By all accounts, 1970 was a monumental year. Every single Detroit automaker was at the height of its game, both in the sphere of performance and general design. Some of the most iconic muscle cars hit showroom floors that year, and of them, Mopar was among the best. Amid all the refreshes and redesigns of existing models (Charger, Super Bee, Road Runner, GTX, etc.), new platforms were unveiled, notably the E-Body based Barracuda and Challenger, as well as the new A-Body Darts, Dusters and Demons. The E-Body was particularly exciting as it was, as many felt, Chrysler’s answer to Ford’s larger Mustang and GM’s F-Body Camaro and Firebird.
In addition to Hemi-powered ‘Cudas and R/Ts, Chrysler also unveiled its road racing prowess via the Challenger T/A and AAR ‘Cuda options. These machines were purposefully lightweight, agile and quick. Touting stouter suspension and braking components, a rev-happy near 1,500cfm “triple deuce” six barrel carburetor intake atop the LA block 340, the T/A and AAR E-Bodies were answers to the already established Boss 302 and Camaro Z/28. Normally remiss of heavier bells and whistles like air conditioning, power windows, etc., some T/As and AARs have snuck through the option list with a few added comforts despite their original intent.
Of one such original T/A Challengers is this automatic-shifted M3 “Panther Pink” machine that sat for decades before being discovered and wheeled out to an auction recently. One of 2399 built in 1970, the T/A is only out of over 70,000 Challengers built that model year. Of course, it’s well deserving of a complete restoration, as an original T/A is such a rare piece of Mopar history. Below is a great walk around of this original E-Body filmed by Road Test TV, who clearly have zero understanding as to the T/A’s original intent as they inexplicably compare it to today’s Hellcat. Nevermind them, and enjoy the video:
Saturday , 24th of October 2015 at 10:04 PM ESDT .
There must be something wrong with your software because when I tried to print out the article about the 340 Six-Pack Barn Find it tied up my printer for over half an hour ( I’m very patient ) to print 4 pages and what printed out was 4 blank pages . Last week I did print out one of your articles that also had a video at the end of the text and pictures and it printed out okay it took about 10 minutes to print , probably because of the time it takes the printer to spool the colored pictures .
I’m going to try to copy the article and paste it into a word document to be able to print a copy of the text and pictures .
Respectfully Yours , William Swincicki
William, thanks for the note. Unfortunately, you’re encountering something we never considered as we did not format the website nor write its code with printing out the articles in mind. In fact, with trending as it is, the website is more optimized for reading on tablets (iPad, etc.) and smartphones. While we appreciate you wanting to print out copies of our stories, interrupting the code so that it is print-format capable would be injurious to our larger audience.
It’s a automatic and pink. Make me wonder if is was for the wife?