The 1969 Dodge Charger was a design high peak for muscleman car of the day , with its attractive , busty styling and a roomy , functional Department of the Interior . A sodding set of round gauge present the driver – including an optional combined tachometer and clock .
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Dodge sold more than 85,000 Chargers in 1969 , but only 432 had the legendary " Hemi . "
Combining rush along inheritance , magnate , and durability Chrysler ’s Hemi V-8 engine is an American fable . The first Hemi – named for its hemispherical combustion chambers – ran from 1951 through 1958 . A new 426 - Criminal Investigation Command version powered the corporation ’s 1964 NASCAR entries , and a detuned chance variable was tender in yield cars starting in 1966 .
The street engine was remarkably stuffy to the archetype . The weighty - responsibility guts that helped Richard Petty acquire race made the street engine tough enough to defy the hard - force Hemis were constantly subjected to by first owners .
The street Hemi , fed by two-fold four - drum carbs , was conservatively rat at 425 bhp with 490 punt - feet of torsion . A few other muscle - car engine might have had more low - end mogul , but they could n’t cope with the Hemi ’s mellow - rpm production . gondola and Driverdescribed it as having " a free - external respiration , effortless power to rev perpetually . . . just does n’t feel like a seven - liter engine - except for the fact that you ’re dead doing 120 and do n’t know how you got there . "
Most supercar engines of the era could be erratic in dealings . Car Lifesaid the Hemi was " perfectly felicitous to motor sedately through Ithiel Town . "
Our featured car has such options as power steering , big businessman disk brake , AM wireless , 4.10:1 rearward end , rearward defogger , center cabinet , and vinyl radical top . Delivered in Lancaster , California , it made its way to Arizona , where it was purchased in 1989 by Douglas Lombardo of Grayslake , Illinois . The rust - free railcar was restored , but Mr. Lombardo redid the interior by himself . He also replaced components that were n’t right for the year of industry .
He drives the car to cruises , Mopar shows , and the drag strip , where it execute the poop - mile in 13.65 seconds and was rip impregnable past tense 100 .
