Recently it occurred to me the possibility of two of the first and most famous models from Chrysler Corporation competing in a dream race. These two classics are a part of the history of iconic model names that still lives and thrives today. They were a part of automotive race history that set many standards for today’s quarter mile track racing NHRA, NASCAR, and Trans Am AAR road course racing. These two classics would be the Dodge 1964 Charger and the Dodge 1959 Challenger, both of these early models are unfamiliar to even the most knowledgeable auto enthusiasts. This meet and match could be an amazing dream car competition, a sort of fantasy race. A competition that would feature the original originals, or as they called themselves The Original RamChargers. And in 1964, Dodge was the bad boy of NASCAR, with its 426 Hemi elephant engine banned from racing for… now get this, being too fast! LOL. Back in 1959, the Dodge Silver Challenger came on the race scene as a limited edition mid-year model. It was only available in one color inside and out, that color, of course, was silver. Its look was very muscular, just a little bit angry, and it was packed with style & power.

Then eleven years later in 1970, the Challenger returned to challenge all on comers. Today its dollar value can be in the six figures, and it’s a long time favorite of Mopar fanatics and automotive collectors. When Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby founded AAR All American Racers in 1970, they wanted to build exceptional racing cars in the United States that would gain international recognition. And did they ever achieve their goals! Sam Posey in the #77 was the lucky driver that got to tame that wild Challenger Pony car in its racing run, until Dodge pulled out support for the Trans Am race series in 1971.

Not too many people today still remember that first ‘59 Challenger, so I’m pleased to be able to share this small part of the grand story about American muscle car history that led us up to today’s modern muscle car classics. You can count on seeing more interesting imagery and posts in the very near future. Cruise them, race them, or if you like, just take them out, show them off, and enjoy admiring them. Cheers!
— HKK

Another great dream race!

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Images of the Hell Drivers from the World’s Fair Hell Drivers Official Souvenir Program at the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965
Published and Copyright 1964 by Alsack Corporation

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Image of The Greatest Charger Race Ever
Copyrighted 2014 by HKK Productions Inc

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Thirty “Hell Drivers “ risked life, limb and ’64 Dodges, crashing 1950’s oldies and performing wild stunts in a daring, very high-speed show at the ’64 – ’65 New York World’s Fair Auto Thrill Show. Among the features of the program were four-car bumper tag, wing ski jumps (drivers careen off a low ramp on two wheels at 50 miles an hour) a crash rollover contest, and the “dive bomber crash” (off the ramp with an older car onto the top of a parked car). In the show’s big climax, a driver piloted a truck on a ramp to ramp “flight” hurtling more than 70 feet through the air. The 6,000 seat Auto Thrill Stadium had a banked figure 8 track, the first of its kind for super stunt driving. Admission for reserved seats was $2.00, general admission a mere $1.00! There were four shows daily on weekdays, six on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; each performance lasted about one hour.

The Fair occupied only about half of the Flushing Meadow acreage, but it was almost nine times larger than the ’62 Seattle World’s Fair. Actually the entire 1962 event would have fit into the Transportation Area of the New York Fair. That was the area where the first track ever designed for an auto thrill show was constructed by Transportation Productions Inc. It was built at the cost of $2,500,000, a staggering amount for ’64, and was the result of three years of planning. The only track of its type in the world in 1964, it had an asphalt surface, double guardrails, special drainage equipment, and a figure 8 pattern that let drivers have maximum maneuverability. Drivers, engineers and designers worked to develop the plans for the track that the Hell Drivers performed on. Special methods had to be introduced to lay the track due to the degree of the high banking curves at both ends of the figure 8 track. A special concrete crash wall was constructed between the double guardrail and the grand stand. It had a visitor’s lounge, refreshment stand, a plaza, and floodlights for nighttime performances.

The history of the Jack Kochman Hell Drivers goes back to the stunts of the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair. Over many years the auto thrill show was seen in county fairs from coast to coast. It was ’42 when Mr. Kochman took over as the head of the auto thrill show. The original name of the group was aptly enough the very dramatic “Death Dodgers”, they performed at the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair with Chrysler products. During World War II, the gasoline rationing and shortages of replacement parts created obstacles that were overcome by running their cars on propane gas, and of all things iron tube wheels.

