'70 Dodge Challenger with a Slant-6

"Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa" (bularmy) 08/24/2013 at 15:20 • Filed to: MOPAR

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I know it is the wrong car, but still have a nice picture.

So I returned from glorious Germany for my family car hunt, sadly without any results. But it was a fun experience nonetheless. I will write something about it on a later date.

On my trip I went through countless sleepy german towns and in one of them in a dealership I saw an old Challenger. The Challenger along with the Charger and Cuda are my favorite american cars, so I was really intrigued.

I saw the price and my jaw dropped, just 6k Euro for what looked like a car in very good shape. The dissapointment came when I understood it was equiped with the Slant-6 engine. Still for a 43 years old car with its original paint some minor rust problems and very well preserved interior I tought it is a steal. Also it had only 47k km on the odo. The dealer told me he had to reduce the price to half of the initial, because nobody wanted an american muscle without a V8.

I repressed the urge of an instant buy and totally dissapointing my father to the point I would have be out of job. So did I missed a great opportunity to own a great american muscle? Is it really bad to own a classic american with anything other then a V8?

GhostZ > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 15:34

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ARE YOU KIDDING-

Excuse me while I flip a table. I would kill to see that car for sale.

Challengers of those eras were one of the easiest cars to motor swap. All Dodge engines, from almost every Dodge car of that year fit inside them with just some bolt/mount swapping, whether it had a 426 or a slant six. That, and any RB block (440, 426, 413, 412) would swap right in, even if it wasn't an original option.

So that means if you had bought this, you could get a 440 out of an older motorhome and put it in with a little modification. Or you could resto-mod it .

Cars like this, if they are that low mileage and in great condition, still auction for $20-$35,000. You could part it out for twice that, given how rare a lot of parts are. Or if you do resto-mod it with a modern Hemi engine, you could probably invest $20-30,000 in parts for a $100,000 turnaround. They won't ever come down in price, too. The Challenger, because it was only made for one year like that ('71 had a lot of cosmetic changes) makes about any running 1970 example worth tons.

An original, 1970 Dodge challenger, with any motor, and under 50,000, without rust, is exceedingly rare in the US or in Europe. It was probably selling so low because Europe doesn't have quite the same classic car/restoration market that the US does, where they are so desired.

Now that I have explained that... buying the car was probably impossible for you. Importing it back over might be a ton of paperwork, and if your father doesn't understand how the car market works, he won't see how good of an investment it would have been. That, and if you're young enough you rely on him for a job (though seriously, if you can, find a job that doesn't tie you to your parents, financial independence may cost some money, but it's worth the time in the long run) then while this would have been something that was just simply out of your power.

I would have come to your father and explained it like this, showed him common resell parts, etc.

Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa > GhostZ 08/24/2013 at 15:48

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Now you made me feel even worse... :D

Still this is Europe and we see thing differently. Here we are ready to do full resto, but we NEED the proper engine to be there to begin with. 1.Hauling another engine from USA would be too expensive and most probably some bureaucratic shit will stop you. 2.Finding it from another car is downright impossible(especially with a MOPAR) and again it would cost a liver and a kidney. 3.A new crate engine will most probably fall in the first case. Yes, I told him, why don't you part it for the parts, but the owner was really a gearhead and he said he don't have the hearth to do it(as a matter of fact I also can't). And the car was in really great condition, if I could do it I would buy it, to be hones such cars are just for showing off, to be damned the V8.

When you are groomed to take over the family business in some years it is not very easy to really search for another work. And I like it, it pays well and it is not boring. He understand the car market, the problem is that any new part must be shipped from USA and the bill would have been impossible for us. On other hand it is really a good investment even if you do things slowly over an extended period of time.

GhostZ > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 15:58

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The market in the US right now means that an all-original low-mileage 426 Hemi 1970 Challenger sells for about $500,000- 1 million at auction. That's about the same price as a Veyron. Prices can go higher for particularly rare example.

