Mr Norm’s Demo: 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T
This 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T was originally ordered as a dealer demonstrator. It wasn’t just any dealership but was the legendary Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge. It was ordered as a fully-loaded vehicle and would have lured plenty of potential buyers into the Humboldt Park, Illinois, showroom. The car has undergone a comprehensive refurbishment and is now looking for a new home. It is located in Suamico, Wisconsin, and has been listed for sale here on Craigslist. The asking price for the R/T is a cool $60,000.
The Challenger is a fantastic looking car, and it appears to be as neat and clean as you are ever likely to find. It would seem that the refurbishment has been complete to a high standard because there are no apparent issues with the panels or paint. The Silver shines beautifully, the Black vinyl top is flawless, while the trim and glass appear to be perfect. However, this is a Challenger that is a long way from original. When it was delivered to Mr. Norm’s, it was finished in Bright Red, and in addition to the Black vinyl top, it wore a set of White Bumblebee stripes. The hood pins and rear spoiler are original, but components like the rear window louver are now absent.
Hiding under the hood is a 440ci V8, which punched out a very respectable 375hp. This engine is backed by a 4-speed manual transmission, while the Challenger also features power steering and power front disc brakes. It is here that this Challenger is likely to cause some heartburn to those who were banking on mechanical originality. The engine is said to be period-correct, which means that this is not a numbers-matching vehicle. Also, it rolled off the production line equipped with an A727 automatic transmission. The engine has been recently rebuilt, and the owner holds receipts that detail its specifications. The owner purchased the vehicle 14-years-ago, and it would appear that he may have been the person who instigated its refurbishment. If he did, then that could potentially be good news. It is possible that he might know the location of the original engine and transmission. This might allow the buyer to return the car to its original specifications if they feel motivated to do so.
The interior of the Challenger presents just as nicely as the rest of the vehicle, and there is nothing to fault in there. The upholstery looks perfect; the dash has been fitted with a new pad, while the carpet is free from wear and fading. Once again, optional equipment abounds, with a center console, pistol-grip shifter, power windows, Rallye Instrument Cluster, and the Light Package, all present. The Dodge originally came equipped with an AM radio/8-track player, but this has been replaced by a CD player. Also showing on the tags is the fact that this was a vehicle that was ordered with air conditioning. There are no apparent signs of any A/C equipment left today.
Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge was a dealership that pushed the company on to produce some extraordinary cars. This included proving to Dodge that it was possible to fit a 383ci V8 under the hood of a 1967 Dart and then going on to convince Dodge to slot a 440 into the ’68 Dart. That one of his dealer demonstrators should come onto the market is a rare treat for Mopar enthusiasts. If this car was a completely original, numbers-matching car, then with its unique combination of options, its value could potentially threaten six-figure territory. However, it isn’t original, and it is missing a number of the components that make it so unique. I’m not saying that it’s a bad car because it isn’t. This is a stunning car, and it will be interesting to see whether our readers would be inclined to attempt a faithful restoration, or whether they would leave it untouched.
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Comments
DROOOL!!! Not particularly fond of the color, or the rear spoiler, but I could live with them both! Would be nice to restore the A/C. What a beauty! GLWTS!! :-)
Tasteful looking car but I’m not so sure I’d have altered this particular one. Being a highly optioned car with the famed Mr. Norms name attached to it I personally would have kept it as originally ordered. I do like how this turned out, just would have done it to a different challenger.
Agree. If the seller is going to hang the price on it being a Mr. Norm promo car, why change it so much???
I LIKE. Much nicer to just pay the money for something you can rub the key and burn rubber right now. I am pretty critical of most everything. Yeah not a barn find but still a nice find. I like the color. It’s not the “Norm…..
I agree with AMCFAN, people are paying ridiculous money for mopar shells, that might be built to factory specs, but are still not original. The fact that is was Mr. Norms is pretty much mute at this point, but, you damn sure can’t build this for the asking price. I think it’s a good buy.
One word….”SWEET”
I’m sure there are things that look worse than modern radios in vintage dashboards, but I can’t think of them right now. That monstrosity would have to go!
Looks like a nice car at a bargain price (in the context of one of these). But I wonder why they strayed so far from the original given its pedigree? It isn’t like bright red is undesirable so why change the color? If it was dark brown or tan I might understand but why not leave it red?
And why take out the A/C? That too would seem a very desirable option. It isn’t like anyone’s going to be racing this any more, so why take it out?
I’d have to consider these to be red flags so I’d definitely inspect it closely.
Agree with your points! Why change the color, not restore the A/C, change the engine, etc…….? Nice Mopar, but has lost its provenance!
