Can you imagine having a collection of three nice Hellcats today? A Challenger, Charger, and maybe a TRX or Durango would do the trick. You drive them for a while and then put them in storage next to some farm equipment, right?! Well, back in the 1980s, when Mopars were even cooler, somebody put away three awesome Dodges in a shed/barn somewhere in Michigan.
Today, the muscle car finder extraordinaire Auto Archeology posted this footage of a trio of rare Mopars hidden away somewhere in Michigan. It’s more of a shed or impromptu car garage than a barn, but there’s a tractor right next to the cars and the floor is mud, so it’s fair to call this a “barn find”.
First near the door is a Dodge Charger. The simpler taillights with a chrome wrap-around indicate this is a 1972 Charger. Trim-wise, this was apparently the SE model, which was a luxury edition that included pleated vinyl seats, vinyl roof, concealed headlights, and a Rallye gauge instrument cluster. It was common in the day, with 22,430 sold that year for $3,250.
Powertrain-wise, this had the weaker of two 400 options, a 2 barrel with only about 190 horsepower. But this Mopar treasure trove has an upgrade V8 to go with this nice body.
The green car is easily the most interesting. That’s a 1971 Dodge Super Bee, which not many people remember. For the first three years of its life, 1968 to 1970, the Super Bee was based on the Coronet. However, in 1971, which is also its last model year, the Super Bee was a trim level of the Charger and they made just 5,054 examples.
The holy grail of this model would be the 440 Six-Pack of which they made a few dozen. This isn’t one of them; it’s a 383 model with a 4-speed of which they made about 766 examples. Back in its glory days, this 6.3-liter 4-bbl would have been good for 300 hp and a 0 to 60 mph time of about 7.2 seconds. So it’s a true muscle car.
The Mopars are back on the road now
1971 was the beginning of the end for the Mopar era, especially if you’re a fan of big-block B-Body performance. Sales were high for Dodge that year, but this 383 V8 lost 30 horsepower while the really big engines were being made extinct by high insurance rates.
The last car, sitting in the back of the barn appears to be a 1973 Dodge Challenger. Like many of them, it’s had the ugly bumper with rubber stops replaced with an all-crome version from an earlier version. There used to be a time when any E-body built past 1971 would be considered worthless, and so many were scrapped or sent to the demolition derby.
It’s got the Rallye stripes and Magnum-type wheels adding appeal, although the seller doesn’t mention anything about the engine. Instead of the performance powerhouses from just a few years back, the best you could hope for in 1973 was an all-roader with the 340 V8. This 5.6-liter was rated at just 240 horsepower and 290 pound-feet of torque.
It’s got an automatic on the floor and bucket seats, unlike the Bee. I actually like the look of a 73 bumper but this could also make a great restomod.
