One-of-One 1971 Dodge Charger R/T Was Saved From a Fire, Brags With Exclusive Options

1971 was the last year for the Road/Track package – with the Clean Air Act kicking performance pretensions out of engine bays – and even so, just 2,745 customers from the U.S. ordered one on their Dodge Charger. A further 375 went across the border to Canada, and wherever else someone wanted an iconic Mopar muscle car.

It was a massive sales collapse from the peaks of ’68 (17,584) and ’69 (18,776) and a nose-dive from the 1970’s 9,370-unit production run. Insurance premiums were the main culprit for this mass extinction. Still, several stubborn, lead-footed conservatives refused to lay down their right to V8 freedom.

Design changes implemented on the third-generation Charger were polarizing, with the Fuselage Look making the car shorter (by two inches – five centimeters) and three inches wider (76 millimeters). To some, it was unacceptable, while to others, it was irresistible. The latter applies to one particular Mopar collector, Chris Lehuede from Medford, Oregon, who owns some absolutely stellar Mopars (mostly Chargers).

One unique piece of Chrysler history is featured in the video below (part of a series shot by Lou Costabile, the classic car YouTubing vlogger) this last July and shared with the internet only recently. In all fairness, all of Mr. Lehuede’s cars are truly spectacular, but this particular 1971 Dodge Charger R/T 440 is unpaired. Literally, there’s no other example like it.

The color combination (Jet Black exterior over black/orange interior) and the car’s fantastic history make it one-of-one. The sinisterly-looking Dodge has been a part of the Lehuede collection since 2020, but the previous ownership was adventurous, to say the least.

Kenn Funk of Burbank, California, is the man who had this one-like-none Charger in his custody – one piece of the extensive classic muscle cars collection he has put together over the years. Initially, he went back and forth about getting the car, but when learning its rarity… better yet, uniqueness, he decided to keep it. Unfortunately, in 2015, a fire destroyed 22 examples of the Funk collection – and this Charger was the lucky survivor.

Usually, when referring to a classic, the term survivor indicates that no modification has been done since it left the factory. This time, however, the notion is literal – this 1971 Charger was spared from a horrible blazing furnace demise. Following that turning point, Kenn Funk restored the car to factory specifications.

So, yes, this one-off Charger is a restoration, but a frame-off job executed with laser accuracy – all the elements on the car are factory-correct or original to the vehicle. One piece of the factory-installed equipment list is the stereo tape recorder. The gadget used a cassette to record directly from the radio or from the microphone that came along with it. (And it could play back the recordings, too).

But that’s not the greatest part of this R/T, even though it certainly is as fabulous as the Halloween houndstooth upholstery. The magic comes from under those big black letters in front of the functional hood vent gills. A 440 cubic-incher (7.2-liter) Magnum V8 resides in the massive engine bay. Not the coveted Six-Pack (only 178 Charger R/Ts from 1971 came with the triple twin-barrels), but the mainstream single four-barrel, good for 370 hp (375 PS) and 480 lb-ft (651 Nm).

With compression ratios slightly lowered to 9.5:1 to meet emission regulations, the power rating was down five hp, but the Charger still has plenty of brawn to put down. Listen to this ‘bad-ass car’ (Chirs Lehuede’s own words) rumble down the street and tell me if you can hear the power output difference.

Neither can I, but I don’t have a great relative pitch perception. Some musically inclined viewers might identify the mildly upgraded camshaft (sadly, the paperwork about the mechanical details of this hob was lost in the fire that decimated Kenn Funk’s collection).

This car would probably be Darth Vader’s daily, provided he liked slapstick Torqueflite transmissions and a 3:55 rear gearing with Sure Grip. The Dark Lord would definitely appreciate the air conditioning, power steering, and power brakes of this mirror-shining black 1971 Dodge Charger R/T, even without its machine gun exhaust tips (those were optional, too).

When a Redlands, California, resident ordered it, this one-of-one muscle car (finished in March 1971) set the original buyer back $5,283, quite a jump from the base R/T price of $3,777. Upon specifying the options, the customer checked two options boxes that no one else on Planet Piston chose simultaneously: the colors.

There are zero other Jet Black with black/orange interiors Dodge Charger R/Ts from 1971, putting the otherwise mainstream vehicle in a class of its own. Why mainstream? Because the engine and transmission combo (440-4 automatic) was the most popular among the Road/Track-equipped machines. 2,172 of the 3,118 examples had the mentioned drivetrain.