The dashboard shows this was an air equipped car, where is it? I like the color but hate the spoiler. Never liked the rag on top of a car, but this looks okay. The four speed works well here, nice change. My biggest gripe is the engine. If it was not original, why not put in a 340 for the handling? 340s were an RT option after all.
340s weren’t an option for the 70 model Challenger R/T. They were on the list for the 71 R/T. All 70 340 Challengers were the A66 package except for the TA Challenger.
The whole deal about Mr. Norm and this car being a demo has lost all it meaning and value when it strayed so far off build sheet, trim tags specs. Why did they ignore all that. I understand that it was restored to the now owners preferences but ya cant bring Mr. Norm & Al Smith into the cars background and expect it to be any more valuable then one that Joe Schitt the rag man ordered and bought from Happy Valley Dodge back in 1970. Other than that mini rant, its a dam nice car that I’d enjoy running thru the gears on nice days,,,,,,,,without that thing hanging off the deck lid.
I am from Chicago and have no idea who the hell Mr. Norm is & why would that have any impact on its importance? Nice car & price. Don’t understand why the AC was removed.
Mr. Norm ran Grand Spaulding Dodge on W. Grand Avenue and N. Spaulding from the 1950s – 1970s. He was well known in drag racing back then, and his dealership offered various performance packages (similar to Royal Pontiac), and even made its own cars – the Dart GSS and Demon GSS (similar to Yenko Chevrolet).
I actually owned a 1972 Charger which originally had been purchased there. It wasn’t modified but it had the cool Mr. Norm’s sticker on the trunk lid!
The dealership was located in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. The showroom building is still standing, but the large warehouse/repair facility across the street has since been torn down. The dealer closed partly because the area was going to bleep in a handbasket. But it is now gentrifying.
In fact, it appears the dealership building is now being redeveloped into something. I’m not sure what but it sat empty and boarded up for decades, so it’s good to see something happening with it.
I was just thinking what a shame it is that most of the folks looking at this have no idea about the High-Performance Departments associated with many dealerships back in the 1960’s to early 1970’s. Man, what a time! I’m glad it was part of my youth.
That was a great era! To be fair though, you can still buy performance packages for many new cars. But they come from the manufacturer or a tuner. I am unaware of any new car dealers who specialize in modifying their cars.
I’d say tuner companies like Dinan, SLP, Roush, Saleen, and Lingenfelter the spiritual successors to the Mr. Norm’s, Yenkos, Baldwin-Motions, and Royals of the 1960s.
@Super- Agree 100% and I did think about the tuners as I was posting, but to me the tuners are independent contractors as opposed to the performance parts folks being right in the same dealerships that were selling sedans and station wagons to Mom and Pop.
I believe Galpin Ford in Van Nuys offers dealer installed performance modifications.
Wow! really? how old are you? LOL
I don’t see how the car was set up for the dealership. Grand Spaulding was known for changing things when it made sense so were things like the paint redone for the dealership or post sale? If it was red while it acted as a demo, then repainting it would depreciate the value. If on the other hand the dealership repainted it to this color then it probably is worth more as it stands than as it was built IMO. Same thing with the engine and other mechanicals, they were known for changing engines, transmissions and differentials as desired.
It’s a good looking car, whether the provenance is there or not just depends IMO.
That’s a good question. I was assuming a subsequent owner made all the changes when they did the restoration but who knows? I would be very surprised if the dealer would go through all the trouble to do a perfect color change from red to silver and remove the air conditioning system to resell it. And if they did, it’s no wonder they went out of business!
A very nice period correct car, but really. With a price tag like that, it better be a numbers matching . That is all that seems to justify high prices these days.
Being a Chicago kid I find it funny that everyone thinks that just because a car was originally sold at Grand Spaulding Dodge it makes it something special or more valuable. Silly at best. Not every car sold there had something to do with Mr Norm and I’m sure this car is no different. Most Chicago natives don’t know anything about this “fantasy reputation” and only bought a car there because it was closer to home or they got a better deal.
As a Chicago born and raised car junkie the dealerships like Mr Norm’s and Nickey with the backwards K out of Chicago made the bulk of their sales out of selling traditional cars.
Their drag racing teams and modified cars was there best advertising in the day.
Looks like this was set for the BJ auction, but was postponed due to covid.
https://www.barrett-jackson.com/Events/Event/Details/1970-DODGE-CHALLENGER-R/T-MR-NORMS-241223
On my search I was hoping to find more about the history and what dumba$$ changed the color.
Check out the YouTube link video from the Seller. He mentioned that he and the Seller he bought it from did not know that the car was a special order from Mr. Norm’s dealership. He went on to say that he (this seller) located the order paperwork from the dealer after he bought it. The owner before him restored it his way not knowing the full impact of the rarity and speciality of the car. I am assuming that the Seller here saw the Y13 (Special Order) on the second trim tag and dug into it. I also heard him say that he would sell the paperwork to the next owner for a nominal price. Personally it should just go to the next owner with the sale. I suppose that is some leverage for a better selling price? On his video, in the remarks, he added that a sale is pending. I personally like all the options it was built with but is a shame that it is not exactly what it is now. It does look nice though.
