The rare 1967 Dodge Charger featured here with it’s signature fastback look is a part of the first generation which covered the 1966 and 1967 model years. The Charger was a mid size vehicle built on the B body. The B-body platform included many models from sedans to high performance muscle cars.
For the 1967 model year, other Chrysler Corporation cars built on the B platform included the Dodge Coronet, Plymouth Belvedere, Plymouth GTX, and the Plymouth Satelite.
The Mopar A, B, and E-body platforms of the 1960’s and 1970’s include many legends of the muscle car era. The Mopar A, B, and E-body platforms of the 1960’s and 1970’s were utilized to produce many legends of the muscle car era.
The Dodge Charger is Introduced
The Dodge Charger model first appeared in 1965 as a fastback version of the Dodge Coronet. The fastback design was Dodge’s answer to the fastback Plymouth Barracuda. The Coronet has a long history beginning in the 1940’s as an upscale nameplate.and was one of the longest names in the history of the brand. The Charger then came out as it’s own model in 1966. Dodge began producing the Charger model so as to offer an upscale pony car. Those first generation Dodge Chargers were considered street racers with their fastback design and full width tail lights plus some great power options.
The Charger first was a concept car in 1946 but there wasn’t much interest from the public therefore it was shelved for a few decades.
Some twenty years later the Charger came out as it’s own nameplate and was based on the Dodge Coronet which in 1965, as mentioned above, offered the Coronet Charger with it’s fastback design.
The Charger was meant to help attract a younger car buyer to the Dodge brand. The first of the Dodge Chargers caught the public’s attention when advertisements were aired on the January 6th 1966 Rose Bowl football game. The model was aimed at the sporty auto buyer who also wanted the option for plenty of power. The first generation sales were satisfactory, the Charger really took off beginning with the newly designed second generation models starting in 1968.
Some of the unique features of the first generation Charger’s of course was the fastback design, hide away headlights, full width grille, fender mounted turn signals and full width six lamp tail lights.
For the 1968 model year the Charger received a completely new design on the B body platform. It was these second generation Chargers that really put the model on the map with significant sales increases. Dodge sold 96,000 Chargers for the 1968 model year.
The Dodge Charger and NASCAR
The fastback shape of the 66-67 Dodge Charger caused some problems on the race circuit. The body shape resulted in too much lift at the rear wheels above 180 MPH and the drivers had difficulty controlling the car at Daytona. The remedy was a three inch rear spoiler attached to the lift gate to exert downside pressure. NASCAR approved this modification due to the fact that it became a dealer installed option. The Dodge Charger did go on toata-3462"
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