For the ’64-’65 New York World’s Fair, the Hell Drivers performed with a group of 30 drivers and stunt men, combined as a team for each performance. They had been using safety belts since ’42. Drivers inspected their own vehicles before and after each performance. Superstitiousness did exist for some of them, but was it really a matter of practicality? For example, one driver painted his clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals yellow while another stuck various patches on his steering wheel. The president of the company, Alan Gottlieb, summed up the goal of his team; “We wanted to provide the most thrill packed auto stunt driving show, that would give the public the best entertainment at the Fair at a reasonable price. To get a reduced price we had to have more shows and that’s why we had scheduled 1,800 performances throughout the run of the Fair.” To complete this first-of-its-kind auto stunt driving required dealing with an inhospitable location that included swampy land and former garbage dumping area that had become a ‘sea of ashes’. (As the area was referenced in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.) To improve on the success of the ’39 Death Dodgers, quite a large investment was required. Mr. Gottlieb noted, “The shows had to live up to the excitement and jammed-packed action the ’39 event provided. This was quite a different automotive era comparing ’39 to ’64. Cars are sleeker and faster, but are they really as durable as the earlier models? We had to determine product reliability before the show was even possible. Again, we were planning 1,800 performances and the cars that were to be used had to measure up to a lot of punishment.”

The “T-Bone” crash stunt was one of the highlights of the Hell Driver shows. This maneuver was done with the older used cars, and not the ’64 Dodge Polara Lineup. One racer would zoom up a ramp, fly through the air then “dive-bomb” itself into the side of another car, and continue racing through the course. Another stunt was the always popular, body-crunching “Roll-Over Contest” where a car is raced at high speed onto a ramp launching its two wheels up in the air while its other two remain on the ground. The elevation of one side of the car flips the car over as it reaches the ramps peak. If the car lands on its side, the driver was awarded two points by the producer, Mr. Jack Kochman. But… if the driver flips one full turn the driver got five points! The stunt men competed against each other for just a $1000 prize, saved until the end of a very challenging and long season. Then there was the “Hi-Ski Event” one of the many different thrill shows that made spectators feel like you ride from the bleachers. The ’64 Polaras climb up ramps, or at least half the wheels do, the other two hopefully stay on the ground. Then off the ramps and as far as the cars would go on two wheels before coming down again with a jolt to both car and driver. Mr. Kochman turned this into a competition between drivers to see which one could “stay up the longest” as it were, with special prizes at the season’s end to the “Top Man”!

“Happy”, the wacky antics clown, had his own special set of thrill car wheels, a miniature one that was likely to move in any direction. Sometimes it would explode, or disintegrate, or what some of the show personnel would say, “take off into the wild blue yonder”. Happy and his vehicle were a little bit unpredictable. But he was considered a ranking Hell Driver with the best of them, even though his baggy pants and flapping arms often caused the audiences to miss the hairbreadth timing that was part of his gags. For instance, he would stand on the track as two ’64 Polaras racing at more than 50 miles per hour would pass in tandem and, seemingly, sandwich him very tightly to their sides. He had faced as many as four ‘64s careening towards him simultaneously! Just when it looked as though he would end up carried away in an ambulance, the agile “Ole Happy” would drive away to safety. (Perhaps Happily?)

One of the most thrilling of the maneuvers which the Hell Drivers would perform was their motorcycle leap. A stock model motorcycle launched 30 feet through the air from one ramp to another. It was aerial leaps very similar to these that killed many of the early stunt riders who dared to be first. The crowd favorite was a motorcycle jump over six men laying on their stomachs as the motorcycle seemingly drove across their backs. While all of these stunts were dangerous, the skill of the drivers, the exactness of their preparations, and the amazing sturdy frame and construction of the ’64 Dodge line, including the Charger inspired convertible Polara 500 model, combined to prevent fatalities during their 18 years of performing shows across the nation.

The Hell Drivers performed their 1,800 shows in brand new Dodge cars and trucks as did the Jimmy Lynch Death Dodgers at the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair. Most of these stock passenger Dodges; two door coupes, sedans and, of course, those beautiful convertibles; were powered by the bullet proof 383 cubic inch V-8 engines, amazingly the only modifications to these vehicles was a heavy duty suspension and raised torsion bars that would help with the severe punishment during the run of the Fair. All of the vehicles were equipped with 1964 state-of-the-art seat belts called Auto-Crat by Jim Robbins Co. The Hell Drivers used these since ’42 and were strong advocates of their use in a time when they were an optional item. During those 22 some odd years, the Kochman Teams only used Dodge vehicles averaging 37 cars a year for all their performances. The ‘64 Dodges where put through extensive performance testing before they could launch into the air on a 70 foot ramp to ramp jump, skid along at high speed in reverse gear, and shift into forward motion within seconds by the push of the ultra cool push button transmission (alas, the last year for that feature).

