Don’t bother doing a double-take at the photo: yes, we said Charger, and yes, we mean it. While Chrysler had thrown in the towel on performance by 1974 at the latest, the Latin America and South American markets kept things going until the early Eighties, and turned cars we here in the States view as questionable at best and pathetic at worst into dream machines. Seriously: in Mexico, the Dodge Super Bee lived on until 1980, first on the Duster-shaped A-body, then on the Volaré F-body, and they weren’t just sticker packages, either: 360ci V8s and available four-speeds all the way through, and those 360s were still pushing 300 horsepower. If that had been shoved into the Volaré Road Runner, chances are good that the little rust-prone Beeper might have gotten a warmer welcome than it did, and when the F-body was discontinued, Dodge took a Diplomat coupe, kept the engine and transmission options, and created the Magnum. In Brazil, the Dart-shaped A-body appeared as the Charger, and ran through 1980, and at the top of the model hierarchy was the Charger R/T, a performance and luxury trim version of the car. More or less unchanged for it’s entire run, it was the hot ticket in the country, with only the Ford Galaxie to compete with for luxury and the Ford Maverick Super Luxo with the 302 for performance.

Just like the Mexican Mopars, Brazillian cars don’t make it up to the States often, if at all. So naturally, our first question normally would be, “How did a Brazillian Charge wind up in Florida?” No idea, reader, absolutely none. The story goes that a farmer bought the car, drove it a bit before moving to Japan, and shoved the Charger into a barn sometime around 1977. It was rediscovered in 2000, and the car was sold to it’s second owner in 2006. After that…well, it’s kind of hard to know for sure. The seller believes that there are less that forty of these machines left anywhere in the world, something we have no basis to judge on…we simply do not know. What we are willing to judge on is that this is probably the only one like it in the United States.

At the time of writing, the bidding on this Charger was sitting at $50,100. And that’s where I have to ask your opinion, reader: is it really worth the money? I know that for someone with bottomless pockets and an ego to inflate, that only a car like this will do…see also, Barrett-Jackson auctions. But what about the real world? There are a handful of 1967-69 Darts on eBay right now that will set you back $20,000 or under, so long as you don’t look at the LO23 Hemi Darts that are selling for six-figure sums. Most of this Charger is 1968 Dart, and the only real loss is the roof treatment with the flying buttresses. So why would you drop $50K on a car you can pick up for a fraction of the cost? You tell us, reader…

eBay Link: 1972 Chrysler do Brasil Charger R/T