The second generation of the Dodge Charger muscled its way into the muscle car arena in 1968, hitting hard and deep. The fuselage-styled Charger made its final charge at the end of 1970, leaving the stage for the third iteration of the symbolic nameplate. Among the many versions of the series, the ’68-’70 examples are the best valued by gearheads and collectors alike.
You are familiar with those social media posts encouraging a compulsive screen scroller to ‘follow for more financial advice,’ but I think I have found a new way of getting rich fast. All you have to do is own and sell a second-generation Dodge Charger. That’s it – no more money worries. It doesn’t matter what condition said Mopar is in – as long as there’s the Dodge emblem on it, you can pretty much ask for the moon, stars, sun, and other celestial bodies.
Chances are someone will pay up or at least make an offer. In some cases, it’s perfectly understandable why enthusiasts will go to a facial surgery clinic for a nose augmentation job so they’ll have more to pay through. But that’s typically the case with special cars, like one-owner survivors with maniacally documented history or super-rare examples that would make even hen dentists look commonplace.
At the opposite end of the spectrum lie scrap iron sellers who own a pile of rusty metal that used to be a Dodge Charger and put a price tag on it. Here’s the secret financial tip I was talking about: it doesn’t have to make any sense – as long as it’s a second-gen Charger, logic doesn’t apply. But d on’t take my word for it, check the gallery and see for yourself what I mean.
The wreck depicted in the photos began life as a 1970 Dodge Charger with a 318 V8 and a three-speed—the most popular option for that year, considering the detail that the three-speed refers to the automatic TorqueFlite, not the manual box (which was a rarity on 318s). Our case in point is one of the 6,513 base Dodge Chargers built with this powertrain team out of a total production of 46,315 examples of all trims (base, 500, and R/T).
Clearly, this derelict pile of (s)crap metal had a color at one time, Light Gold by all appearances, and a vinyl roof, but that’s just useless trivia. The smelter candidate contains several seasons’ worth of shed tree leaves, and the ‘rust is a must’ mantra is absolutely redundant in this case.
Allegedly, this loosely joined heap of Mopar steel has all the glass intact (just not installed on the car), bar the LEGO-ized windshield that’s scattered throughout the frame, dashboard, and engine bay.
The crooked front end leaves nothing to the imagination, but the seller claims there are plenty of usable parts that can be retrieved from this corpse. You’ll benefit from a leaf blower or a strong gush of wind to remove the thick deposits of vegetal sediment (read ‘leaf’) to actually see what’s salvageable in this once-proud B-body Mopar.
The funny thing about this eBay listing is that in 36 hours, the bid grew by 1,133% to 1,134 bucks. The starting price was one whole dollar (which makes sense), and the current high bid sounds about right, but the reserve hasn’t been met yet. Also, the car is subject to a separate listing in Elcho, Wisconsin, and the eBay ad may be gone in the snap of a finger, but there are four days remaining on the online platform.
When it was new, this ‘try not to cry if you buy’ desecrated Mopar sported a 318 cubic-inch V8. This entry-point eight-cylinder motor squeezed 230 hp and 320 lb-ft (233 PS, 434 Nm) from those 5.2 liters of displacement. The mileage would be absolutely irrelevant in this case since, given its direct exposure to the elements, there’s little chance of ever getting back on the road as a single unit.