The cars were checked daily for a long list of items that included front end alignments, amount of gasoline in the tank, tire pressure, radiator system leaks, and, of course, the special seat belts. The only other special safety equipment was the aptly named ‘crash helmet’. All the vehicles used a brand of tire called Allstate, with ‘safety rims’, that were exclusive to Chrysler cars. All the ’64 Dodges were white, a favorite with the corporate heads, with a special World’s Fair emblem hand painted on the sides.

So when it comes to the first famous Dodge that was doing long jumps and driving away in good shape, the ’64 Dodge leads the pack. It was the grand dad of the jumping Dukes of Hazzard ’69 Dodge Charger, The General Lee. I’m sure you Dodge boys (or girls!) are enjoying this story and you’ll see more in future posts, along with super rare photos and my original images. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the large amount of facts and events that Dodge was leading the way in the birth of the modern American muscle car era, that we are still enjoying today. Dukes of Hazzards General Lee ’69 Charger eat your heart out!

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Images of the Hell Drivers from the World’s Fair Hell Drivers Official Souvenir Program at the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965
Published and Copyright 1964 by Alsack Corporation

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Images of the 1964 – 1965 NY World’s Fair from the OFFICIAL World’s Fair Souvenir Book
Copyright 1965 New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation
Published by arrangement with Time Inc.

(Continued from Part 2…)

The Hell Drivers performed their 1,800 shows in brand new Dodge cars and trucks as did the Jimmy Lynch Death Dodgers at the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair. Most of these stock passenger Dodges; two door coupes, sedans and, of course, those beautiful convertibles; were powered by the bullet proof 383 cubic inch V-8 engines, amazingly the only modifications to these vehicles was a heavy duty suspension and raised torsion bars that would help with the severe punishment during the run of the Fair. All of the vehicles were equipped with 1964 state-of-the-art seat belts called Auto-Crat by Jim Robbins Co. The Hell Drivers used these since ’42 and were strong advocates of their use in a time when they were an optional item. During those 22 some odd years, the Kochman Teams only used Dodge vehicles averaging 37 cars a year for all their performances. The ‘64 Dodges where put through extensive performance testing before they could launch into the air on a 70 foot ramp to ramp jump, skid along at high speed in reverse gear, and shift into forward motion within seconds by the push of the ultra cool push button transmission (alas, the last year for that feature).

The cars were checked daily for a long list of items that included front end alignments, amount of gasoline in the tank, tire pressure, radiator system leaks, and, of course, the special seat belts. The only other special safety equipment was the aptly named ‘crash helmet’. All the vehicles used a brand of tire called Allstate, with ‘safety rims’, that were exclusive to Chrysler cars. All the ’64 Dodges were white, a favorite with the corporate heads, with a special World’s Fair emblem hand painted on the sides.

So when it comes to the first famous Dodge that was doing long jumps and driving away in good shape, the ’64 Dodge leads the pack. It was the grand dad of the jumping Dukes of Hazzard ’69 Dodge Charger, The General Lee. I’m sure you Dodge boys (or girls!) are enjoying this story and you’ll see more in future posts, along with super rare photos and my original images. This is just the tip of the iceberg in the large amount of facts and events that Dodge was leading the way in the birth of the modern American muscle car era, that we are still enjoying today. Dukes of Hazzards General Lee ’69 Charger eat your heart out!

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Images of the 1964 – 1965 NY World’s Fair from the OFFICIAL World’s Fair Souvenir Book
Copyright 1965 New York World’s Fair 1964-1965 Corporation
Published by arrangement with Time Inc.

(Continued from Part 1…)

The history of the Jack Kochman Hell Drivers goes back to the stunts of the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair. Over many years the auto thrill show was seen in county fairs from coast to coast. It was ’42 when Mr. Kochman took over as the head of the auto thrill show. The original name of the group was aptly enough the very dramatic “Death Dodgers”, they performed at the ’39-’40 New York World’s Fair with Chrysler products. During World War II, the gasoline rationing and shortages of replacement parts created obstacles that were overcome by running their cars on propane gas, and of all things iron tube wheels.

