In 1971, an era came to an end, a great period in the history of Detroit: the second-generation Hemi bid its farewell to everyone – a mere six years after it had debuted as the Chrysler Corporation’s ultimate street and race weapon. In its final year, only 356 automobiles received the fabulous 426 cubic inches of raw power and monstrous torque.
As always, the Plymouth division got the lion’s share, with 180 cars ordered with a Hemi, while the rest of them belonged to Dodge’s Challenger-Charger-Super Bee trifecta. The Challengers accounted for the most Hemi Dodges assembled in 1971, with 71 units, while the Charger topped 63 orders.
A far-behind third place would be the Super Bee, with 22 units. Naturally, all of them are significant for Mopar loyalists and a sizeable portion of the rest of the car nut community, but some of them stand out by certain features. (Author’s note: all the numbers mentioned above refer to the domestic market only; they do not include the exports).
Over the years, the debate about the final Hemi automobile, the very last one to come out of the factory with the seven-liter hemispherical-heads monster, stirred debates among those in the know. The smoke cleared when the highest serial number allotted to a Hemi was discovered to have been built on July 30th, 1971 – a Dodge Charger R/T, one of the 63 units built for the U.S. market. A further dozen units were sold north of the border in Canada, pushing the total Hemi Charger roll-call to 75 examples. They are rare by all accounts, and if we break it down by transmission option, then we get 33 automatics and 30 manuals sold in the United States of Automobile in the last year of the 426 Hemi. Let’s agree on one thing: they’re not easy to come by, nor do they simply roam the neighborhood. Seeing one is an event in itself – mainly because that’s most likely where these cars show up, at car gatherings and other such classics-centered shows.
However, there’s another instance where these rarities make guest star appearances—at public auctions. In three short weeks, a late-built 1971 Dodge Charger R/T Hemi will cross the block in Dallas on September 7. According to the description from Mecum, it was completed on June 23, 1971, and sadly, it’s not all original nor numbers-matching.
This Butterscotch example sports a replacement block – we don’t know what happened to the original V8 that rammed 425 horses and 490 lb-ft (431 PS, 664 Nm) to the rear axle (a 3.54:1 A33 Track Pak with a Dana 60 differential). In between these two assemblies sits a four-speed manual transmission, and its gears get meshed by a Hurst Pistol Grip shifter. The good news is that the gearbox and the rear unit are original to the car. The car was restored a few years ago—it was a multi-year job that came to an end in 2022. Fresh out of the renovation, the Charger grabbed two beauty contest prizes that year. The only question to be answered remains the price. Last May, this rare Charger R/T Hemi got an offer—on this auction site—of $176,000, but that wasn’t up to the seller’s expectations.
Intriguingly, the highest bidder approached the seller to talk in private, but the car is now offered from a collection of a well-known group of Mopar fanatics, the boys behind the Mopars5150 YouTube channel. As an added curiosity, fifteen months ago, the second-highest bidder was one of the car nuts from the team that’s now offering the car for sale.
