Dodge Charger – Drifting Through the Decades [1968]

With its classic ‘coke-bottle’ shape and legendary performance, the 2nd generation Dodge Charger became a muscle car superstar early on.

Movies like Bullitt made it famous. Dukes Of Hazzard locked it down as a pop culture sensation. The Fast and The Furious introduced it to an entirely new generation.  And from a gear head perspective, the 1968-70 Charger that was once available for $600 at any shady car lot along Highway 99 in Seattle is now unattainable by most due to outlandish prices.

After 1970 the Charger got huge, then luxurious, then cheesy and small.  After disappearing for a while it reappeared as a fire-breathing Hemi-powered four door.

I found the drifting photo above in a 1967 issue of Motorcade magazine, a copy which was unearthed recently from my parents’ attic. The picture is part of an article that highlighted the new cars for 1968, and featured most every American vehicle that was being released for the following model year. I scanned and posted the drifting pic online, knowing full well that Flickr Friend Scott Crawford would be drawn to it (less than 24 hours later he tagged it as a favorite). Why would Scott love this pic so much?

Maybe his photo from the 1970s below will answer that:

1976 – Photo courtesy Scott Crawford

1976 – Photo courtesy Scott Crawford

Scott purchased a 1968 Charger around 1976 while he was in high school.  Unlike other gear heads – like me – who ended up selling their B-body Mopars in later years, Scott kept his Charger for a while.

1980s – Photo courtesy Scott Crawford

A long while:

2006 – Photo courtesy Scott Crawford

And it remains in his garage to this day.

November 2011 – Photo courtesy Scott Crawford

Now that’s drifting through the decades!