50-Year-Old Dodge Charger Looks Like a Newborn, And It's a 440 Magnum

Among them was Dodge, the single other carmaker aside from the two mentioned above to have survived with muscle car products to our day and age. In fact, it offers not a single such product, but two of them: the Charger and Challenger. Okay, three of them, if you take into account the upper versions of the Durango SUV.

The Charger is of interest to us today from this select list of Dodge muscle machines. It's a name that first came about in 1966, not as a full-blown muscle car, but as a more pretentious pony. Because it arrived at just the right time, it was an instant hit, growing not only in the hearts of American customers but also in terms of variants it was offered in.

In all, seven generations of the model were made since, with a relatively large gap in production from 1987 to 2006. We're going to look a bit at the third one, which the example that brought us here today is part of.

Running from 1971 to 1974, it came with cars built on the Chrysler B platform, and with such a large choice of engine that it must have given people in the market for one headaches when it came to what to choose.

Those who knew what they were after obviously went for the top-of-the-range 440ci Magnum, the epitome of the Charger offering back then. This thing came with a four-barrel carburetor, a 3-speed automatic transmission, and an exhaust system that made no secret of what was hiding under the hood.

That's exactly the setup we have on this 1972 Charger. It's one of just 785 of them to be made back then in this configuration, and on top of that it still packs the original, numbers-matching engine and all that other stuff. All of the hardware was obviously restored, but this is probably one of the most authentic U-code 1972 Chargers available on the market today.

The car has been the subject of a years-long restoration process that gave little thought to cost. Everything you can see on it, and many of the parts you can't, have been replaced with new but correct elements, restored, and in some rare cases upgraded.

The Charger is dressed in a gold color offset on the sides, hood, and roof by deep black. The interior is just as dark and to be fair we wouldn't have imagined this build any other way in there. Enough shiny elements (stuff like the stainless trim around the glass, the mirrors, or the two chrome bumpers) are on deck to add a bit of style to the Charger.

The perfect condition of the bodywork is owed to the replacement of most of the panels with new metal. The hood is also new, and it now sports a Rallye hood to be reminiscent of yet another option Dodge gave birth to back in 1972. The top is made of vinyl, and it too is new.

Inside, the Charger presents a completely refinished look, with work performed on pretty much all of the elements there, from the steering wheel to the sun visors. The dashboard has been restored, and still holds Rallye gauges, the seats have been re-foamed and reupholstered, and there are now seatbelts for all passengers. The single modern element added to the Charger is an air conditioning system by Classic Auto Air. Black carpets all around and a correct-style trunk mat complete the interior look.

It's unclear how many miles the car traveled after being completed, but all of them were run on 14-inch wheels in the correct style of the 1970s, wearing Goodyear tires and chrome trim rings. Behind them are the reworked but still original suspension and braking hardware.

The car as you see it is listed for sale by Barrett-Jackson during the New Orleans auction taking place just as you're reading this. It is offered complete with another set of 14-inch wheels, this time wearing BFGoodrich rubber, an owner's manual, and a cover. The Charger is leaving the lot from under the ownership of a collection called MS Classic Cars.

No mention is made as to how much the current owner expects to fetch for it, and given how it's listed with no reserve, the hammer could fall at the right or wrong moment. Given what it has to offer, though, it'll likely make quite the splash.

Others like it, in concours condition but perhaps not as glamorous, are estimated by specialist Hagerty to be worth around $30,000.