DODGE CHARGER - Everything You Need to Know | Up To Speed

(car accelerating) - Yes, ha! It is the Murican muscle car that made Dodge the king of the streets. This legendary ride went from catching up to putting ketchup on cars because he was eating them for lunch. (car

speed

ing up) You guys have been asking for this since we started this damn show and now (lightning flash) It's time! (car acceleration) This is

everything

you

need

to

know

to get up to

speed

with the Dodge Charger, lightening, lightening, lightening. (upbeat cartoon music) In August 1964, the Ford Motor Company introduced the Mustang, have you ever heard of it? And Chrysler got scared.

Because? Well, the Mustang was unique. It was a cheap car that was also a lot of fun and Chrysler brands like Dodge didn't have anything similar they could offer customers. After staying up for weeks freaking out and wondering what the hell they were going to do. Some Dodge designers came up with a small prototype. The new design was based on the 1964 Polara. It had no roof, had a cut windshield, didn't really have a roll bar, but a roll bar, and most importantly, it had racing stripes. Under the hood was Chrysler's brand new 426 hemi or at least that's what was supposed to be there.

Chrysler had so few hemis on hand that when a sponsored racing team blew theirs up, the one from the concept was removed and the original 383 from the Polara was put back in, that's crazy. On the B-pillar was a new insignia in cursive, the most elegant of fonts. They called the concept Charger. Wow, I just got goosebumps. Obviously, this wasn't something Dodge was going to start producing overnight. I mean that thing didn't even have a fucking roof. Although Dodge is

know

n to make roofless cars, the first generation Viper. The concept got people talking, it was provocative. So Dodge set about building its own cheap but sporty car. (car acceleration) In 1965, Dodge launched the Dark GT Charger, the first production Dodge with the Charger name.

It made a jingle. 235 HRSPRS, its 273 in³ V8

charger

. You could get it in any color you wanted, as long as it was code 811, pale yellow, which is a bit of an odd color choice for a sports car, especially when it's the only color you offer. Dodge only built 150 of these, making the Dark GT Charger one of the rarest early Mopar muscle cars. As expected, the special limited edition Dark edition didn't solve the Ford Mustang's problem. Dodge still

need

ed a car, not just a license plate. Then, in 1965, Dodge's sister brand, Plymouth, launched the Barracuda, which was also built to compete with the Mustang.

This stressed out Dodge dealers because now they don't have a sports car to sell against the Mustang and they also have to compete against its brother, Plymouth, and then they go crazy. So CEO Lynn Townsend tells them that Dodges are meant to compete with top brands like Mercury or Pontiac, but Dodge dealers didn't really believe it, so he told them if they didn't like his strategy they could look another brand. sell. Listen here guys. If you don't like my strategy, maybe you can find another brand to sell. Oh, okay, I guess we'll do it. Yeah, I mean I like working with you guys, but I guess we'll look for another brand, okay buddy.

No no no no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait (mumbling). Let's not rush, guys. What if I could give you a mid-size sports car to sell alongside the Mustang? Yes, that's what we (mumbling). Yes, that's a great idea I just had. The Dodge studio went to work again, this time using the Dodge Coronet as a platform. They changed the roof, changed the side panels and finally the trunk lid and rear grill. When it was finished, Dodge had its new car with a familiar name, the Charger. Dodge's new sports car had an epic fastback, tons of engine options including the 426 hemi and perhaps the coolest option of all. (lightning) Remix! ♪ Deployment, up and down lights ♪ ♪ Deployment, up and down lights uh, ♪ ♪ Deployment, up and down lights uh, ♪ ♪ Deployment, up and down lights uh, ♪ ♪ Deployment, up and down lights ♪ ♪ Deployable front lights , up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Pop-up headlights, up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Pop-up headlights, up and down uh ♪ The 1966 1/2 Charger's aggressive styling and available 425 HRSPRS made it one of the cars baddest Detroit had ever produced. (car speeding up) Yee-Haw!

Styling cues like the aforementioned hidden headlights and full-width taillights gave the Charger a very menacing presence. If you drove one of these, you were a bad guy, dangerous. Even if you were a Bixby Knolls insurance adjuster. (car acceleration) The Charger's aerodynamic shape helped Dodge win big on NASCAR ovals, but that wasn't enough to make the Charger a winner in the showroom. From '66 to '67, Dodge only sold about 37,000 Chargers. For comparison, Ford sold over a million Mustangs at one time, wow. It was evident that something had to be done. In 1968, the Dodge design studio had something special in store.

