In 2017, a 1967 Dodge Coronet R/T is about as far from being a “regular car” as you can get. Unless you are that confident in the public’s ability to not hit your car, or simply detest newer cars, a 1967 Coronet R/T is going to be the weekend car, the sunshine car, the car in the garage that only comes out on special occasions. That’s it’s reward for making it so long on this planet without rusting back to the earth, or being mangled in a car crash, or being hacked up into a drag car or circle-track car.
In 1967, however, this was Dodge’s bread and butter with the upper-end engine. The R/T package appeared for the first time that year, and it offered up two engines: either the 375 horsepower “Magnum” 440 or the Street Hemi. Either way, you were doing all right on the street. Handling? Not in 1967. Torque for days? Oh, yes, and then some. This Coronet is what I grew up believing was the perfect musclecar: biggest engine in the most basic mid-size car possible.
But Mr. Regular, the voice of Regular Car Reviews, isn’t starry-eyed when it comes to musclecars, In fact, he has a unique way of cutting through the mystique and bullshit and coming to terms with what the car truly is. Not what it was, not what it stood for, what it is. In his usual R-rated format, he will lay out what this Coronet is all about, good, bad and otherwise. Click play below to check it out for yourself!
Hmm,
Well since I own one of these, although with a NOM 440 and original 4-speed/Dana, No PS, PB, nor any other power accessories, I’d say some of the criticisms are justified, but contextually unfair. To judge the R/T against the current Challenger SRT is kind of like comparing the Mustang P-51 against the F-22 Raptor.
You can upgrade the handling massively just by adding real sway bars, good shocks and current technology tires. Some things have improved since 1967. Much better ignitions are now standard. Mine has the 11×3 inch drum brakes (AKA Police package brakes/suspension which were standard). No one is going to seriously argue that Drum brakes (which are fine for daily normal driving and better for the drag strip) are competitive with a good disc brake setup (which can also be easily upgraded to 4-wheel discs nowadays).
In the proper context of the time in which it was planned and produced, it was more than competitive. It was Dodge’s response to the GTO/SS Chevelle/442/Ford (AKA Packaged cars – not criticizing the GTO or similar, just an observation). You could get most of the performance in a regular B-Body in earlier years simply by checking the right boxes on the order form, just not in a pre-packaged R/T.
For it’s time, it was fairly pricey (not as bad as the Hemi, but still high). Another plus is that the whole family could comfortably fit in the car and it had real trunk space too. It was generally meant to be the young mans HP daily driver, that you could lightly modify and have fun at the drag strip too. It can be a thirsty devil, particularly when used as intended, but who TF cares. It’s fun to drive, reliable for daily use, inexpensive to maintain. By today’s standards, it’s not competitive with current supercharged and fuel injected cars, but it’s not a performance slouch either. Properly street prepped, it’s a mid-13 second car with 10-second potential in racier prep.
Anyway, it’s nice to see that it’s not been forgotten, but it’s rarer that the GTX, and essentially identical car produced in greater numbers.
My .02
I couldn’t go through the entire “review” with their constant whining and put downs of a classic musclecar.
Maybe “Mr. Regular” should just stick to driving a hybrid Prius.
He just doesn’t get it. Even though he has a 1960 Falcon, I’ve noticed he’s a total fanboy for Japanese stuff, and to a lesser extent, European cars.
WHAT A MORON. Made it only to the 3:00 mark and had to shut it off before I puked. Never link to this idiot again please.
Ditto!