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| 1969 dodge charger rt |
The restyling of the 1969 Dodge Charger rt is unquestionably the main reason for its sales success, since the 440 Magnum and Hemi were already available in 1967, and sales were dismal. The new "Coke bottle" look made the Charger one of the best-looking muscle cars, period, with many considering it the best-looking performance car of the 1960s. The base drivetrain remained identical with the 318 on the bottom end. Dodge wrote, “This is no dream car. It’s a real ‘take-me-home-and-let’s stir-things-up-a-bit’ automobile.”
The model line up expanded to include the Charger R/T, equipped like the Coronet R/T - it came with a 440 Magnum, heavy duty suspension and brakes, and the bulletproof Torqueflite 727 3 speed auto with a 4 speed manual optional. The rear bumblebee stripes were a deletable option. Hemi sales went up to 467, still quite small.
The 1968 sales were far higher than expected; product planners assumed they would sell 20,000, but 96,000 were built, and the market might well have taken more. The Charger was a runaway success.
For the next year, Dodge was understandably torn between the usual annual styling changes and not wanting to mess with a good thing; they made minor changes to the grille as a compromise. The 1968 has a chrome bumper under the grille, the 1969 dodge charger rt has a chrome center divider in the grille, and the 1970 has a rectangular chrome bumper around the grille.
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