I was curious to see what a sports-car oriented magazine like R&T would say about a classic American muscle car like the Coronet R/T, and not just because they share the same initials, especially since the review was done by their European Editor, Henry Manney. Having just returned from a lengthy season in Europe, he certainly had plenty of points of comparison to the state of European cars at the time.
His conclusions are not surprising: In 1967, America’s best performance cars like the R/T offered gobs of value, reliability and performance for the money. The R/T acquitted itself very well, although its straight-line performance was not all that impressive, given its orientation towards the track, which was undoubtedly implied to mean the drag strip.
Manney points out that although many Europeans looked down their noses at American cars, they often bought them when they could afford them, despite their limitations in the quite different road conditions and driving styles on the continent.
The Coronet R/T, with its stiffer suspension, front disc brakes (optional), and of course its big 440 CID V8 provided a level of roadworthiness not commonly seen in Yank Tanks. There were of course a few shortcomings, the most serious ones related to driveabilty issues, such as the decided tendency of the engine to die upon the engagement of a gear from the Torqueflite automatic with the engine cold, a phenomena I experienced to my peril on a number of occasions in my Dodge Chinook. Chrysler sudden death syndrome; most unwelcome when pulling out into a busy two lane highway.
Manney drove the Dodge up to Monterey and back from Orange County, via 101 on the way up and on the very twisty Hwy 1 on the return trip, a road of the kind that European cars were designed for, not American ones. The R/T acquitted itself quite well, with its moderate understeer easily compensated for by use of the throttle. The brakes worked well for that occasion, but suffered the typical loss of control from overly aggressive boost, especially at the rear end.
That issue combined with the hard and narrow tires made the car a deadly weapon in the rain. I remember how scary cars and pickups could be back then in the rain, having struggled to control more than one new 1971 Ford sedan or pickup when I was a car jockey at the time. Seeing a traffic light turn red on a 40 mph or so arterial, especially on a downhill, was a frightening situation that is utterly absent from modern cars.
As to the “Track” aspect of the R/T, its acceleration numbers were none too impressive: 0-60 in 8.6 seconds, and the 1/4 mile in 16.6 @83mph. R&T’s testing was as objective as it got back then, but it puts these cars in perspective, as those are numbers that even the cheapest cars today equal or exceed. And they don’t gulp 10-14 mpg in the process either.
Those acceleration times are not representative of reality. I have a large collection of vintage Hot Rod magazines and I’m sure if I looked there that the quarter mile times are at least in the low 14’s and into the 13’s with proper super tuning and tires. I suspect that R&T did not adjust tire pressures for the strip and had loads of wheelspin. you are correct in pointing out the inadequate tires of the day but wide tires made their debut at Indianapolis in ’64 and trickled onto the street in ’67 on the pony cars. Upgrading tires on this beauty would have made all the difference. These cars were about the same size as a full size car of the late 50s and IMO were very solid and enduring.
And the second thing to go after the tires would be those fake 5 spoke hubcaps which were used on ’66 Chevelle SS396, Shelby Mustangs, and these Mopars. I can’t think of another hubcap that was from a supplier and shared on all the big three. I think even AMC might have used them.
here here. im 56 and those wheelcovers were imprinted on me at early age. my dad had a 1940-1980 “car spotters ” book that had pictures showing Mopar ,Ford and possibly GM cars sporting those same hubcap’s. I think it is time for somebody to step up to the plate And tell us about this little hub cap that could!
Glad 😃 to see front disc brakes included as part of the base Sports package.
Something the Big 3 dragged their feet on till the early 70’s
Frightening indeed, with a 4000 pound 375hp beast on rear drums and inadequate tyres. If you want to experience that kind of terror these days, I think a motorbike is your best bet – nothing like a damp road, too much speed and a tightening situation to make you feel properly alive!
I think it took American cars awhile to integrate disc brakes into the kind of “feel” Americans were used to in their brakes at the time, which included heavy boost. The front/rear balance seemed tricky for a time as well.
1967 was one of those years when everything came together at Chrysler, however briefly. The mention of good quality control was one that would be applied to Chrysler-built vehicles less and less as time moved on.
Quality control was already beginning to show…look at the fender to hood alignment on the 4th pic! Did nobody notice that?
“look at the fender to hood alignment on the 4th pic! ”
I don’t think anyone in 1967 would have even noticed that. “Panel gaps” didn’t become a thing until more recent times. Back then, quality control was good when the paint shined and when nothing rattled or fell off.
That’s pretty bad. I’ve heard that quality control varied across manufacturing plants–west coast buyers might have problems that east coast or midwest customers didn’t. Thought I don’t know which factories were considered the “bad” ones.
I remember reading that, in the early 1950s, Ford’s factories in Texas and Georgia had the best quality control, and the Chicago factory the worst.
In his book, John DeLorean claimed that, by the late 1960s, Chevrolets manufactured at the division’s factory in Tarrytown, New York, were so bad that dealers were complaining to corporate headquarters about them.
Speaking of the 4th pic,
With the trunklid in the raised position, that Dodge sure gives off a Rambler Classic / American vibe.
Fantastic article for creativity. Wholesale slaughter. Frightening fuel consumption. Just excellent, well written.
I agree with Paul, handling of these cars from the ’60s and early ’70s was poor, especially on wet roads.
They note in the article that the drivability issues were probably related to the CA emissions tuning making many California cars act the same.
A quote from the article, “There were of course a few shortcomings, the most serious ones related to driveabilty issues, such as the decided tendency of the engine to die upon the engagement of a gear from the Torqueflite automatic with the engine cold. Chrysler sudden death syndrome; most unwelcome when pulling out into a busy two lane highway.”
It was unfortunate that Road & Track road-tested a California Emission CAP equipped R/T. I checked the timing specs for that ’67 440HP engine with CAP. Basic Timing spec is +5 BTDC @ idle compared to +12.5 BTDC for other states. When you try to accelerate quickly, no wonder there was a hesitation at best, or engine popping back through the carb and stalling at worst. You have no vacuum advance at hard throttle opening, so most any engine would balk, especially when not warmed up thoroughly.
I worked at a Dodge dealer in New Jersey at the time and the first drive I took in a ’67 R/T was an eye opener. Even accelerating moderately would produce massive rear tire spin on good, clean blacktop pavement. That was the fastest car I had driven to that point in time!
I did get to drive a faster Dodge years later.
I owned two 67 RT’s, one after the other in the 70’s. First one ended up with headers, six pack, 6 qt pan with windage tray, recurved, quicker spring advance dist., 3.73 gears, electronic ignition, larger radials on Cragars, shift kit auto. Absolutely bullet proof street
machine. Swapped it to a 4spd and it was no longer fun as I couldn’t get off the line without smoking through 1st gear in 20ft! (G70 15’s Goodyear polyglass radials)
Second one, put on the headers, six pack, etc…3.23 auto (shift kit)……..Silver with white buckets/console interior. It would spin right through passing gear on the highway but you couldn’t hear the squeal because of the beautiful BOAWAH! from the low restriction six pack breather. (fit under the stock hood with a half inch to spare.)
Sold the first one to my brother-in-law for $1800. (w/o the 6 pak) He still owns it! In a garage not driven since 1983. (white with black vinyl roof and black buckets, rare factory headrests, antenna on the rear fender and “buddy” seat). Canadian non-smogged package)