Car of the Week: 1969 Dodge Charger 500 Hemi

[dodgechargerfan]

While organizing a special “Icons of Design” category for the annual Eyes On Design car show in 2016, I caught wind of a special Hemi-powered MoPar hidden away in the Great White North. Apparently, a private individual has quietly built up a world-class collection, the Manny Collection in Ontario, Canada, that consists mainly of unrestored MoPar muscle cars from the 1960s and early 1970s.

Among those cars is a red 1969 Charger 500 that, as it turns out, was the first Charger 500 built. It was originally used by Dodge at major auto shows and for promotional purposes. “It’s pretty much an original, unrestored Charger 500 with the 426 Hemi engine and four-speed Hurst shifter,” the collection’s owner told me. “I’ve known about this special muscle car for a very long time.”

Read more.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Finally a car of the week really worth seeing! Sweet ride for sure, and probably the most valuable of its kind.

The verbiage of the article is misleading. It would have you think it's an unmolested original, but it's definitely an older restoration done prior to the overspray/inspection mark craze that started in the late '90s. There are a lot of missed details underhood, and some of the interior stuff is the wrong finish. Also, it's very apparent that the tach/clock has been restored, and the speedometer was replaced by a dealer 16,475.9 miles ago.

I never cared for the grille treatment of the 500, but it's infinitely better than the standard '69 split design. Those showboat full wheelcovers aren't something you see very often on Hemi cars, either. Most Hemi buyers went with the dog-dish covers since they planned on aftermarket wheels anyhow. Why pay more for full wheelcovers you're just gonna remove (the only styled wheels available with a Hemi were the rare aluminum Kelsey-Hayes W23 wheels, which as we all know were quickly recalled).