Of course, these things killed off the muscle cars from every manufacturer with very few exceptions. As the B-body progressed through the end of this generation, we saw the big blocks and Hemis get dropped due to increasing emissions regulations, insurance costs and rising fuel prices. For ’71, many of the drivetrain options remained from the earlier generation, but the overall shape of the car was sleeker and the interiors were more refined. The cars were so successful on track that ultimately the sanctioning bodies legislated them out of existence through ever-tightening rules.ġ971 saw yet another redesign for the B-body. The designs were optimized for use on the high-banked superspeedways such as Daytona and Talladega, and featured sleek noses, flush rear windows and high-mounted rear wings to cheat the wind. The most famous of these has to be the 1969 Charger Daytona and 1970 Superbird wing cars. Mopar released a number of special models intended for use on the racetrack, or to homologate special equipment for use by race teams. The Super Car era in Detroit was in full swing, and each of the Big Three were trying to outdo one another with special models, colors, drivetrains and anything else they could think of to grab market share.įactory involvement in sanctioned racing was seen as a great way to show off performance engineering – the old Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday philosophy was in high gear. Many consider the 1968-70 Chargers to be the high-water mark for Mopar muscle car design.In fact, all the 1968-70 B-bodies have proven to be the most popular intermediates wearing a Pentastar logo. The Super Bee had the same philosophy as the Road Runner – standard big-block power, cool name and a low price of entry.Īlong with the other B-bodies, the Charger got new sheetmetal in 1968 that set the standard for combining fantastic style with great performance. The Road Runner was so well-received, Dodge got into the low-price muscle game a bit later with their Super Bee package on the Coronet. The Road Runner package proved to be very popular, and would become an icon in the muscle car world. Since the Barracuda name went E-body in ’70, Plymouth introduced the Duster to the world. The introduction of the E-body pony cars (Barracuda and Challenger) stole some of the A-body’s thunder along with their big block engines. More big changes to the A-body line happened in 1970. Complete books can and have been written about these very special cars, so here we’ll just say these cars represent the pinnacle of Mopar A-body performance and collectability! The big bomb for ’68, though, was the limited run of 426 Hemi-powered Darts and Barracudas built specifically for the drag strip. Also in ’68, the Dart GTS package appeared for the first time adding some nice muscle car style to the performance offered by the 383 engine. The 340 was designed from the outset as a performance engine, and when installed in the lightweight Darts and Barracudas was an exception performer capable of humbling many big-block cars of the era. First, the famous 340-inch LA small block was introduced.
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