Tig
Fucktangular
- One owner car with 1,871 original miles
- Unrestored original condition
- Original 426/425 HP Hemi V-8
- Pistol Grip 4-speed transmission
- A34 Super Track Pack
- Power brakes
- Y9 Dark Gold with Gold vinyl top
- Black leather interior
- Bucket seats with console
- Solid State AM radio
- Protective plastic still on rear seat belts
- Mopar Nationals Unrestored Factory Stock certificate
- Documented with the original window sticker, order sheet, consumer information sheet, loan agreement, owners manual, payment checks, Scat Pack club and Dodge Owners Club ID cards as well as copies of the broadcast sheet, MSO and title application
- The original MSRP was $4,862.35
- Sold new at Hendryx Motor Company in Center Point, Iowa
This 1971 Dodge Hemi Challenger R/T is the stuff of which collector dreams are made. It is a genuine factory Hemi 4-speed R/T with Mopar Nationals certification as Unrestored Factory Stock. It is unrestored and original right down to its Goodyear Polyglas GT tires and the factory protective plastic still covering the rear seat belts. As if that was not enough to recommend it to any Mopar aficionado, here are the kickers: its owner, retired railroad worker Greg Hernandez of North Liberty, Iowa, bought it new at Hendryx Motor Company in Cedar Rapids, and he has driven it a total of 1,871 miles.
Greg traded in his barely-used 1969 Charger R/T 440 as partial payment on his new Challenger. “My brother called me from South Texas one day and said ‘You ought to look at those Challengers they’re selling now; you can even get a 426 Hemi with it.’ I had just bought a ’69 Charger with a 440 engine, but I went and looked at the Challenger. I liked it and I traded the Charger for it, not that far from here in Center Point, Iowa (at Hendryx Motor Company). I told the salesman that’s what I wanted and we went through the options and I ordered the car.”
Incredibly, the salesman tried to talk Greg out of buying the Challenger. He had sold only one other Hemi, a Charger R/T, and its demanding owner had become unpopular with the salesman. “He was adamant about saying it wasn’t a good choice for a family car! But I insisted that was what I wanted and we went ahead and made out the order. I got the car December 8, I believe. My wife drove our ’60 Chevy Impala along with me to the dealer and I drove the Charger. I drove the Challenger home with my two daughters in the back.”
The Challenger arrived at its new – and only – home exactly as Greg had envisioned it: Dark Gold Metallic paint with a Gold vinyl roof and R/T stripes, Black interior with leather bucket seats and console, tinted glass, sill moldings, locking gas cap and collapsible spare. It also, of course, had the most fabled muscle car driveline ever produced, although for a brief time even that was not enough, because Greg already had plans for his new ride.
“In those days what a guy did with a car like that was just clean it up when you got it, but then the first thing that came off was the exhaust and you got different wheels. So I put a set of Hooker headers on it right away in my driveway, which was gravel, and I took the aluminum wheels from my Charger before I traded it in and put those on my Challenger. But they were just too wide, so about a year or so later I took them off and I put everything back, the exhaust, everything the way it used to be, and that’s the way it’s been ever since.”
The low odometer reading of 1,871 miles was not due to any sudden faintness of heart. It was simply a matter of practicality. In fact the Challenger was not the only new car Greg Hernandez bought that year. The other one was a brand new 1971 Volkswagen, which served yeoman duty for years afterward. “When I brought the Challenger home there was snow on the ground and it was cold. I tried to take it out where we lived (North Liberty) and I just couldn’t go anywhere because of the snow; it just sat there and spun. So that’s where the Volkswagen came in. I drove the wheels off that Volkswagen, going back and forth to work, and we even went on family vacations in it all the way to South Texas. So the Volkswagen saved the Hemi car’s life.”
Greg Hernandez maintained the car assiduously its entire life, changing the engine and gear oils regularly and maintaining its mechanical suppleness with regular exercise. He also showed it at such high profile venues as Carlisle, Belvidere and the Mopar Nationals, although in recent years he has changed his mind about exposing his prized car to the risks of public showings. “I kind of had a second look at it and then I didn’t think I needed to show it, as much as I wanted to. I just had a second thought about it. But nothing ever happened to it and it all went well, so that’s a good thing.”
