It was a ride as brutal as any other of the era: The 1970 Hemi Dodge Challenger R/T. It was the first year for Dodge’s ponycar, coming to market almost six full years after the Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang, and it was a large, hulking beast. They sold well in 1970, and powered by the Hemi, were prized by many, yet purchased by few. This is a rare muscle car.
The 1970 Hemi Dodge Challenger R/T just sold for $385,000 at Barrett-Jackson’s Florida auction in Palm Beach. Its hammer price made it the 10th most expensive sale of the auction and the highest-priced American car.
The R/T has its numbers-matching Elephant under the hood, paired with the factory four-speed gearbox and 4.10:1-geared Dana rear. According to Barrett-Jackson, the E-body was fully restored using factory NOS parts by Roger Gibson. Stopping is handled by factory-style components. The exterior is finished in Hemi Orange with a black vinyl roof and retains its original configuration without a center console as ordered. The dash pad is free of cracks. The car won Gold and Best of Show at the 2004 Mopar Nationals and was featured in the March 2005 issue of Mopar Muscle magazine and the April 2005 issue of Mopar Action magazine. It also appeared on the cover of the Year One Catalog R111, 1991 edition.
This was the year the vaunted 426 Street Hemi switched from solid to hydraulic lifters. The cam specs were the same, but with an engine factory-equipped with a dual-point distributor and twin carburetors, it was nice not having to run the valves. It was still rated at 425 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque, enough to propel a Road & Track test car to a 14-flat elapsed time at a whopping 104 mph.
We don’t imagine the new owner will be doing a lot of drag racing with this Hemi Orange Challenger. It looks like it has not accumulated much mileage since its 2004 Nationals Best of Show. Still, wouldn’t be nice to run that Hemi up to about 6000 rpm and powershift the Piston Grip-equipped A833 to some low 13-second elapsed times? That’s what a 104 mph trap speed would indicate for its potential.
Dodge sold almost 77,000 Challengers in 1970, with around 18,500 being R/Ts, but only 356 had the mighty Street Hemi. That makes this one might rare Mopar.
