Chrysler Corporation became known for their wild colors, bold stripes, fun decals, and a general sense of whimsy during the muscle car era of 1964-74, but they could always back it up with more than enough small- and big-block muscle. All the colorful stuff was, however, a couple years off when this mint 1966 Dodge Coronet came off the line in Los Angeles, California, back in January of 1966, but it still has a 383 and a four-speed to keep a lot of cars seeing taillights, and it’s up for auction on Bring a Trailer in McMinnville, Oregon.
This is not the first time it’s been posted on BaT, either, selling for $38,000 back in August of 2023. That’s a good number, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t match it this time around. The car itself matches up well to the VIN and the fender tag, and the seller posts this breakdown of the options and details here.
Interesting for the sake of novelty is this decal for a “Kar-Kit NOx Control System” on the inner fender (the kit itself is no longer installed). It was a “Vacuum Spark Advance Disconnect” kit that apparently cost about $10, and its purpose was to lower NOx and HC emissions (and certainly ruin driveability in the process). The Kar-Kit directions reportedly warned against driving the car at high-speeds with the system installed.
But enough of that. The Coronet was clearly ordered for performance, but only in the straight-line variety. It doesn’t have power steering or brakes, and it does have the aforementioned four-speed manual transmission. Car & Driver tested a 1966 Charger with the 383/TorqueFlite combination with the same 3.23:1 rear axle ratio found in this four-speed car, and the results were not surprising: it accelerated to 60 in 7.8 seconds and finished the quarter-mile in 16.2 at 88 miles per hour. Not bad, and similar to just about all of the standard base-level performance cars of the era. No, it wouldn’t keep up with Tri-Power GTOs or 396/360 Chevelles, but they wouldn’t keep up with the optional Hemi either.
The interior of the Coronet 500 came standard with bucket seats and a console, and it was the second most-popular trim-level in the Coronet line, with 55,700 being sold in all bodystyles (the Coronet 440, the most popular trim level, sold 110,600).
There’s nothing in the BaT writeup to suggest that there are any surprises about the car itself. It’s presented as potentially having most of its original paint (there are a bunch of pictures showing paint-thickness readings in the picture gallery). All the maintenance is listed and the car even comes with the Certicard for the original owner in Kelseyville, California. It looks like it didn’t sell until June 30, 1966, so it must have sat around on the dealer lot for quite some time; perhaps it was the lack of power options (except for under the hood).
It certainly couldn’t have been the looks, as Dark Green Metallic looks perfect on the Coronet’s crisp lines (the car almost matches the brochure model, sans vinyl top). It will take a bit of money to buy this one, but if you like your Mopar muscle a little more subdued than what you might have found on the lot a few years later, this elegant Dodge might be just right.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: 1966 Dodge Coronet 500 – This B-Body Earns an ‘A’ (by JP Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1966 Dodge Coronet 500 Coupe – Lean Mean Green Pleasure Machine (by Tatra87)
Cohort Outtake: 1966 Dodge Coronet Two Door Sedan – A Splendid CC Find (by Paul N)
Experienced street racers of the 1960’s and 1970’s quickly learned to peek under the hood of an otherwise unassuming looking Mopar before challenging the driver.
Nothing wrong with the looks of this beauty that a set of Magnum 500’s wouldn’t improve!! GLWTA!! 🙂
A friend of mine has a cousin of this car only it’s a convertible and it has Magnum 500s. Same color ext/int but a white top. Timeless except i think the front styling lets it down a little.
A nice looking car EXCEPT for the hideous C pillar! Mid 60s Mopars just looked like hell with that pillar slant.
When I was younger I wasn’t keen on it, but now I love that design in all its forms including the 65 models that were even more dramatic, depending on your point of view.
The first car I remember was my father’s ’66 Polara. The way the roof delicately sat on the car was one of my favorite design features.
Those NOx kits were mandatory retrofits to pass California smog inspection for older cars in the 1970’s, but I thought they were only for 1968 – 1971 model years.
CA had its own emission regulations that kicked in for ’66. This car was presumably bought outside of CA and then brought in. I had to add the same stupid device to my ’68 Dodge A100 when I moved there in 1976. I disconnected it instantly after my smog check. It was of course atrociously primitive and affected performance quite noticably.
The Certicard says that it was sold new in Kelseyville, California, so I have no idea why the car would need an add-on NOx kit, because the car does have the E1 “Clean Air Package.”
Under the 1973 retrofit program, most 1966–1970 cars and light trucks were required to get a NOx-reducing device “before they [could] be transferred and registered to new owners” in California.
The rationale was that the original Department of Public Health standards that went into effect for 1966 regulated HC and CO, but not NOx. From a smog-reducing standpoint, this was a strategic error (CDPH had originally been unsure of the technical feasibility of regulating NOx), and it became apparent soon after the 1966 standards went into effect that the devices that were approved to reduce HC and CO emissions, such as secondary air injection, were INCREASING NOx emissions. California started regulating NOx from new cars in 1971, but there were millions of cars and trucks on the road putting out high, sometimes elevated NOx levels.
There were two retrofit programs, one for cars and trucks from 1955 to 1965, the other for cars and trucks from 1966 to 1970. The Kar-Kit contraption was approved for both, and was the cheapest of the certified retrofit devices, with an estimated installed cost of about $10 in the ’70s.
The Kar-Kit just deleted the vacuum advance. The installer was also supposed to retard the ignition timing. All that was in the package was a couple of vacuum caps and a decal. The Electro-Nox kit was more expensive but also more sophisticated, it comprised of a vacuum solenoid that allowed vacuum advance at certain engine R.P.M.’s..
