we are--our number one Mopar muscle car as chosen by you guys is the '69 Dodge Charger. We figure that a famous orange one with an 01 on the door has something to do with it, but that's OK. 1969 saw little change for the Charger, but new styling touches for base and R/T Chargers included a vertical center divider in the grille and horizontal taillights. But this year presented perhaps the most option choices in the history of the nameplate. There was a base model, an available SE option, a hot-performing R/T version, and two wild race-bred iterations: the 500 and the Daytona. Engine selections started with Chrysler's trusty 225 Slant Six, but also included five V-8s, the 318 with 230 hp, a 383 with 335 hp, a 440 with 375 hp, and the Hemi with 425 hp. Depending on the model, available transmissions were three- and four-speed manuals, or the three-speed TorqueFlite automatic.

Readers' Choice

• 1- '69 Charger
• 2- '68 Hemi Dart
• 3- '70 Challenger
• 4- '68 Charger
• 5- '71 Hemi 'Cuda
• 6- '70 Superbird
• 7- '69 Road Runner
• 8- '70 'Cuda
• 9- '68 Hemi 'Cuda
• 10- '69-1/2 A-12 Road Runner