Did anybody catch Fast 'N Loud last night?

"BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast." (boxerfanatic) 04/07/2015 at 12:51 • Filed to: Fast 'N Loud, Gas Monkey, Mopar, Dodge, Coronet 500, Foose, Fury Wheels

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They had a cool silver 68 Dodge Coronet 500 on the show... that Aaron the mechanic damaged, so they decided to upgraded it... and frankly, the wheels that it came with needed to go away.

[Edit to add picture of actual car above, thanks to Twism for finding it.]

It isn't this car pictured below, but it is very close to this one, and similarly silver. I couldn't yet find a quick source of images of the show last night. It did not have R/T badges (it was a Coronet 500, though, if that isn't mutually exclusive) and it had no tail stripe or hood bulge, and a black interior.

The one GMG had was a bit customized, with black painted bumpers, shaved door handles with keyless entry poppers, and it came in with some ridiculous looking wheels.

The thing is, they sent it out again with the wrong wheels... they had super-wide Magnum 500 replicas, which are about the simplest 5-spoke muscle-car era wheel design there is... like this but much, much bigger and wider. This wheel design was used almost ubiquitously all over the place, and is very common. Even british cars with four bolt hubs used a rostyle wheel that looked like this with four spokes. However, the ones they used on the Coronet they had, were dramatically big, but the design looked bland on the car.

The Dodge Coronet 500 has all sorts of examples of trapezoids all over the car, including the tail lights, to the fenders at the edge of the grille...

There is an OBVIOUS wheel choice for a Dodge Coronet that has a lot of trapezoidal references throughout the car's design...

The Dodge Coronet's design BEGS for the Foose Fury F261 wheel... a concave disc wheel with five big trapezoid windows.

It was already used on, and was designed for Mopar fitment and styling, on a Plymouth Fury.

And if Chrome is too much, it can be painted, and there is also the alternate Fury Genuine wheel...

Between that, and cutting the head restraint off the seat backs... (hello, whiplash!)

It was a very, very cool car that was let down by just a couple of relatively easy choices.

I might have been tempted to black out the hood on it, as well... there is an indent around the hood that would make a natural and cool effect... and many Mopars had the matte black hood option, including the Coronet A12 big-block drag car.

Twism > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/07/2015 at 12:57

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Saw it this morning on their FB page.

Agreed on the wheels, but I rather like the debadged, plain styling (clean hood, massaged sides...)

it would make a clean sleeper in flat black.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/07/2015 at 12:58

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Serendipity - I was trying to help someone ID a car last night and failed... the only clue was that from the rear it looked like a '70 Coronet does from the front.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Twism 04/07/2015 at 13:18

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I like the car other than the wheel choice, and what they did with the seats. If the seats weren't right for the car... get different seats that are functional, and look better in the car, don't just make them less safe. Cobra Misano seats are always a nice choice.

That shot you posted makes the wheels look a bit over-sized... I thought they were 20" but that makes them look like 22" at least... too tall

I would have gone an inch or two diameter staggered, 17" front, 18-19 in the back, or 18" front and 19-20" in the back under those curvaceous flared fenders, and the wider rubber in the back looks right... but those wheels and tires look like a mis-fitting after-thought.

I do also prefer tires that are thicker than rubber bands, and wider than the wheel rim they are mounted on.

daender > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/07/2015 at 14:24

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Reminds me of the Hot Wheels '69 Coronet with the black bumpers. Neat.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > daender 04/07/2015 at 14:30

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I actually have a silver '69 Coronet SuperBee, the 2008 first edition. It is very cool. The black base on that red one looks great, too.

And I wish I could find some Street Show Open-hole wheels to fit on it... perhaps with that black base... to make a Hot Wheels version of what I am talking about above.

kanadanmajava1 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 04/07/2015 at 15:54

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1970 Polara? Closest that I can think up.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > kanadanmajava1 04/07/2015 at 15:58

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That's the sort of thing that I ended up suspecting. Haven't confirmed.

Blue2010SRT > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/09/2015 at 13:01

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Didn't see that episode. I don't watch it religiously because I find Richard a little irritating.

It did not have R/T badges (it was a Coronet 500, though, if that isn't mutually exclusive) and it had no tail stripe or hood bulge, and a black interior.

The 500 was a distinct trim level. Coronets were base, 440 or 500, with both a Deluxe and then the R/T added later slotting in above the 500.

Base models came with with a slant six, 440 and 500 trim levels had a small V-8 standard.

Just as a tidbit which many people don't know, R/T stands for "Rapid Transit".

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Blue2010SRT 04/09/2015 at 13:27

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Everything I have ever heard says that Mopar R/T is Road/Track, as in 'suited for either venue' by being equipped with up-optioned suspension, brakes, and tires, along with options for the higher performance engines that were offered. (not referring to the more modern magazine Road & Track, which came later.)

I always thought that the Coronet and Charger 500s were named for the Daytona 500, and were factory production homologation cars for NASCAR, before the Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird came out. The 'Wing car' Charger Daytona was also based on Charger 500, with Coronet front fenders and an extended hood, to meet the custom aero nose-piece, and of course the Charger Daytona's high wing... similarly on the Plymouth side with the RoadRunner becoming the RoadRunner Superbird.

The Coronet, including the Coronet 500, already had a specific re-curved rear window, but the Charger 500 had a custom sheet metal plug to flush-fit the back glass without the flying buttresses of the rest of the Charger models, for NASCAR aerodynamic homologation, when NASCAR was still tied to being based on actually 'STOCK' cars.