There’s a sucker born every minute. Some guy with a parachute on his wallet will pony up the bucks to buy this. That’s why these clones are being produced. There is a market for them. 🙄
Claiming to be a “Demo” is nothing special, nor necessarily good. A demo was what an employee was furnished for use as a driver, a benefit of employment. Customers rarely if ever test drove them and the assigned employee probably drove the $#!% out of it for a few months before accruing too many miles. Maintenance was probably minimal while the dealer owned it. I know not to ever buy a “demo” unless severely discounted and given an extended warranty!
Seen an advertisement in an old car magazine, Cars or high performance Cars, when I was a kid. My dad had bought me a stack of mags at a car show way back in the early seventies, which were only a few years old at the time
Dodge Demon GSS 340, supercharged and what seemed like a bunch of optional stuff a buyer could get….turn key out the door from Mr. Norm, at Grand Spaulding Dodge. Still have it somewhere. I forget the price but it would be laughable today. Now that would constitute serious interest as it was built to deliver from the dealer, a special dealer car, like the Yenko’s and Motion performance built Baldwin Chevys. Despite the well known performance minded dealership not everything sold there was like that, not hardly.
A Challenger with a 440 was a factory option, unlike some of the older 440 Darts or that GSS. This is a nice car for sure, but I wonder how many Mopars sold from that dealership have floated around with no reference to being sold at Grand Spaulding, I also heard that was the place to go for the latest speed equipment and a few magazine cars were either from Mr. Norm himself or tuned by their mechanics. Al, that’s the only part of the mans name I can spell correctly and I believe he was the top mechanic there, could to tune a Hemi with perfection. I’m done now, thanks.
Looked at all Comments.
Resto should of followed trim tag.
Still is a beautiful car….
Hiding under the hood is a 440 but ruining the lines of a nicely styled car is an absolute ugly spoiler in plain sight.
Non-original engine, trans, and color. Nice looking car, but it has strayed too far from its origins to try to cash in on the Mr. Norm’s pedigree.
By the way, I own the original ax George Washington chopped down the cherry tree with. The head has been replaced three times and the handle has been changed four times. I’m asking $100,000 for it.
It’s only original once and this Mr. Norms is nothing to write home about.
The engine, color and the lack of the air conditioning makes it just another old challenger.
But there’s a sucker born every day.
Comet, you may be trying to make a joke here, but I believe that is a true story, but may be the changes were not that many times, but they were changed. Just would like to make a note here, that any decent HP car today is 60 grand and up. They will go down in value each year, where the Challenger will go up, as long as it is kept up. I guess they call it an investment.
I’m 64 years old and I went to sleep every night here in Kentucky with my radio on 89 WLS Radio (rock and roll, baby) in Chicago. As a 14 to 17 year old kid; listening to the Mr. Norm ads about the Hemi and 440-6 pack Chargers, Darts, and anything else Dodge, with every engine combo you could imagine; was every young boys dream. I couldn’t wait til I got out of school and got a job so I could go to Mr. Norms and buy the car of my dreams. Alas, reality and The General (Chevy) stepped in and I never did make it to Mr. Norms. Last year I did get to meet and get an autographed poster from Mister Norm while at MCACN in Chicago. Even though I am not a Mopar guy, meeting Mr. Norm was still comparable to a catholic getting to meet the Pope. Thanks WLS and Mr. Norm for making so many dreams for me, and I know, thousands of others just like me. To the person who said he didn’t know who Mr. Norm was; now you know.
I’m about 9 years behind you, in my young adult years I subscribed to about every Mopar magazine and read many features on Mr. Norm cars. I became somewhat of a fan of his and his Paxton supercharged 340 cars. got to meet him at a couple of the big Mopar events in recent years and to Craigo if the magazines did so many write ups on the man and his cars then yes he’s something to write home about.
This particular car is nothing to write home about because it’s nowhere close to being original.
If and when you meet Mr. Norm again ask him what percentage of cars he sold were high performance or modified by him. He had a small floor plan but the dealers that sold high performance cars like Nickey Chevrolet in Chicago they were just a small part of their business. Nickey had a whole block for its cars and a huge floor plan with hundreds of cars. Mr Norm didn’t have the space but he did do a great job getting exposure.
I always wanted to go up to Royal Pontiac in Detroit who were doing minor modifications to the GTO which did not void the warranty.
To buy a non-original car just because it once had a Mr Norm’s decal or was sold at that dealership doesn’t make it collectible.