New vs. Old Production Numbers
A friend of mine claims that there were many more 2009 Challengers built than 1970s. I disputed that and did some research. Here is the result:
There were twice as many Challengers built in 1970 than in 2009. In 1970, 76,935 Challengers were built (the first and most popular year), but only 8,512 (11%) were R/Ts. There were a lot of 318s and 225s running around.
In 2009 (the first full model production run) there were 31,500 Challengers built. Of these 18,282 were RTs and SRTs (58%)- 9,696-R/Ts and 8,586-SRTs.
Like today, in 1970 Mustangs and Camaros greatly outsold the Challenger. There were 198,239 Mustangs built and 48,482 (24%) were GTs or Boss models. There were 124,889 Camaros built and 20,209 (16%) were SS or Z-28 models.
In 1971, Challenger sales nosedived to 29,880 cars. Mustang and Camaro sales, however remained strong. There were 149,678 Mustangs and 114,630 Camaros built in 1971.