I was under the impression that the 500 series cars were not well optioned, where the R/T models typically also had more interior amenities and embellishments. I thought the '500' cars were specifically stripped-down models, with all of the track pack goodies and performance parts, but no interior amenities, no exterior adornments, not even hidden headlights on the Charger... just basic wire mesh grilles and fixed headlights, for simplicity and light weight.

Plymouth also stripped-down a few 1969 RoadRunners with the A12 code package, cars that were stripped down for drag racing, with minimal options, a pinned fiberglass lift-off hood with an air-scoop, plain steel wheels, basic interior, and a 440-6 barrel engine.

Blue2010SRT > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/09/2015 at 15:23

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Nope, R/T stands for Rapid Transit, which was their "catchy" name for their performance car line. Dodge had the equivalent called Scat Pack (which they've re-introduced for the 2015 model year as an option package, basically a decontented SRT model).

Modern Chargers are available in R/T and one of option packages on an R/T is an R&T package which upgrades the suspension along with a few other things.

A non-Road & Track equipped R/T has silver R/T badges in the grill and on the trunklid.
A R&T equipped R/T has red-filled R/T badges:

A regular R/T could come with or without the Road & Track package. (There was also the limited edition numbered Daytona 2006 - 2010 models, which always included the R&T package.) If R/T stood for Road and Track, then a R/T R&T would be a Road & Track Road & Track :).

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Blue2010SRT 04/09/2015 at 17:01

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R/T was a Dodge designation, first used on the 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T, and later on the Charger and Challenger as well. It is documented as referring to Road/Track, as I mentioned before. That is where it started, so that is what I was referring to, regardless of modern usage of the same terminology. Early R/T cars had specific codes in their VIN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/T

Rapid Transit was a Plymouth ad campaign that ran from 1970-73, around the same time, but after the introduction of Dodge's use of the R/T trim designation

http://www.turbinecar.com/rts/RTS1970.ht…

Plymouth models were not referred to as R/T... they had separate names for various packages, such as Satellite coupe being re-named GTX or RoadRunner depending on how it was up-optioned.

Plymouth and Dodge were marketed separately, even things like the High Impact Colors offered had the same paint codes, but distinctly different names, depending on whether it was used on a Dodge, or a Plymouth.

They would not have crossed-over between a Dodge performance package suffix, and a Plymouth ad campaign.

Blue2010SRT > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/10/2015 at 07:02

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re the "500"s:

The Coronet 500 name had nothing to do with NASCAR, at all:

The Coronet showed up again in 1965, in a much different Dodge; gone was the tradition of "one basic car per brand." The Coronet was now above the Valiant-based Darts, and below the Polara, Custom 880, and Monaco. Coronet was sold in a base model, 440, and 500 series; the base engine was the slant six, with the 273 V8 optional (it was standard on the 440 and 500, and in wagons). Though Chrysler would make a 440 engine, it did not make one in 1965, so the Coronet 440 name was perhaps misleading but not yet as confusing as it could be.

The Coronet was still new, but got a facelift in 1966, moving to the Elwood Engel trademark straight lines and edges. A two-door hardtop model would appear in 1966 under its own name, Dodge Charger - and would quickly take away the limelight from the Coronet, albeit without taking many sales away. (1966 Coronet sales were about 170,000. Charger sales were 37,300.) The 440 and 500 series names would remain for some years; the Deluxe was added in 1966, the R/T in 1967.

The Charger 500 was named for the number built per NASCAR homologation regulations, not for a specific race. There's also reference to the Coronet 500 as the luxury trim.

The 1966 Dodge Charger was introduced on New Year's Day, and it didn't take long for the 1967 model to replace it. For 1967, the V8 lost 55 pounds of weight without any disadvantage; the 361 was replaced by a mild two-barrel 383; and the 440 Magnum became available with 375 hp. Trim was upgraded, with new chromed, fender-mounted turn signals, and, inside, a new center section in front and optional split seats. The Charger had all the Coronet 500 luxury features, and both years had fold-flat rear seats, for 7 feet of cargo area, as well as a tachometer and full instrumentation. Other options included a heavy duty suspension with stabilizer bar, towing package, and big 11 inch front disc brakes.

The Charger 500, with a Coronet grille and a flush rear window, was built by Creative Industries; 500 were sold in accordance with NASCAR rules . The main reason for the Charger 500 was to eliminate aerodynamic problems that hurt it in comparison to Ford's lower-power but more slippery racing models.

BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. > Blue2010SRT 04/10/2015 at 10:52

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Very interesting. Thanks for posting that.

Sidebar:

I wish they had kept the '68 federally mandated side markers (lots of cars got new side-markers when that law took effect for the '68 model year)

The small, chrome bezel, round lamp side markers are the coolest light fixture of that type.

If I were building a custom car, I would use those markers, or good reproductions of them... but unfortunately they are one-year-only, as they got bigger, and gained reflex reflectors in the lenses for later model years.

Blue2010SRT > BoxerFanatic, troublesome iconoclast. 04/10/2015 at 11:39

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I know a guy who has done a lot of extremely subtle appearance mods to his 2007 Charger, most of them based on historical styling cues from late '60s Chrysler Corp cars. You'd have to know modern Chargers very well to spot most of them. One of the best ones he has done was to remove the headlight side markers, fill the space in and add the same markers in the same position as this:

This isn't it, but his other car is a 1968 Belvedere GTX.

If I can ever remember to, I'll try to get a picture of it the next time I see him. It looks great.