For the ’64-’65 New York World’s Fair, the Hell Drivers performed with a group of 30 drivers and stunt men, combined as a team for each performance. They had been using safety belts since ’42. Drivers inspected their own vehicles before and after each performance. Superstitiousness did exist for some of them, but was it really a matter of practicality? For example, one driver painted his clutch, brake, and accelerator pedals yellow while another stuck various patches on his steering wheel. The president of the company, Alan Gottlieb, summed up the goal of his team; “We wanted to provide the most thrill packed auto stunt driving show, that would give the public the best entertainment at the Fair at a reasonable price. To get a reduced price we had to have more shows and that’s why we had scheduled 1,800 performances throughout the run of the Fair.” To complete this first-of-its-kind auto stunt driving required dealing with an inhospitable location that included swampy land and former garbage dumping area that had become a ‘sea of ashes’. (As the area was referenced in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.) To improve on the success of the ’39 Death Dodgers, quite a large investment was required. Mr. Gottlieb noted, “The shows had to live up to the excitement and jammed-packed action the ’39 event provided. This was quite a different automotive era comparing ’39 to ’64. Cars are sleeker and faster, but are they really as durable as the earlier models? We had to determine product reliability before the show was even possible. Again, we were planning 1,800 performances and the cars that were to be used had to measure up to a lot of punishment.”

The “T-Bone” crash stunt was one of the highlights of the Hell Driver shows. This maneuver was done with the older used cars, and not the ’64 Dodge Polara Lineup. One racer would zoom up a ramp, fly through the air then “dive-bomb” itself into the side of another car, and continue racing through the course. Another stunt was the always popular, body-crunching “Roll-Over Contest” where a car is raced at high speed onto a ramp launching its two wheels up in the air while its other two remain on the ground. The elevation of one side of the car flips the car over as it reaches the ramps peak. If the car lands on its side, the driver was awarded two points by the producer, Mr. Jack Kochman. But… if the driver flips one full turn the driver got five points! The stunt men competed against each other for just a $1000 prize, saved until the end of a very challenging and long season. Then there was the “Hi-Ski Event” one of the many different thrill shows that made spectators feel like you ride from the bleachers. The ’64 Polaras climb up ramps, or at least half the wheels do, the other two hopefully stay on the ground. Then off the ramps and as far as the cars would go on two wheels before coming down again with a jolt to both car and driver. Mr. Kochman turned this into a competition between drivers to see which one could “stay up the longest” as it were, with special prizes at the season’s end to the “Top Man”!

“Happy”, the wacky antics clown, had his own special set of thrill car wheels, a miniature one that was likely to move in any direction. Sometimes it would explode, or disintegrate, or what some of the show personnel would say, “take off into the wild blue yonder”. Happy and his vehicle were a little bit unpredictable. But he was considered a ranking Hell Driver with the best of them, even though his baggy pants and flapping arms often caused the audiences to miss the hairbreadth timing that was part of his gags. For instance, he would stand on the track as two ’64 Polaras racing at more than 50 miles per hour would pass in tandem and, seemingly, sandwich him very tightly to their sides. He had faced as many as four ‘64s careening towards him simultaneously! Just when it looked as though he would end up carried away in an ambulance, the agile “Ole Happy” would drive away to safety. (Perhaps Happily?)

One of the most thrilling of the maneuvers which the Hell Drivers would perform was their motorcycle leap. A stock model motorcycle launched 30 feet through the air from one ramp to another. It was aerial leaps very similar to these that killed many of the early stunt riders who dared to be first. The crowd favorite was a motorcycle jump over six men laying on their stomachs as the motorcycle seemingly drove across their backs. While all of these stunts were dangerous, the skill of the drivers, the exactness of their preparations, and the amazing sturdy frame and construction of the ’64 Dodge line, including the Charger inspired convertible Polara 500 model, combined to prevent fatalities during their 18 years of performing shows across the nation.

