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Dodge Challenger Story -
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There
was an arena for showcasing such abilities, though it was having troubles of ist own by
1970: The Sports Car Club of America’s Trans-American road racing series. The
Trans-Am had been the battleground for ponycar manufacturers since 1966, and competition
had heated up as the market expanded. By 1969, the series had spurred development of the
Camaro Z-28 and Mustang Boss 302, highly specialized machines sold to the public in
limited numbers solely to legalize their racing counterparts – which were
theoretically streetable "sedans". Dodge jumped on the Trans-Am bandwagon for
the 1970 season along with AMC and Plymouth, but the "White Hats" were again
late on the draw. Running under the colors of Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers, a
Challenger was prepared by Ray Caldwell’s Auto-dynamics firm for driver Sam Posey,
and was ready in time for that year’s curtain-raiser at Laguna Seca. But Posey
managed only a sixth-place finish, complaining of suspension problems that would never be
successfully overcome. Meantime, Dodge was readying a street version of its Trans-Am racer
per SCCA rules, and it arrived in the spring of 1970 as the Challenger T/A, a name chosen
because Pontiac had already grabbed the full title for its hottest Firebird.
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This new competition inspired Dodge looked – and ran
– like every 15-year-old’s ideal automotive fantasy. Often dressed in one of the
High-Impact colors, the T/A was distinguished by a lift-off fiberglass hood with a serious
scoop and liberally applied matte-black paint, and sported a noticeable front-end rake
thanks to larger rear tires (G60 x 15s versus E60 x 15 at the front). Under the funky hood
was the 340 small-block V-8 with a beefier bottom end and a trio of two-barrel
carburetors, plus appropriate exhaust manifolding that terminated in chrome
"megaphone" side-exit pipes protruding from below the rockers ahead of the rear
wheels. Horsepower was 290 on paper, but the actual gross figure was surely well above
350 up to 380. The 340 engine wasn’t legal for racing because of the SCCA’s 305-cid size
limit, but the street T/A could reel off 13.99-second quarter-miles at better than 95 mph.
Only 2520 of these cars were built before Dodge scrapped its Trans-Am effort after a
single season, thus ending the need for the T/A. Posey and company tried hard, but the new
team was simply no match for the experienced Mustangs or Roger Penske’s Javelins,
both of which dominated the 1970 series. Racing apart, the Challenger did fairly well for
a newcomer trying to stake out territory in an already crowded field. Sales topped 83,000
units for 1970, far behind the league leading Mustang’s total but, interestingly
enough, ahead of Cougar’s count, which was a bit more than 72,000. The Challenger had
beaten the cat that had inspired it. Curiously, Dodge began backing away from ponycars the
very next year. |
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Also as models,
anytime very popular |
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