Alright, it’s Thursday and that means a new installment of Muscle Car of the Week. This week we take a look at a sweet Dodge E-Body that shares its platform with a car featured not but a few weeks ago, except this time it is from the boys over at Dodge. MOPAR fans assemble, today we look at the 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 6 pack. Hit the jump.

The Challenger debuted for the 1970 model year and shared the majority of its styling with the Plymouth Cuda. Although the cars look almost identical, the Challenger was 2 inches longer at the wheelbase so almost no parts are interchangeable between the two. After seeing the success of the Mustang and Camaro, Chrysler decided it was time to jump into the pony car arena and gave the go ahead to both of its sub-divisions to make a designated E-Body platform to compete with Ford and Chevrolet. Many people believe that the styling of the Challenger was ahead of its time as it looked nothing like anything Detroit had built to date. The crease in the sheetmetal that went from the fender to the quarter panel gave the car a sleek look and its very wide yet flat recessed grill made it stand out. And unlike the ‘70 Cuda, the Challenger featured two horizontally mounted headlights to the Cuda’s single lamp.

Just because the Challenger was created to compete with the likes of the small block Camaro’s and Mustang’s didn’t mean that it was given mild engine options. In fact, aside from the high winding small block in the Challenger T/A (cousin to the Cuda AAR), the laundry list of engine options consisted of high horse big blocks. The base engine for the R/T (Road and Track) package was the tried and true 383 V8 that put out 335 horsepower. The engine of choice for this feature is one that is often under appreciated due to the legend of the Hemi, the 440 6 Pack.

6 Pack setup

The way this engine was set up was pretty simple: take a standard 440 block and bolt three 2 barrel carbs to the intake manifold with a progressive throttle linkage. What that means is that at normal cruising speeds the engine is fed by the middle carb, on the freeway one of the outer carbs opens up and when you stomp the pedal all three suck massive quantities of air into the cylinders. With the 6 Pack option checked off you were ordering a 390 horsepower car that made torque numbers upwards of 480 pound feet. What most people don’t realize is that when tuned right, a 440-6 could keep up with a Hemi car for a good portion of the 1/4 mile! Not too bad right? Transmission choices included the A833 4-speed in case you wanted to row through the gears or the stout 727 3-speed auto that could launch that steel monster like nobody’s business. Zero to sixty times came in the low six second area with 1/4’s coming in in the mid to high 13’s depending on tuning.

All in all just 2,000 people ordered their Challengers with the venerable 440-6 option so if you can find a legit one, appreciate it. If you find a clone, drive the shit out of it. Big_Blocker out.