Historiography: The End of Mopar's Greatest Line

By the end of this year, the LX2 platform will cease production at Stellantis’ Brampton assembly plant. The Toronto suburb to its northwest will go quiet for a moment, until it retools for a new generation vehicle. 

In case we forgot, the LX2 platform underpins three Mopar icons – the Chrysler 300, the Dodge Charger and Challenger. They were all evolutions of their rebirth back in 2004, when the former “merger of equals” birthed a Mercedes-Benz-based platform for Chrysler’s rear-drive cars. 

All three nameplates had their own history leading to the creation of this muscle car trio. We already covered the Chrysler 300’s journey from being the first American production car with 300 horsepower in 1955 through its many iterations and evolutions. 

We touched upon both the Challenger and Charger in our look at the history of Canada’s automotive industry, but never really dove into their origins. In this round, we should look back at both of the Dodges before picking up the story on the development of the LX platform.

The Charger came first for the 1966 model year. The idea was to create a midsize sport coupe to attract Pontiac GTO owners to Mopar. The muscle car scene was starting to take shape by 1965, yet the genre was still developing across various segments. Full sized sedans packed big V8s, while the Ford Mustang became one of the most popular cars in the country. 

In the middle was the GTO, a Tempest Le Mans with an attitude. It was lighter than a Grand Prix and packed bug power underneath its hood. This would be the formula for success as the decade continued onward. 

What the GTO lacked was style. American Motors just rolled out the Marlin fastback coupe, which became more of a curiosity than a real midsize coupe contender. In the meantime, Chrysler was shoehorning big V8s into their midsized offerings – the Plymouth Belvedere and Dodge Coronet. They became the GTO’s immediate foil. 

Through the Belvedere and Coronet, Chrysler’s B Body became the focal point of an all-new fastback coupe that would augment both models. At the same time, Chrysler was also looking at the growing personal luxury coupe segment and wanted to get into the action. The result would be a new Dodge that would debut for the 1966 model year – the Charger. 

Granted, the first Chargers were slow to catch on with the general public. They packed big power on some models, but their looks sort of spurned customers away. Not to mention, their size was seen as a disadvantage compared to the lower priced Mustangs. Perhaps the consumer base was not ready for a fastback coupe in the personal luxury segment? Or, could it be something else completely?

The 1968 model year would see the introduction of a restyled Charger. That would be the start of an iconic run that would put the sporty midsize coupe on the muscle car map. 

The main thing Chrysler did design-wise was to de-emphasize the fastback roofline. Instead, the roofline was framed as a “flying buttress” style that set the glass back from the actual C-pillar line. Therefore, the Charger stood out more compared to the fastback designs from General Motors and Ford. 

One thing that should be taken in consideration is how Dodge was considered a more upmarket brand than Plymouth. Traditionally, they competed with Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Mercury through their own dealership network. Most USA markets would have both a Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge dealerships at separate locations, further distinguishing the brands. 

This also puts the notion to rest that Dodge was a competitor to Chevrolet in the USA, even as they offered trucks and vans alongside their car lines. Those lines compete with Chevrolet, GMC, Ford, Jeep, and International Harvester. The Charger certainly was positioned perfectly for the Pontiac Tempest/Le Mans/GTO rather than the Chevelle or Fairlane/Torino. 

Still, Moparians continue to reference the 1968-70 Charger as the ultimate expression of muscle car dominance. Yet, it was the pony car that drive sales among performance-oriented American automobiles in 1968. The introduction of the Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird brought the fight to Ford’s Mustang. Plymouth’s Valiant-based Barracuda was seen as a distant competitor in this pony car race. Chrysler needed to step things up if they wanted a piece of the Mustang/Camaro/Firebird pie. 

The Charger had a trick up their sleeve – an interpretation of the Coke-bottle styling that was a design trend in the late 1960s. Chrysler’s designers took that design trend and created something beyond extraordinary for the 1970 model year. To replace the Valiant-based Barracuda, both Plymouth and Dodge needed to out-pony the pony car. 

The fall of 1969 saw the arrival of the new Barracuda, along with its Dodge brother – the Challenger. 

While riding on the same E Body platform as its Plymouth sibling, the Dodge rode on a slightly longer wheelbase and was marketed as a more upmarket version of the Barracuda. That’s not a bad thing, since it still fed into the brand’s primary competitive set – the Pontiac Firebird. 

Yet, enthusiasts were not fooled by the higher prices and positioning of the Challenger when it came to performance. The Barracuda sported such Mopar iron underneath its hood, such as the HEMI 426, the Six-Pack, and the 440. You can get these same engines in the Challenger. Hence why this became a legend in its own right. 

By 1971, the Charger ditched its performance midsize coupe image for a softer, more personal luxury coupe one. It happened at the same time as the Mercury Cougar made the same exact move slightly upmarket. The legend that was the Charger stood frozen at the end of the 1970 model year. The Challenger was at the right size segment to carry the torch for the Moparian enthusiast. That lasted until 1974, as the OPEC Oil Crisis and Chrysler’s internal woes began to penetrate its own lineup. The Challenger, along with the Barracuda, was chopped from their respective brand’s lineup. 