Yes, but from a legal standpoint, CARB still regarded (and described) the Kar-Kit as a “device,” because that was the way the authorizing statute was written.
I had forgotten about the program for older cars. I found the regulations online and cars with more than one carburetor were exempt (also fuel injection and few other features), so that’s why I didn’t need one on my ‘65 Volvo with twin SU’s that I bought in Alameda County in 1975 (the program was not statewide, only Bay Area and most of Southern California). The 1955 to 1965 period required devices to lower HC and CO and devices on the 1966 -1970 cars only had to reduce NOx, as the newer cars presumably met state or federal HC and CO standards, though requirements for out of state ‘66-67 cars were ambiguous. In any case, the general retrofit devices had to be fitted to all cars of those model years at transfer of ownership, even if they were California cars compliant with specs at date of manufacture. It was a big deal among my friends who were all buying their first cars around this time. Volvo’s and British or Italian cars with dual carbs, as well as Ford Cortina GT’s with tubular headers, which couldn’t be drilled and tapped for the EGR port. And yes, although some of the kits just retarded vacuum advance, my recollection is that some kits also added EGR.
My second car was a 1973 Vega which had factory NOx controls so it didn’t need anything when I bought it in 1976. The program was dropped in 1980.
These (and their Plymouth Satellite counterparts) from 1966-67 always turned my head, from the time I started paying attention. I suppose it was only my preference for their larger brethren that kept one of these out of my driveway. I still wonder what happened to the 66 Satellite convertible the mother of my sister’s best friend traded on a new Satellite hardtop coupe in 1972.
I remember that the 66 Coronet line had an incredibly wide number of engine options, including the new LA 273, the throwback old 318 (not the modern LA version) and the 361, in addition to the slant six and the big Hemi. The 383 would have been my pick out of the whole range.
Now being sold by the fourth owner so on the resale merry-go-round like many others. Poetic justice if it closes for less than what the fellow selling it versus what he paid for in 2023. Looks like a strong chance of that.
Pre-decal era is a term I have not heard before. Is that made up Aaron65 or was I just asleep at the wheel?
I doubt if I’m the first to use it, but I made it up. 🙂
I had a hi-trim white ’66 Satellite 2 dr with buckets, TF & factory AC while stationed in Alabama. It was very similar to this car except mine was a relatively mild version with a 2bbl wide block 318.
When I turned the top of the air cleaner upside down, it made high performance noises that the engine couldn’t really back up. However it sounded impressive and scared a few challengers off – back when I was young enough to engage in such foolishness.
I recall my Satellite as a very nice driving car. I don’t know if my suspension was stock since it was equipped with a trailer hitch and sat just a bit high in the rear with stock tires and wheels. When I bought the car In Huntsville Alabama in 1981 from the original elderly owner. When I got it, it was still low mileage and only on the 2nd set of tire. The replacement tires were some still new looking Michelin X radials. The end result was a very nice handling car and driving car.
CAUTION. The Satellite replaced a well beaten ’64 Chrysler New Yorker that I bought in Tulsa for $95 when my previous car crapped out while on leave there. I sold the car when I was sent to Korea and had another well beaten ’77 Dodge Aspen while I was there. I’m sure that contrast between the previous and subsequent cars probably colors my recollection. Even so, my Satellite and presumably the sister Coronet were very nice handlers for the period.
There’s a story that Tom “Father of the Hemi” Hoover owned a 1966 Hemi Coronet in the same dark green color that he (wisely) let someone else drive up and down Woodward Avenue to test out new engine parts.
Then there’s Jimmy Addison who operated a Woodward garage and had a 1967 Plymouth Hemi GTX (of Silver Bullet fame) for which Chrysler did the same thing. One notable feature of Addison’s car was that he ran not just two, but four Imperial mufflers to keep the sound more discreet.
It lends credence to the notion that Chrysler, more than anyone else (except maybe Pontiac), was hip to the late sixties street racing scene.
FWIW, these pre-1968 intermediate Mopars were the precursor to the Road Runner. I’ve read that Burton Bouwkamp drove a 1966 or 1967, 383 4-speed Belvedere, which is rather odd since he worked as a Dodge Product Planner at the time.
OTOH, he was good friends with Jack Smith, the guy who is largely credited with the creation of the Road Runner. It’s not much of a stretch to envision these two guys, along with Gordon Cherry (who might have been the guy with the Belvedere), putting their collective heads together to come up with the hit Road Runner born from the earlier 383-4v, 4-speed cars.
Regardless of how it would eventually come about, the early 383-4v intermediate Dodges and Plymouths were one of the cars that is often overlooked in the sea of Chevelle SS396 and GTO musclecars of the time, and the Mopars were often right there with them.
I used to have a book of Dodge and Plymouth road tests, it was mentioned more than once that the 383 was a favorite for Chrysler engineers in their own cars.
No surprise. Just as with the 170 slant six the engineers preferred the original short stroke versions of the engines.
Uncle Tony who has a serious social media following among the Mopar crowd also loves the 383 describing it as a cribbing of the best features of Ford’s FE and the SBC.
I had to “IN$TALL” one of those hidous NoX kits on my ’56 Chevy when we returned to CA in 1976. By the time I got home, my engine was running hot! The “kit” was rapidly UNinstalled upon arriving home in Upland, Ca. The decal, however, remained. Another “brilliant” idea that FAILED in the real world. 🙁 Oh do I wi$h I still had that ’56; owned her 20 years almost to the day…. DFO
Looks like it sold for $36,000…not bad.
GM fan mainly, (but also “old car” fan) I love it.
And NO Vinyl = Awesome. Color Is OK. Better than say, white or ‘Tan”.