Design principal Richard Sias envisioned an entirely new look for the Charger. The new style of Coca-Cola bottle was unlike any automobile ever made. The new Charger borrowed a few elements from the previous car, but turned them up to 11. Yes, crank it up. We've only gotten to 10 before. (screaming) The full-width grille and taillights were expanded. It seemed like the grate itself would suck you in like a whale sucks in a bunch of krill. The Charger certainly looked good. The standard engine option was a 5.2L 318 in³ V8, but if you wanted something bigger there was the 383, 426 hemi up to the 7.2L 440 in³ Magnum.

When they name an engine after a gun, a big gun, a gun that Dirty Harry had, that's when you know. Actually? Yes buddy, it's a Dodge episode. Dare I say, Mopar baby? Baby Mopar indeed. (singing) (car accelerating) New that year was the R/T package that included upgraded brakes and suspension. The Dodge R/T was as good a sports car as a 3,600-pound sports car could be. Critics and fans agreed that the '68 was an amazing, amazing, amazing car. And as a result, people bought it. Dodge predicted that the new car would sell as well as the first generation, but they were wrong, dead wrong.

Dodge ended up building almost a hundred thousand of them in 1968. The new Charger was a huge success. And because this new car was doing so well, Dodge was left in a bind as they didn't want to ruin the good thing they had. - Avoid the fever, it is a beautiful path to follow. - 1969 saw a revised grille as well as a special edition Charger built to dominate NASCAR's Daytona oval. They made the nose pointed and put a big wing on it to grab it. It worked so well that NASCAR had to ban it two years later.

If you want to know more about the Daytona and its sister car, the Super Bird, watch this episode of Up to Speed. But perhaps what the '69 Charger is most known for is a little show called The Dukes of Hazzard. (playing trumpets) In which he played a fundamental role. The show premiered in 1979 and featured a bright orange Charger that had the ability to fly through the air, the General Lee. The General Lee was equipped with a pushrod and 15-inch American racing vector wheels. From 1979 to 1985, the Dukes of Hazzard chewed up about 300 Chargers (grunts) Yee-Haw! (intense music) Doing a sick jump every episode is pretty impressive, but it was rare for a car to survive the landing.

I mean, when you watch the show, it's pretty obvious that these cars were totaled. Just look at those curves of the chassis. (car accident) I get goosebumps. In 1970, Dodge released the latest second-generation Charger, and honestly, there haven't been many changes since 1968. The biggest changes over the years were the grille and taillights. But the truth is that Richard Sias and his team did such a good job with the Coca-Cola Charger bottle that they saw no reason to change it much during the three years of production. In my opinion, the 1970 is the most aggressive of the group. The chrome surround really contrasts the black grille and makes the mouth look much larger.

The Charger was redesigned in 1971 and designers called it the Fuselage instead of the Coca-Cola bottle. It was softer and shorter too. Engine options did not change. The R/T came with the 440 with an optional 426 hemi. Or a 440 with a six-pack of carburetors on top. In 1971, the Charger was still a serious sports car, but that began to change over the years. (car acceleration) As emissions rules became stricter, the power would be effective and the styling became a little less aggressive, but surprisingly, that didn't affect sales. Dodge sold more than 122,000 Chargers in 1973, making it the best-selling Charger ever.

But unfortunately, it wasn't all gravy. While the Charger was in full swing, that old damn gas crisis hit and hit the entire Chrysler Corporation hard. I mean they were losing money. Big cars with big engines that used a lot of gas disappeared and the Charger died in 1978. ♪ And we'll take the memories with us ♪ ♪ To be my sunshine after the rain ♪ - You know, when I first took this crazy job, they were ready. to bury Chrysler. -Chrysler needed a solution and they saw one in a guy named Lee Iacocca. He was basically the brains behind the Mustang, the car that inspired the Charger in the first place.

Lee came aboard the Chrysler ship in 1978 and immediately started making changes because that's the kind of person Lee Iacocca was. First, he got loans from Uncle Sam that would keep the company afloat until he could turn things around, and second, he made sure that the cars they sold in the meantime were good. In fact, Chrysler had started producing smaller, more efficient front-wheel drive cars, like the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon that year, and they sold quite well, but they failed to scratch that sporting itch that Lee Iacocca needed. In 1981, Dodge launched the Omni 024 Charger, an affordable sports car.

I have a 2.2 liter four cylinder engine under the hood that makes 84 HRSPRS. That wasn't enough for Lee, so he hired his friend, Carroll Shelby, to tune some of these Chargers and make more power. Carroll made the magic of it on the cylinder heads and cam timing. All said and done, the new Dodge Shelby Charger scored an incredible 107 HRSPRS. (quirky music) Look, I know that doesn't sound like much, but in those post-gas crisis days, people took what they could get. It was a whole new world. Chrysler engineers developed a turbocharged version of the 2.2L engine and released it in the 1984 Omni.