Thirty years later, the rumblings began for a comeback of these two Dodge icons. First, they needed a platform for which the comeback was to take place. 

It all started with the Chrysler 300 and two design leaders – and Mopar legends in their own right – Tom Gale and Ralph Gilles. Their team took on the task of creating a look for a large rear-drive vehicle lineup based on parts from the W211 and W220 Mercedes-Benz platforms. These key components would transform these Chrysler vehicles into better driving machines while wearing specific clothing that denoted each brand it would represent.

The 2005 300 simply caught the attention and criticism of the automotive media. Was it too high of a belt line for a glasshouse to be too small? Was it too slab-sided to attract consumers? Or, was this the vision of a future direction of Mopar vehicles on the Auburn Hills side of the “merger of equals?”

Alongside the 300 came a station wagon – the Dodge Magnum. It was equally slab-sided with a lower glasshouse and a flatter signature Dodge crosshair grille. While it provided an interesting offering for Mopar enthusiasts and consumers alike, it was neither a Charger or a Challenger. 

What I mean is…what Dodge really needed was a vehicle that represented what the brand was positioned into – a performance-oriented nameplate that combined heritage with modern design and engineering touches. If you want to keep Dodge alive within the context of DaimlerChrysler, you needed to feed the want of Mopar loyalists in delivering a distinctive sedan and a coupe that harkened back to its glory years. 

Within months of the Magnum’s arrival into showrooms, the 2006 Charger sedan soon appeared. This became a controversial move, as the image of a Charger sedan was not what the Moparians wanted. Given the market of that time, a sedan made more sense because they still sold at solid numbers across the industry. 

There needed to be a twist. The Magnum already offered a 5.7-liter HEMI V8 as an option, along with an R/T trim level. To bring the Moparians to love the Charger four-door, you not only have to offer that driveline, but to up the ante for more performance. 

In a way, the Viper provided that next level performance. The V10-powered sports car was developed by the Street and Racing Technology arm in Auburn Hills – also known as SRT. The team at SRT took the 5.7-liter HEMI V8 and increased the displacement and upped the power to 425 horsepower. The 6.1-liter V8 would become the modern equivalent of the 426 HEMI, the 440, and the Six-Pack all in one modern engine. 

The Chrysler 300 SRT-8 would receive this V8 first, with Dodge delivering on the Charger version later on. The SRT-8 would help in the Moparian’s acceptance of a four-door Charger for the entire run of the first generation.  

Dodge had one more trick up its sleeve – a competitor to the Mustang and Camaro. Both American sports coupes continued to attract their loyal customers and new enthusiasts to their muscle-bound clutches. Coupes were already a dying breed with many of its Asian and European rivals diverging elsewhere. 

Yet, American muscle car lovers wanted another choice in this game. DaimlerChrysler began developing the LX platform into a shorter, two-door coupe that would sport the same engine choices as their sedans and wagon. They would maintain a lot of the underpinning as its platform mates, but they would develop the exterior and interior towards something resembling an icon.

The rumor of a new Challenger would emerge by 2005. The result was a modern interpretation of the 1970 original. In 2008, the production version of this reimagination of Chrysler’s original pony car would hit the streets – and caused a sensation. This included the SRT-8 version, which became one of the hottest commodities on the automotive marketplace.

It took a few years to get the Challenger right. Rightfully so. The 300, Magnum and Charger didn’t serve as appetizers, but part of a four-course meal that was served for the right customers looking to whet their appetite bridging the nostalgia of Dodge’s (and Chrysler’s) best days with modern performance and technology. 

Today, we witnessed the evolution of the modern Mopar muscle car through two generation, a couple of further updates each, the proliferation of the Hellcat supercharged HEMI V8 with its astounding performance numbers – including the SRT Demon – and the loyal and fervent following these cars garnered for the past 19 years. Who would’ve thought that we have reached the end of the line?

As always, there is a personal side of this story…

The LX platform vehicles piqued my interest from the beginning. Perhaps ity’s my soft heart for Mopar products and our family’s history with a 1965 Satellite and a 1970 Barracuda that prompted this interest.

In the course of 19 years, I’ve driven my share of LX vehicles. From base Chargers with 2.7-liter V6s to Hellcat-powered SRT models. They have been reviewed on this website as fair as possible. I will admit that they were not perfect, but they did steal my heart more than a few times. 

Nor should they be equaled with anything else I have driven or experienced over the same period of time. You cannot simply put a Dodge Charger R/T Scat Pack next to a Lexus RC F, Lamborghini Huracan, Rolls-Royce Ghost, or anything else that either were awarded the #VOTY or was given a highly deserved review on the same level playing field as each other.

It is worth noting that the Dodge Challenger won #VOTY15.

The words “icon,” “legacy,” and “legend” have been loosely used on many different things – automobiles, included. After the last LX platform vehicle rolls off of the Brampton assembly line, all three words will apply to these machines – if they have not been given their due already. 

All photos by Randy Stern