Dodge was the last of the U.S. automakers to get into the “pony car” business. The Challenger was born five years after the fever which had started with the Ford Mustang. The sporty new automobile shared its hot new E-body platform with Plymouth’s Barracuda, which had previously been a warmed-over Valiant. Both cars would carry on for five years before riding off into the sunset, though the Challenger name would soon return as a captive import from Japan. The seller’s 1973 Challenger has recently been treated to a complete restoration and looks and drives like a new car. It may only have a 318 cubic inch V8, but the muscle car market had peaked just as the Challenger came along.

In five years, 165,000 Challengers were produced (1970-74), more than the number of Barracudas during the same period. To put things into context, Ford sold 607,000 Mustangs in 1966 alone (that car’s best year). Both the Challenger and Barracuda are highly sought after today, especially the 1970 and 1971 editions when you could still get a 426 Hemi, 440, and 383 V8 engines. By 1973, the 340 small-block was the only performance engine available in these machines and the 318 was more common as the inline-six had already been dropped due to lack of interest.

We assume when this car was restored that everything is as it was the day it was built. In other words, was Bright Red was the original color (with a twist of orange), and the vinyl top and interior were black? The Dodge is numbers matching, which should also pertain to the 727 automatic transmission. The stated mileage is 110,000, but this can’t be verified, but as it sits the car looks to have only traveled a few hundred miles. The only thing not complete about the car may be the missing air conditioning compressor, but those are not hard to source.

When you consider the asking price of this Challenger, don’t forget what it costs to rebuild one of these cars today. Basket cases can fetch big bucks, so when you factor in the expense of all the work done, maybe is better to buy one where this has already been taken care of. The only thing potentially odd may be the R/T stripes – I thought that model had disappeared when all the big-block V8s did, with the Rallye 340 being in charge by ’73. This Dodge is in Rapid City, South Dakota, and is available here on Barn Finds Classifieds for $49,900 (with offers considered).