A Challenger with a new dodge motor and modern brakes, suspension, etc. would sell for at least $50,000-100,000 if done right. That's the trend now: people don't want to buy original restored examples, especially of hard-core muscle cars, they want something more comfortable and for less money. Since original examples are so few, that means that most modified/beat up examples are put together to sell at absurd prices too.

If you had $30,000 to dump on this car in buying it, legal fees, and a shop to work on it, you could turn it around for a 300-400% profit here in the US. That's what makes this really sad. Sure, the car is great and fun to enjoy, but as a missed opportunity, the circumstances were just not in your favor.

TheMyth Is Swingin' A 440 > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 16:47

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It's not bad to not have a V8. At this point, an original slant six Challenger is almost rarer than a V8 since so many folks have swapped motors in.

I'd buy it and just enjoy it for awhile. Those slant sixes run forever and, unlike a 440(I have one in my Dart), you'd be able to pass a gas station or two. Take it to cruises and shows and you're libel to find someone who wants a good clean base for a V8 bill and you can flip it for more than you have in it.

And the whole time you're cruising and enjoying it, the value is gonna do nothing but go up.

TheMyth Is Swingin' A 440 > TheMyth Is Swingin' A 440 08/24/2013 at 16:49

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Build, not bill. Thanks auto correct!

Breakfast Burrito: The True Resident Burrito > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 16:54

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Eh...it depends on the condition the car was in, but you probably did miss out on a good deal. I'm a Mopar guy, and my inner gearhead is a bit upset that you didn't take it and drive it or engine swap it (it's literally 8 bolts to do a swap), but I've also been in situations where I've bought projects and ended up dealing with more than I was expecting. Bottom line, it doesn't matter how good of a deal it was, if you don't have the time, means, or energy to make it worth it, it 'aint worth it.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 17:10

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Buy it, seriously, do it. There isn't a part on that that car that you can't buy new today.

Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa > Breakfast Burrito: The True Resident Burrito 08/24/2013 at 17:31

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For the 15 minutes I looked at it I decided that it can just do with some minor body work on the outside. Yeah it needed a new paint, but what can you expect from a 43yo. I didn't look the floor, but judging by the overall looks how bad can it be? The engine was leaking(most probably gasket), but running.

Still I went for totally different thing there - a used newish luxury family car like BMW or a Merc. I didn't expect to see anything like that. I am really sorry that I didn't buy it, yeah the costs would have killed me and engine swaping here in Europe on Mopar cars is almost impossible(they were not officialy imported to my knowledge), not to talk I live on the Blakans where just seeing cars like that is like seeing a unicorn. But it would have been worth it even if I didn't restore it to perfection. But still it look like here we don't like our muscle cars without V8 even if they are in great condition.

If I remembered the name of the town I would have put it, for some US/Euro Jalop with big wallet to go snatch it, because it is very sad for such car to stay unloved

Sparf > GhostZ 08/24/2013 at 17:35

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Europe doesn't have quite the same classic car/restoration market that the US does, where they are so desired.

Oh boy, oh boy are you wrong, the market is almost bigger than it is here in Sweden here in Sweden, and Sweden's a smaller country (albeit to be fair Europe at large isn't as big a market)! I've seen quite a few Challengers at meets, too, actually, and all of them have been in amazing condition. During the oil crisis a lot of enterprising Swedes bought tons of American Iron (including barely old muscle cars) for next to nothing (or in at least one case traded them for Scania diesel trucks) and imported them here. Challengers are pretty damn expensive here as well, but I've seen clean 440s for about 60-70 grand USD.

The Swedish Bandit > Shady Balkan Subject, Drives an Alfa 08/24/2013 at 17:39

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Now if traveling to southern Sweden ain't to far for ya, you could go to this place;

http://www.bildelarosby.se/ - Probably the biggest junkyard for American cars only on this side of the pond. They have over a thousand engines and gearboxes in stock, meaning you should be able to find whatever you desire.

GhostZ > Sparf 08/24/2013 at 18:15

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Really? Considered me schooled.

The point I did try to make, however, was that resto-mods, or at least "nostalgic" vehicles put on more modern parts, are not nearly as common there in my experience. But since I am tied to the far west, I'll take your advice straight from the horse's mouth.