A great example of what might have been - the Charger 770 is a muscle-bound cruiser
it’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when big powerful coupes were made locally by the truckload. Ford with its Falcon hardtop, Holden with the Monaro and of course Chrysler with its stunning Charger.
Numerous variants were produced over the years and Chrysler’s volumes were such that they didn’t ever sell in plague proportions. However some are more rare than others and, with a production number of just 212, this VJ-series E55 option 770 definitely qualifies as low volume.
For a time Chrysler’s hero coupe was a stand-out for running big straight sixes on the racetrack against the V8s of its rivals. Then Chrysler decided to go racing with a US-sourced 340-cube V8 and that meant homologating race-replica variants. However the plans were suddenly shelved, along with those of some rivals, by the ‘supercar’ media scare.
Which left Chrysler with some nice big engines to find another purpose for. Enter the E55 variants, which ran across VH and VJ series. The powerplants were delivered in fairly standard tune, but in the VJ still claimed a healthy 275 horses. They were tied to Torqueflite 727 autos and the theme was a big, fast luxury coupe.
This example claims matching numbers and has been restored. It seems a lot of the original detail has been preserved. See AustralianMuscleCarSales.com.au. It’s priced at $125,000.
Photography: Australian Muscle Car Sales