The BENGAL Charger is a rare species of Mopar history that was specifically built in 1968 to celebrate the Cincinnati Bengals first year in the American Football League. Its special order Tiger Orange paint and Bengal Stripes, combined with "BENGAL Charger" fender badges make it a truly unique car and an eye-catching crowd pleaser. Only 50 of these beauties were produced and there's only a couple that have been tracked down. Hopefully they survived and are in someone's garage.

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Below is a brief history of how the Bengal Charger came to be...

Fifty "Bengal" Chargers were special ordered by Cincinnati Dodge dealer Tom Kneer to commemorate the Cincinnati Bengals' first year in the American Football League (AFL). All of the cars were painted "Tiger" orange and had black "Bengal" Stripes, black vinyl tops and black interiors. The cars were optioned with a variety of equipment.

As a devoted football fan, Tom Kneer was very excited to learn that his city would have an AFL expansion team beginning with the 1968 season. He decided to build a special car to celebrate the event. He envisioned mating the sleek new form of the '68 Charger with badgethe feline "Bengal" name and team colors - a match that couldn't miss.

Tom found out from Barry Buse (one of the team owners and a close friend) that the team's primary colors would be orange and black. In 1968, Orange paint was not available as an option on Chrysler Corporation passenger cars, so Tom selected an orange paint currently being used as a fleet color for Dodge trucks. The color he chose was originally developed for use on Michigan State Highway vehicles.

Tom contacted Chrysler with his request for orange cars. Chrysler told him that in order for them to build any cars with a special color, he would have to order a minimum of 50. He eventually agreed to special order 50 orange cars with an assortment of options. Most of the cars were equipped with a 318 or 383 engine. He had a few 6 cylinder cars built for marketing purposes and an estimated 10 - 12 R/Ts. Tom's dealership was having a hard time selling the Hemi option because of its high markup. For this reason, there are no Hemi Bengals.

Because Tom was purchasing so many cars, Chrysler agreed to throw in the black Sport Stripes for free. In 1968, Chrysler put Sport Stripes on the Charger R/T only. Since most of the Bengals were not R/Ts, obviously, an exception was made. For this reason and because they were free, the stripe does not appear on the broadcast sheet but instead was part of the special order processing along with the orange paint.

The chrome "BENGAL Charger" fender badges were made in Cincinnati and were mounted on the cars when they arrived at the dealership.

The Bengals were all built at the Hamtramck, Michigan assembly plant.