In the 54 years since the Street Hemi was unleashed onto an unsuspecting public, just associating the name with a car conjures up images: a row of neon rainbow-colored wings over the trunklids of some of the most radical machines to ever be sold to the public during the Musclecar Era, stripped down bare-knuckle brawlers that had been massaged by Hurst, a ratty, primer-gray Dart Sport on slot mags that many in town openly feared. The Hemi was the superspeedway killer, the drag racer’s best friend, the ultimate trump card for anyone flying the Mopar banner. It’s reputation is in stone, but it must be said: the early cars did not have the visual punch that most people would expect from a Hemi car of the 1960s.
One look at this 1966 Dodge Coronet 500 and we’re fine with that. If it wasn’t for the Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge stickers on the windows and bumper, and that very neat, very subtle “426 Hemi” badge on the front fenders, this Dodge could pass as…well, anybody’s car, really. This could be the car pulling into church slowly, or your dad’s boss at work, or Aunt Linda’s old brick of a car she adores to death. So long as you aren’t hearing the radical noises thumping out of the machine, nobody would be the wiser when the dual-quads opened up and suddenly all hell was breaking loose. Hemi-powered cars were never plentiful, but a well-heeled Coronet 500 with the Elephant lying in wait underhood? Only 340 of them were built. Few had the power, but those that had the power terrorized many who didn’t know what was about to hit them over the head.
It’s less “The Art Of Subtlety” and more about Mopar’s lack of muscle car attributes. Those came the following year (1967) with the GTX and Coronet R/T. Mopar was the last company to jump on the muscle car bandwagon: Stripes, badges, chrome exhaust tips, hood treatments, etc.
But they did offer one distinct feature: Order a Hemi in 1966 and you got the one year only Blue Streak tires included.
that is just ignorant.
Try looking at the 63 426 max wedge cars. The darts and savoys were the real original muscle cars. They came from the factory ready to kick the crap out of the rest of the super stock field.
Sure they were muscle cars, like the 409 Chevys and the 421 Pontiacs . . . but they didn’t look like muscle cars which Pontiac started with the GTO.
The real first muscle car was the 1955 Chrysler 300.
You\’ve evidently never laid eyes a plain jane 1964 GTO. The cars I mentioned had functional hood scoops on top of two fours on a cross ram delivered with velocity stacks in the trunk to replace the air cleaners.
I use to have a 1966 cornet 440 that looked just like the cornet 500 and I could kick my self for trading it in on a custom 1979 dodge aspen RT but I loved both cars now have a 2018 Ram 4×4 with the 5.7 Hemi . I have always owned Dodges .My Father was a Dodge mechanic for over 40 years . And I love my hemi now . But would love to have that 1966 cornet back
1967 hemi Belveders were in the same class – one was the town terror
where I grew up – I think the guy had two – after he first one blew up
Don’t worry about the ambiguous future, just work hard for the sake of clarity
Don’t worry about the ambiguous future, just work hard for the sake of clarity