(The Story Continues in Part 3, Coming Soon…)

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Images of the Hell Drivers from the World’s Fair Hell Drivers Official Souvenir Program at the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965
Published and Copyright 1964 by Alsack Corporation

Thirty “Hell Drivers “ risked life, limb and ’64 Dodges, crashing 1950’s oldies and performing wild stunts in a daring, very high-speed show at the ’64 – ’65 New York World’s Fair Auto Thrill Show. Among the features of the program were four-car bumper tag, wing ski jumps (drivers careen off a low ramp on two wheels at 50 miles an hour) a crash rollover contest, and the “dive bomber crash” (off the ramp with an older car onto the top of a parked car). In the show’s big climax, a driver piloted a truck on a ramp to ramp “flight” hurtling more than 70 feet through the air. The 6,000 seat Auto Thrill Stadium had a banked figure 8 track, the first of its kind for super stunt driving. Admission for reserved seats was $2.00, general admission a mere $1.00! There were four shows daily on weekdays, six on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; each performance lasted about one hour.

The Fair occupied only about half of the Flushing Meadow acreage, but it was almost nine times larger than the ’62 Seattle World’s Fair. Actually the entire 1962 event would have fit into the Transportation Area of the New York Fair. That was the area where the first track ever designed for an auto thrill show was constructed by Transportation Productions Inc. It was built at the cost of $2,500,000, a staggering amount for ’64, and was the result of three years of planning. The only track of its type in the world in 1964, it had an asphalt surface, double guardrails, special drainage equipment, and a figure 8 pattern that let drivers have maximum maneuverability. Drivers, engineers and designers worked to develop the plans for the track that the Hell Drivers performed on. Special methods had to be introduced to lay the track due to the degree of the high banking curves at both ends of the figure 8 track. A special concrete crash wall was constructed between the double guardrail and the grand stand. It had a visitor’s lounge, refreshment stand, a plaza, and floodlights for nighttime performances.

(Part 2 Coming Soon…)

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Images of the Hell Drivers from the World’s Fair Hell Drivers Official Souvenir Program at the New York World’s Fair 1964-1965
Published and Copyright 1964 by Alsack Corporation

In early 1964 Dodge went public with the Charger name for its Dream Show concept car. It quickly turned into a complete series of vehicles. Dodge had hit a home run when it presented the Charger to its first enthusiastic audiences.

The Dodge Boys had seen the popularity that the General Motors Pontiac GTOs were having and had the same plan to produce affordable, completely packaged, high-performance cars. Dodge saw this as a clear message that just having the fastest cars on the road was no guarantee of sales results. Dodge product planners knew that if they couldn’t be first in sales they had to be best quality. So began the program of a new breed of muscle car for the U.S. and import youth market. This ‘64 Charger was the first of a long line of famous ‘60s,‘70s and today’s version of a muscle car for Chrysler. But first they would need to improve their image. They had all the right hardware, the 727 Automatic Transmission were known as bulletproof. The quickest way for Dodge to start winning in the muscle car war would be the ‘64 Charger, one of the most aggressive and muscular looking of show cars. You’d almost expect sweat to ooze from its sheet metal, and saliva to drip from its extra wide mouth. Its hand operated open headers… trumpeting like a Hemi elephant. It definitely had a grab-you-by-the-throat persona. All this to show race fans that the Dodge Boys were planning on taking over.

According to the original press release, the Charger was “inspired by the outstanding competition records set by Dodge production cars in recent years”. The Charger started out as a 119-inch wheelbase B-body ‘64 Polara. This was no fantasy car, instead it had a real connection to the cars in the dealership showrooms. This would show the commitment to serious muscle car competition, in the tradition of Dodge’s proud successes on all types of race circuits.

The first Charger had several design features that were very original for the time, all aimed at attracting the baby boom generation. Both the front and rear bumpers were replaced not by the available aluminum race parts from Chrysler, but by smooth metal and small vertical bump strips. Two of the four headlights normally on a factory-issue Polara were also eliminated. The extra wide hood scoop had the extra cool “426” badge on the front edge to suggest what might be underneath that hood. The actual engines under the hoods were the respectable 305 bhp, 383-cid engine from its Polara sister ship. So the hood of the car remained closed for the show circuit and it didn’t effect the great interest of the show goers. The ’64 never failed to attract large crowds and impress performance enthusiasts. Forty years later the mighty ’64 Race Hemi engine would finally be installed in the last known surviving ’64 Charger. Mr. Joeseph Bortz, the new owner, wanted a Hemispherical engine in the renovation project Charger, but he didn’t want just any Hemi. He could have had a brand new crate motor from Mopar Performance installed, instead he wanted one of just 15 original Race Hemis made under the hood. Just as the excutive brass at Chrsyler Corp. had origanally planned on.

