Alright Ladies, in response to the question of "How rare are our cars?" I mentioned the VIN...Lots of guys tried faking R/Ts in the last musclecar craze of the eighties. To save ourselves from being burned really bad I will post this. The next time you are looking at spending cash on a 440 R/T, and it turns out to be a 318 Frankenstien, you will thank me! I will post decoding fendertags later when the girlfriend isn't wanting my attention....




This is how the VIN breaks down:

If the first four characters are JS23 or JS29, you are in luck! The Chally Vin breaks down like this: J is the Chally line. The Second character is the body style: H is the "Highline" trim level, the garden variety Challenger and your Trans Am fall into this category. The "S" stands for the Special line, reserved for the R/T (Rallye from '72 on), and SE cars (a 318 SE would be a JS23, while a 318 coupe would be a JH23). "L" is an easy one to figure out, it stands for Low. This is an interesting subject, as the JL2 cars are the Deputy Coupe. Some of the '70 Deputies have the JL2, vin prefix, while some of the '71s have JS2...We will touch on the Deputies in a second, again. The last character denominates price, and pretty easy to figure out, 1 being the lowest, 9 being the highest. As redundant as it might seem to have, it dictates a lot about the car. The "convertible" designation isn't in the body style class, but in price, (JS27, JH27). The reason for this is because a Challenger R/T could be ordered, (JS2), but in three body styles, 2 door hardtop, 2 door Special Edition, and 2 door convertible. It would be excruciatingly confusing to designate three seperate body styles, so it is simple enough for Chrysler to dessiminate all that by price class. The Deputy Coupe is another oddball, because again, there have been JL21 and JH21 examples documented. The Challenger only has, "1", "3", "7", or "9" in this category.
The next character is the engine. Chrysler's alphabetical system is pretty explanatory, A-V. "A" being the 170 c.i. Slant Six (The 170, was 1970 only and 198 were 1970 and 1971-only engine options) up to "V" the 440 Six Barrel.
This is how the numbers break down...
A = 170 ci (I have only seen this in '70s)
B = 198 ci (1970-71 only)
C = 225 ci (1970-72 only)
G = 318 ci (All years)
H = 340 ci (1970-73 only)
J = 340 ci six pack (1970 only)
L = 360 ci (1974 only)
L = 383 ci (1970-71 only)
N = 383 ci High power (1970-71 only)
R = 426 ci Hemi (1970-71 only)
U = 440 ci (1970 only)
V = 440 ci six pack (1970-71 only)

The next character is the factory. Chrysler had I want to say close to five plant scattered around the country, (Hamtramck, L.A., Jersey, St. Louis, Canada). Some plants only built specifically one platform (Jersey only built C Bodies in the early seventies), St. Louis built B and A(?) bodies, and so on.
Our Challengers were built in two places: Hamtramck, and L.A. No E bodies were built in St. Louis in 70-71. No Hemis, Sixpacks or ragtops were ever constructed at the Van Nuys plant. I don't recall ever seeing any sunroof cars out of LA. The Sunroof cars were subcontracted at an offsite location by ASC, similar to how the Superbirds were finished by Creative...

After the factory code, is the year. Implemented in 1968-69, this lasted until the early eighties 17-digit vin mandate by the government. In 1980, Ma Mopar used letter characters here...Miradaman, help me out here!

After the year code, is a one, two, or three depending on the time of manufacture. That is the sequence number. The Phoenican Hemi Cuda Convert reads as a BS27R1B3XXXXX.

The other five digits are the sequence number as well. This number doesn't indicate the amount of a certian model produced, or even the sequence of the car assembled! You see, the VINs of the cars were assigned to them when they were nothing but stacks of bulk sheet steel. The number crunchers in the glass offices at Chrysler

 

Actually, something I've never understood about some car enthusiasts is their apparent fear of "clones." So what if a Challenger rolled out of the factory with a slant 6 and and today is sitting in a nice garage with a 440 and R/T badging? If all the proper parts are there, to me at least, that makes it an R/T. It's kinda like people who put stock in cars with matching numbers. Personally, I've always felt that if a person goes to the trouble of rebuilding an old car and used new(er) parts, it shows they obviously cared for the vehicle. Just my 2 cents worth on the subject.

 

I agree with you Roswell Grey. I don't care if the car was originally a slant six deputy if its a hemi R/T now. The only thing I would be worried about is that the car would be pawned off as the real deal. I personally would like to build up a slant or 318 car...I am bored of seeing big block R/Ts...Think about it, what do you see more, a GoMangoCrazy, striped, winged, shakered R/T, or an EF8 Green slant six SE with a green gator grain top, red interior, red bumblebee stiped car?

I saw a clone car last year that originally was a 383 2V, THREE SPEED '71 deputy. It was cloned in to another purple 440 R/T. I am not going to slam the car, it was nicely done. The sad part was that the 383/3 Deputy was a rare car (one of like four!), and it was cloned into that...[&o]

 

About the rarest thing I've ever encountered in a Challenger was a 1970 440 R/T that had the shifter mounted on the column. As far as the kid who owned it at the time (obviously not the original owner), it had come from the factory that way -- no consol and the shifter on the column. It certainly appeared to be a factory job. Fortunately, he didn't intend to change it, since it was so odd. The car DID run like a bat out of hell, too.

 

The only problem I can see is it is unfair to sell a base model and falsely claim it's a 440 R/T. The simple fact is that if there were say (I'm making these numbers up) 150,000 Challengers sold in 1970 and only 2,000 R/T models made with the 440 six-pack with a manual, you would be willing to pay more for one of the 2,000 models than you would for a Challenger that had a 440 six-pack added years later with an R/T badge added after market, on a Challenger that was originally equipped with a 170 slant six and an automatic because the R/T is more rare. Even if you add everything exclusive to the R/T, it is still technically not an R/T unless it was one of the 2,000.

The reason why it is unfair to sell it that way is if someone buys a Challenger thinking it was one of the 2,000 R/Ts with a 440+6, they will pay more for it because there is a higher demand for one. Then years later when the person needs to sell it (can't afford it anymore, needs the money desperately), they try to sell it at the same price or a profit, but suddenly they discover it wasn't a one of the 2,000 but originally a slant six. They can't get a fraction of what they paid because no one wants a false model as badly. They are up a creek.

 

I guess for some people, there's truth in what you say. Personally, if I were in the market for a 440 R/T 4-speed manual (God knows why, since I favor automatics), I wouldn't care if it came from the factory that way or not. I'd simply go by the price the seller stated -- if I thought it too high, I'd walk away. And if it came down to a choice between two cars -- one being a "real" R/T and one being a "clone" -- if everything else were equal, I'd go with whichever one was cheaper. Sorry. I'm not enough of a purist to care about original equipment.

 

Well that is you choice RoswellGrey. It is your money and you can spend it how you please. The only thing I'm saying is that someone who makes a clone shouldn't lie that it is an actual original equipment model when it isn't is all I'm saying. I would consider a clone model if it was significantly less expensive than a real model, but if the prices are close, I'm getting the real model. It will be worth more in the long run. If I didn't care about if it was original, then I'd just buy a slant six model and add the engine myself, if it would be more economical that way.

 

Yeah, you're right about not lying. Of course, I'm the type person who if I were to build a slant 6 model into an R/T, I'd be busy telling everybody I know about it. To me, it would be a mark of honor to have gone to that much trouble. Oh, well....

 

https://dodgechallenger.com/vin-decoder/

 

Well it is a mark of honor to put in that effort. It isn't easy to do that. It is just a case on what people intend to do with it after they make it. Build it for yourself for enjoyment, or build it to trick people out of their hard earned money.