Nineteen seventy was the peak of muscle’s golden era, an era that was ended by crippling insurance coverage prices, tightening emissions regulations and overall performance-unfriendly low-lead gas.

But Detroit didn’t abandon horsepower overnight – some automakers, like Dodge, managed to preserve their hottest engines on sale for a 12-month farewell tour, and that 1971 season also brought an totally new appear to the Dodge Charger.

The 1968-70 Charger is an icon, no doubt, but the truth is that its styling was currently relatively dated on the day it arrived, the body’s pronounced straight lines possessing much more in typical with the design and style of GM’s 1966-67 intermediates, whose new-for-68 successors had ironically moved on to a fastback design and style that had much more in typical with the design and style of the earlier ’66-67 Chargers. What comes about, and all that.

Related: Watch Stellantis Design Boss Ralph Gilles Hoon His 1,000-HP Dodge Charger

So for 1971 the Charger, along with Chrysler’s other muscle vehicles, like the Plymouth GTX, gained new voluptuous styling with fastback rear ends, with Dodge’s vehicle differentiated from its Plymouth cousins by a slightly leaner Coke-bottle appear. Dodge even presented an optional physique-colour front bumper, some thing the Pontiac GTO had introduced 3 years earlier.

What hadn’t changed was the 425 hp (431 PS) output of the prime-spec 426 Hemi, even though hardly anybody got the possibility to encounter its 490 lb-ft (664 Nm) of torque or the Charger’s potential to consume a quarter mile of asphalt in just more than 13-seconds. Of the three,118 R/T Charger hardtops ordered in 1971, as couple of as 63 look to have been optioned with the 426, and a excellent chunk of these would have come with the 3-speed Torqueflite automatic, not the 4-speed manual fitted to this vehicle. When the Charger returned for 1972, the 426 Hemi was nowhere to be discovered.

Which tends to make this ’71 some thing genuinely unique. Repainted in its original Butterscotch for the duration of a multi-year restoration that was completed in 2022, this final-of-the-line Charger Hemi appears sensational. Most individuals would almost certainly say it is not as appealing as the 1968-70 vehicles, but you can think about it creating a actual influence on the street 52 years ago with its significantly various appear. It also has a ton of cool particulars, like the rocket-aping exhaust tailpipes and the air-grabber intake in the hood that is operated by a handle below the dash. One point that appears strange is the lack of a rev counter to aid the driver know when to throw that Hurst pistol-grip shifter across the gate.

Another truth that could surprise you is that a 1971 Hemi Charger is truly worth much more than a Hemi version of the much more popular 1968-70 vehicles. Hagerty’s price tag guide suggests about $126,000 for a ’70 in excellent situation, and $185,000 for the significantly rarer ’71. But this vehicle, at present becoming auctioned on Bring-a-Trailer, is undoubtedly not merely in ‘good’ situation, so we can anticipate it to sell for far much more than even that.

Would you take this ’71 Hemi more than a ’68-70? Drop a comment beneath and let us know no matter whether you favor your Charger with lines or curves.

Photos BaT