The best Mopar Muscle Car of all Time
Perhaps never in the history of automobile production and muscle car enthusiasm has a tougher question been asked than what the best MOPAR car of all time is. MOPAR itself is a title given to cars made by Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth and the abbreviation comes from the companies parts division. Between the years starting in the early 1960's until 1974 when emissions standards forced a reduction in the power of their engines, Chrysler and Dodge produced some of the most powerful engines ever made including the legendary 426 CID Hemi engine which produced 425 horsepower directly from the factory. Choosing the best ofthese carsis one of the toughest questions any car enthusiast could be asked, but based upon power, styling, and performance this article will try to render a fair verdict in the matter.
The best place to start would perhaps be to look at thecars themselves, and since they are all astounding classics that would make any car lover wipe the drool from their mouth there is no proper order in which to list them. Certain models do spring to mind before others however and some of the better known MOPAR cars are the Barracuda, Challenger, Road Runner, Charger, Super Bee, Super Bird and the Duster. While these are some of the more popular of the MOPAR cars chosen for restoration, this list simply wouldn't be complete without listing such models as the Fury, Coronet, Dart and the much sought after Valiant.
A large part of what makes thesecars so popularfor restoration isn't necessarily styling, although every one of them is beautiful and all are works of sheer automotive beauty, but their desirability is also in large part due to what they possessed under the hood. MOPAR cars were equipped with some of the most powerful engines of their time including the legendary 426 CID Hemi engine, as well as the 440 CID engine which came equipped with an optional six-barrel carburetor. Theseengineswere no joke and at the drag-strip they were a force to be reckoned with, as were the durable 318", 361", 383", 413" and the 440" even without the six-barrel option.
So out ofall of these carsand with all of the engines available to put in them, it's nearly impossible to choose one to name as the best MOPAR muscle car of all time. Based on sheer desirability, performance, styling, and price for a restored model, the 1970 Dodge Challenger with the 426" Hemi V-8 ranks at the top of the list among MOPAR fans and enthusiast. With it's graceful lines, sheer power, and it's intimidating stance there were few cars on the road in 1970 that could hold a candle to the Challenger. Perhaps the most staggering fact about that reality, is that it came that way directly from the factory and when tuned and tweaked by it's owner, it became a beast untamed by the competing muscle cars of the era.
