The 426 HEMI cars are undoubtedly the most desirable old Mopars. Collectors, on the other hand, are drawn to certain choice combinations. One of these is the R/T SE package offered by Dodge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
What makes this pairing so appealing? It’s a combination of high-performance and luxury features. The R/T package offered a slew of extras that transformed the Charger and Challenger into segment-leading muscle cars. It had a big-block V8 engine that was beefed up, heavy-duty suspension, performance tires and brakes, and race-inspired stripes.
The Special Edition (SE) package added premium appointments such as genuine leather and vinyl bucket seats, wood-grain inserts on the dashboard, a unique steering wheel, and pedals with dress-up moldings. Exterior upgrades included hood-mounted turn signals, deep-dish wheel covers, and “SE” badges on the C-pillars.
In short, Dodge created the R/T package for customers looking for a fully-fledged muscle car. At the same time, the SE bundle was aimed at buyers needing a sporty but also fancy rig. Those who combined the badges got a nicely appointed cruiser that was ready to smoke the competition at the drag strip any day of the week.
While the R/T and the SE bundles aren’t particularly rare on their own, cars equipped with both are hard to find nowadays. Take the 1970 Dodge Challenger, for instance. Of the 76,935 examples produced that year, only 3,753 left the assembly line with the R/T SE combo. By contrast, Dodge produced almost 15,000 R/Ts and more than 6,000 SE models. The HEMI is the rarest of them all, with just 60 made, while the 383 was the most popular, with 2,522 units made.
However, the Challenger was not the first Dodge to receive the R/T and SE packages. In 1969, the bigger Charger was available with both. With 104,978 units sold, this was the best-selling year for the nameplate. The R/T package was available on a total of 20,057 of these vehicles.
How many of them also received the SE package? The latter was a dealer-installed option that year, and Dodge didn’t keep track, but most Charger experts estimate that the R/T SE combo was equipped in fewer than 4,500 cars.
Granted, the 1969 Charger R/T SE is not quite as rare as the 1970 Challenger with the same packages, but they’re not as common as the production numbers suggest either. That’s because many of them were abandoned in junkyards or parked in barns after a few years on the road. And while you can still track down rust buckets needing six-figure restorations, unmolested examples are so rare that many of us will never see one in the metal. The Dark Green hardtop you see here is one of those cars.
Rescued by YouTube’s “HHWheels,” this rare Charger is also one of those classics that was neglected for decades. The story goes that the original owner passed away while in the army, and the Mopar ended up sitting under a tarp for about 22 years. Sadly, the car was parked outside, and the cover did not prevent rust from getting to the body, so the R/T SE was in poor shape when it was rescued.
But even though most body panels show signs of rust here and there, the chassis is still solid. And that’s surprising, given that cars parked outside tend to rust from the bottom. The interior was still in good shape, while the odometer showed only 46,000 miles. Moreover, the Charger still had the original 383-cubic-inch (6.3-liter) V8 under the hood.
Sure, 383s aren’t as rare as HEMIs and 440s, but at 335 horsepower, Dodge’s entry-level big-block was plenty potent when new. The amazing part is that the lump came back to life with very little effort. Not only that, but our hosts drove it without incident for 1,500 miles during the Hot Rod Power Tour 2023.
Hopefully, this is the start of a restoration procedure that will return this Charger to factory specifications. Until then, watch it come back to life in the video below.