Plum Crazy Roller! 1970 Dodge Challenger RT
Chrysler capitalized on the youth movement of the 1960s & 1970s by offering some powerful automobiles, and many of them were painted in an assortment of “High Impact” colors. These included heart-stopping hues like Sassy Green and Hemi Orange, but the most memorable has to be Plum Crazy, a variant of purple. The seller’s 1970 Dodge Challenger appears to have left the factory with that wild color, but it’s seen better days and the front-end clip now wears something different. This car is a roller but used to use have a 383 V8 under the hood. It’s parked in Middle River, Maryland and available here on eBay where the bidding has reached $11,200, yet the reserve hasn’t been met.
The seller’s first year Challenger may have been a low production car, but verifying the numbers isn’t an exact science. There is no fender tag on the car, or a build sheet hidden away, so pinpointing what the car actually is may not be easy. Let’s say that it is an R/T, but let’s eliminate it being an SE as well because there’s nothing visible that point that direction. So, you start with total Challenger production for 1970 and you have 76,935 cars. 35,951 of those would have been R/T coupes and 9,067 came with the 383 cubic inch V8. Diving further, 6,347 of those Dodges were automatics. Assuming this car is a JS23 (R/T hardtop), 3,034 of all the Challenger hardtops were painted Plum Crazy. With some creative math, perhaps cars equipped as this one was and with purple paint may number somewhere around 500.
Despite the desirability of the color, this car is a rough project any way you cut it. Both front fenders, the hood and the trunk lid are not original to the car. The rear quarter panels are going to have to either be replaced or cut by two inches behind the rear wheels to attend to rust. The driver’s side portion of the floorboards will need patching as does a small section in the trunk that you can’t see (parts are stored in the trunk). The seller tells us the frame rails are good, so there’s hope. The car looks to have had a white vinyl top to match part of the interior, but it and the chrome moldings around it are gone.
The best part of the interior may be the dashboard as there doesn’t appear to be any cracks and it sports the Challenger Rallye gauge package. Most of the photos provided are not of the car itself but all the loose parts that go with it, like the engine block that the seller says came out of it. But the TorqueFlite has flown the coop, although the car has a 3.23 Sure Grip shifter. New chrome bumpers will come with the car along with a bunch of trim pieces.
In super condition, these Challengers can easily trade for mid-five figures and one painted in Hi-Impact colors attract the most attention. This car has the potential of being one of those machines someday, after a lot of time and money are expended. And the fact that the fender tag was removed doesn’t help the car’s cause. Is this a pass-go automobile or would you rebuild it to its former glory?
Auctions Ending Soon
1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1Bid Now19 hours$7,100
2003 Porsche Boxster SBid Now20 hours$6,000
1966 Lincoln ContinentalBid Now22 hours$500
2000 Jaguar XJ8LBid Now4 days$1,250
1977 Datsun 280ZBid Now5 days$275
Comments
One thing’s for sure. Looking at the original sheetmetal on this Challenger, it appears to have been simply a low-level model (Non-R/T) from the factory; it has the side stripe that many pedestrian `70 Challengers carried, and the plum crazy color was available to every model.
However, once it’s sold & any rebuilding of it takes place, the omission of any build sheet or data tags means this Challenger will be converted to anything the owner wants. A crate Hemi or 440-6 pack easily dropped in; maybe even a shaker hood? The possibilities are endless, but in the end it won’t be authentic, and won’t be numbers matching. Just someone’s dream of what they want it to be.
The VIN proves it’s a factory R/T equipped with a 383.
Steve R
I never was much of a Mopar fan although I admit to being hooked on this era of Challenger. A good friend of mine has an original ‘70 T/A with a 340/6-Pack. It looks mint and he’s been offered some pretty good coin for it. I was more partial to a yellow RT with 383/Auto and sure wouldn’t kick one off my driveway today.
There was a kid in a neighboring town got one for a high school graduation present. It lasted just over a couple of months and in the neighborhood of 10K miles before he was spinning circles in the intersection and another kid with a brand new Toyota Celica T-Boned him.
A snotty-green T/A with something like 3K miles on it went into the median on the freeway at 100+ and squarely hit an overpass support which peeled the car open like a banana, all the way back to the rear axle. Amazing that it didn’t break the rear window but it still wiped out five kids, aged 15-17. Highway Patrol said that the 8-track was still playing Led Zeppelin when they got there.
These muscle cars, I can understand why the insurance companies moved quickly to keep their numbers down…
These cars were inherently dangerous, esp in the hands of the young and foolish. The standard six and eights were the best over all choice of propulsion as determined by the engineers. A good compromise between style and safety, and reliability, and economy.
Of course, the new muscle cars have outstanding brakes. My Challenger scat pack, has Brembo brakes standard all around. Conversion to disc type front brakes on these old cars should be part of any restoration and they usually are. Yes, I know of many tragic stories about cars and the young.
New muscle cars are light years ahead of this in terms of tire technology, brakes, handling, and safety features. It’s a wonder more people were not killed in these!
Better off putting it back in the hedge row where you found it!!!!
The ebay ad shows a bucket of rusty bolts. That almost makes the deal for me.
Looks like a $5,000 parts car (maybe) to me!!
Call Graveyard Cars!
I never thought about it the Mopar weed must be plum crazy purple.) 11000 is a lot of money for roller, I would keep looking
Seems like the perfect candidate for a re-body . . . sorry, but these bodies flexed like cookie tins even when they were new (I know, I’ve driven a bunch of them); I can only imagine what the rust has done to further erode the rigidity of the unibody. Five figures in that condition? If this was my hand in a poker game, I’d fold.
All of these comments about how dangerous muscle cars were…no, they’re not and never were. Like a gun, muscle cars don’t kill people, people kill people. In other words, the driver needs to be smarter than the car and, always, respect the car. It has more power than you do and it will do as you tell it. Some people are just stupid, face the reality of it.
I think its the same guy who regularly posts about how horrid Muscle cars were and the six cylinder versions were what people should buy ; he just changes his name from time to time.
It doesn’t matter if its a muscle car or not , if you’re driving too fast for conditions ,or past the cars limits , you could be killed or severely injured , even if you were driving a 68 Nova with a 250 and a Powerglide or a 74 Granville with a 455 .Like you said, some people are just stupid .
That’s the guy, his current user name is derived from the Air Force general that ran strategic bombing in the pacific during WWII and was head of the Air Force in the early-60’s. He likes using names of famous people such as Ken Jennings, the most prolific jeopardy champion of all time, an actress from the original Star Trek series and a spin on James Bond. He also likes using one word names. He’s been doing the same thing for years. He doesn’t have enough guts to stick to one name and say what he thinks, he’s more likely interested in playing games.
Steve R
For the record I never said that muscle cars were dangerous. However all that horsepower on tap and some kid barely mature enough to grow peach fuzz on his face is a potentially dangerous combination. They’re barely past toilet training and suddenly they’re in charge of all that power. I had a gutless six cylinder and a flathead V8 and those two pretty much saved my bacon…
Yes, but like a gun, you are much less tempted if you don’t have one. Also like a gun, you are far less likely to hurt yourself or someone else if you do not have it. The engineers who designed these cars made the standard engines for a reason, they were the best compromise for what they were intended for. For the rest of these nearby comments, not sure who you guys are talking about, I like being compared to interesting people, but sorry, never been in the Air Force. I was named after my Uncle Curt, and he was a Navy man.