They called it the Omni GLH, which stood for "goes like hell," because that's what it was. The following year, they put the same engine in the Charger and reinforced the body. It could be one of the most sinister looking front-wheel drive cars ever built. It's on my wish list, I'm going to get one. This turbocharged two-door was one of the fastest cars on sale in the US at the time. Iacocca had accomplished his mission: to make Dodge America the high-performance brand, dammit. (car accelerating) The Charger disappeared again in 1987 and sat dormant for over a decade. Then, in the early 2000s, Chrysler was hard at work on a new rear-wheel drive platform that will be shared by the entire Chrysler family.

It was called LX, but in 2006 it was time for an old friend to return. - Ladies and gentlemen, the Dodge Charger is back. - And the Charger was back, honey. Like the original, the new one was a muscular family car that could fit any driver. The base Charger came equipped with a humble but bulletproof 3.5L V6. The R/T package also returned, powered by a 5.7L hemi engine. They even made a Daytona package to commemorate the original Daytona pointy boy. Dodge went to great lengths to connect this new Charger to its past and they had something in the works to make it even more appealing to big Charger fans. (car accelerating) The Charger SRT8 sent other four-door sedans running for cover.

It was powered by a 6.1L hemi V8 that left 428 HRSPRS to accelerate from zero to 60 in five seconds. It was the most powerful V8 Chrysler had ever installed in a production car. (car acceleration) Dodge didn't make any big changes to the Charger until the mid-2000s because customers liked the Charger so much. Between 2005 and 2010, Dodge sold more than half a million of these burly sedans. The Charger received a complete redesign for the 2011 model year that improved just about

everything

, okay? The bodywork was sleeker and lower profile than the previous generation, with scalloped bodywork on the hood and doors and a return to the full-width taillight at the rear.rear.

Like old times. And all the performance packages are back too. You had the R/T, the SRT8, a Super Bee. In 2012, Dodge even teased a Viper V10-powered six-speed manual Charger at Sema called Charger Juiced. Unfortunately, it never went into production, but it was a sign that an even more powerful, perhaps meaner, Charger was on the way. (car acceleration) In 2014, Dodge introduced a new Charger for the 2015 model year. It was completely refreshed and sported an all-new look, but this Charger had a 707-horsepower secret living under the hood. Dodge called it the SRT Charger Hellcat. This was a sedan that could cover a quarter mile in 11 seconds and Dodge claimed it had a top speed of 204 miles per hour.

The Charger was the fastest and best looking sedan in the world. Dodge loaned us one last year and it's probably the best road trip car of all time and the Charger is still going strong today with no signs of letting up. (car speeding up) There are a lot of them. There is literally a Charger for every driver. You have the Charger SXT with a 3.6L Pentastar V6 available with advanced all-wheel drive with front axle disconnect. There's a Charger GT with a performance body and a more powerful 300-horsepower V6. (car accelerating) Don't forget about the 2020 Charger R/T with its 370 HRSPR hemi V8, it has electronically controlled exhaust, performance hood and fascias, and those great performance seats.

That high-performance steering wheel is there and it has power shift paddles. (car acceleration) The Charger R/T scat package is equipped with a dual-scroll performance grille, feeding a 485-horsepower 6.4L hemi engine equipped with electronically controlled Brembo exhaust.Four-piston brakes , they slow the car down, which you'll need because it's the most power you can get for under $40,000. (car speeding up) And of course, the big daddy of them all, the Charger SRT Hellcat returns for 2020. It now comes standard with the widebody package, complete with the performance grille with mail slot opening, that delicious 707 HRSPR, 6.2L Supercharged Hellcat V8 capable of 196 miles per hour and has six-piston Brembos. (car accelerating) (applauding) Bravo, bravo.

So many functions, so little time. You know, I heard he was hit by lightning and then I knew everything about every car. From powerful Coca-Cola bottle cars to turbocharged Econoboxes to today's 196 mph four-door sedan, there really is a Charger for everyone and that's why it's been around for so long in so many different forms. The name means something. It can be any car for anyone. This episode was developed by Dodge, thanks Dodge. We love you, but I love you more. Remix! ♪ Unfold, lights up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Unfold, lights up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Unfold, lights up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Unfold, lights up and down uh, ♪ ♪ Unfold, lights up and down ♪ I love you.