Six Amazing Challengers From Mecum's Texas Sale

Picking just six was... challenging

Mecum's Dallas sale may not have the prestige of the one held in Monterey. But as this year's event showed, it's a better cross-section of the collector car market as a whole. With a thousand cars on the docket, there was something for almost everyone, including 19 Challengers, most of which represented the model's high points. But, for the sake of brevity, here are six of the greatest hits in running order.

All images courtesy ­­­­­Mecum Auctions.

1970 Challenger T/A 340 Six Pack Coupe [$99,000]

There isn’t room here to explain the Challenger T/A’s raison d'être that can be found in Lot #F138‘s auction description, but suffices to say that this car from the Peter Swainson Collection is a real-deal, fully-documented, numbers-matching T/A that looks like its restoration concluded far more recently than December of 2014. Only two things likely kept this minty-fresh Mopar from breaking the $100k barrier: its (as-built) Panther Pink paint and TorqueFlite automatic transmission.

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

1971 Challenger R/T 440 Six Pack Coupe [$99,000]

Lot #F142 is, literally, a horse of a different color, despite a sales price identical to Lot #F138‘s. Another Swainson car, this Plum Crazy ‘71 is just one of 250 V-Code 385-hp 440 cu in Six Pack V8 Challenger R/Ts produced that year, and one of 119 with the TorqueFlite. What likely held this one back is the fact that while the broadcast sheet verifies most of the big things on the car as original, much of the exterior “gingerbread”—like the Shaker hood, color-matched bumpers, rear window louvers, and the Go-Wing rear spoiler—were, as TV and film people would say, “added in post.” Still, it’s a heck of a car in one of the most desirable colors, and it’s all the better for the additions.

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

1970 Hemi Challenger R/T Convertible Replica [$75k No Sale]

As one of the original 12 1970 Hemi Challenger Convertibles easily adds a zero to this car’s $100k-$125k estimate (if you could find someone willing to part with theirs) something like Lot #F142.1 makes perfect sense. Not only could you build a car that looks like the real thing, but you could also “upgrade” and customize it to your heart’s content. If Mr. Swainson’s heart is the one in question, what it wanted was to be weird. Though this most-antithetical-color-name-ever “Sublime Green” over white machine looks stock at a glance, upon closer inspection, one would find modern touches like larger versions of original-style Rallye wheels, five forward speeds on the Pistol Grip shifter’s cap and a 10,000 rpm (!) column-mounted tach. Under the Shaker, it's all-new, too, with a Mopar Performance 340 cu in V8 race engine stroked to 426 cu in. You can read about the rest of the resto on Mecum’s site, but allot an afternoon to do it. This is the poster child for the phrase “You couldn’t build this for the price even if you got the car for free.”

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

2009 Challenger SRT-8 SEMA Show Hemi coupe [$34,100]

The first line of Lot #S51’s description states it was “built for SEMA 2009 at the expense of $120,000.” Wonky English aside, if ever you wanted the embodiment of the phrase “the more ‘to taste’ a car is customized, the fewer buyers there’ll be for it,” here you go. Said to have a precision-built 7.0L Hemi Stroker engine with a Procharger supercharger system, a methanol injection system and more, it’s surely a pucker-inducing performer. Where it likely lost a lot of bidders, though, is its copying the 1970 Challenger T/A’s styling on a car that has—and is badged as—a Hemi. Regardless, this Challenger lost $8,590 a year in value in its ten-year existence. Yikes.

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

2009 Challenger Drag Pak Coupe [$20k No Sale]

Oh, the vagaries of automobile auctions. The car in Lot #S113.1 was offered from the Tommy Kronk Collection, along with several other drag racing vehicles. Number 22 of 100 built, it was offered in primetime on Saturday and failed to sell with a high bid that was half of the car’s low estimate. An essentially identical car, an early bird offering at no-reserve and a high estimate of $35k—sold early on Friday for $27,500. Considering all of the Drag Pak-only gear these potential track terrors carry, that sale price looks like quite the deal. But given the fact that their original MSRP was a buck short of $40k, it wasn’t much of an investment.

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

1970 Hemi Challenger R/T Coupe [$100k No Sale]

Though 287 sounds like a tiny number when it comes to how many units were built in a given year, Mopar die-hards can be extremely picky when it comes to buying something as special as This 1970 Hemi Challenger R/T hardtop. The biggest strikes against this car are its automatic transmission, a (relatively) boring color scheme, a limited number of options, and the word “believed” before its 63,055-mile odometer reading. Would it bring a better number if it was to be “improved” like the aforementioned 1971 Challenger R/T with a Shaker hood, rear slats, Go Wing, Endura bumpers, and the like? Maybe. But the real way to make money on a car like this is to get it in a room with two or more bidders that just have to have it. Chances are, we will see this car pop up again at auction in the near future.

>>Join the conversation about these Challengers right here in the Dodge Forum!

For help keeping your truck running right, check out the how-to section of DodgeForum.com.