In 1964 other changes made to the first Charger were done in a number of ways; the seating was unlike any production Dodge, using a special bucket design that was both luxurious and sporty. Custom “superfoam padding” was covered by pleated charcoal grey leather. Black carpeting covered the floorboards . The advertised engine was the very rare and imposing 426 cid Hemispherical. This was a completely different design from the corporation’s 1950s vintage Hemi-head racers, and it continued on in its winning tradition. But there were some early problems with the new cylinder walls being too thin. This delayed their delivery to the race Nascar teams, when they did start arriving; they were in very great demand. Overall Chrysler Corps latest developments in the high-performance engine designs helped them dominate in the horsepower race of the big three U.S. auto makers

Dodge top management had planned from the beginning to put a 426 Hemi in the ‘64 Charger concept show car, but the availability was becoming a major problem. Back at Chrysler headquarters, as far as the race hemi was concerned, job one for the engineers was equipping the drivers for its debut at the Daytona 500 stock car race in February ’64. As it turned out every time one of these hand-built engines were set to be installed in the ’64 Charger it ended up being shipped to the corporate sponsored race teams in need of an engine for that weeks competition. The 1964 concept show car circuit was starting soon so the use of the mighty Hemi would have to be skipped… for the time being. Eventually one of these super rare cars was identified, pursued, purchased and restored to original specifications in this the new millennium.

After the show tour season was over, one of the eight experimentals was sold to a prominent and influential Chrysler dealer from Hershey Pennsylvania. For some strange legal liability reason, it was normal procedure for Chrysler to crush experimental and one-off machines like this. But luckily this dealer interceded and rescued this historic car and mostly forgotten origin of modern Dodge Chargers. This car was eventually inherited the dealers son . He was the first to perform a series of bad alterations to this experimental car that was by that time mostly forgotten by automotive world.

In 1999 a Chicago restauranteur and collector of prototype dream cars Joe Bortz bought the long lost ’64 Dodge Charger after 12 years of trying to negotiate a deal with its owner. Luckily this grandfather of all the Chargers was stored indoors and did not have many rust issues, but it would need a major overhaul and restoration. It had been repainted a long faded white with Ram Charger red stripes. The great looking charcoal grey leather was replaced with white squares and red piping. In place of the black carpeting was a 1970’s bright red shag rug. If that wasn’t tasteless enough, there was even red carpeting around the gauges on the instrument panel. A restoration expert began the project in Chicago. He was able to replicate interior and exterior pieces that were researched using original photographs from the brochure, and built with much custom machine work. The Chargers new for 64 headlights and wide mouth grill had been tampered with, and rectangular headlights had been jammed in. The reproduction of parts was the most difficult part of this restoration. The finishes to the chrome and Alcoa Aluminum were brought back to their original finishes. The interior received new leather including the unique combination roll bar/headrest pads. Many of the rare parts needed were located through a great list of automotive contacts. There would not be enough ’64 426-cu-in. parts in existence to rebuild this kind of engine again. So now, at long last, the original plan for the Hemi elephant race engine being in the ’64 Charger was completed with its connection to the bullet proof 727 Torqueflite automatic with the center console shifter, not the cool push button shifter in its final year in Chrysler cars. The correct paint color also needed a bit of detective work. Samples from an area where the original paint was still visible, a color spectrometer was able to digitally reproduce the deep-burgundy red hue. A set of new original stock Halibrand magnesium wheels was an amazing lucky find. They were mounted with the Goodyear Wingfoot bias-ply whitewall tire of the time.

Some day this forgotten and last ’64 Dodge Charger might make a run or two down the drag strip again to see the 11-second elapsed time. The big concern with a rarity like this is that racing stress could possibility hurt the engine or even twist the body enough to crack the paint. Maybe after a few more years of temptation it will race at an automotive event near you, before the grand dad of the General Lee and todays awesome Chargers takes a trip for at tune up in the mechanics shop!

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Images of the 1964 Dodge Charger
Published and Copyrighted 1964 by the Dodge Division of the Chrysler Motors Corporation

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