Mr. Norm's 1970 Challenger R/T HEMI Is a Steel Unicorn, Just an Arm and Leg Won't Cut It

When the Chrysler Corporation issues a warning that one of its most iconic products is not to be used on the street, the smiles per gallon effect warps through space and time and reaches 2023 with intact potency. Because whatever that Mopar might be, the displacement of the motor and the ban from public roads put a gigantic smile on every single gearhead on Planet Piston.

Naturally, the 426 cubic inches means one thing – a 425-horse abomination, but this isn’t telling it in full since Mother Mopar had two engines capable of that output, and they both had the same size. But this is not the time to play charades – it’s the HEMI we’re talking about here, not its Max Wedge counterpart.

The car in question is a Dodge; it came out in 1970 as a new model and lasted five years. By now, it’s no riddle to anyone that the illegal-to-get-the-kids-to-school machine is a Challenger, but not just anyone. Yes, it’s an R/T, one of 287 built for the U.S. domestic market for that year, and what sets it apart from the rest of the crowd is its GS badge of distinction (although the actual letters do not appear anywhere on the car).

In the sixties and seventies, those two symbols stood for so much more than just ‘Grand Spaulding’ – although there wasn’t anyone in the country who didn’t know what that meant. Mr. Norm was the go-to authority on anything Mopar, and the dealer and tuner delivered every single time. In 1970, Chrysler had the excellent idea of joining the pony car arms race, bringing about two unruly players.

From the house of Plymouth, the Barracuda – ironically, the original pony car, two weeks faster on stage than the Mustang – and, from the Dodge clan, the fresh-out-of-the-oven Challenger. Both cars rode on the E-body platform, specially created for the two of them (although the step-twins shared precisely zero sheet metal between them).

The Dodge had an immediate advantage over its Plymouth brother – it could be ordered with every motor available from Chrysler, from the measly 225 Slant Six to the gargantuan 440 Magnum. Naturally, the Challenger got the lead role, profoundly outselling the Barracuda (83,000 vs 54,000).

Of those nine different engine choices, just three were worthy of the Scat Pack and were all big-blocks. The 383 was standard in the Road/Track package, while the 440 (in four- and six-barrel carburetions) and the dinosaur 426 HEMI were the poster-worthy secret fantasies of all gearheads.

Naturally, the hemispherical heads variant was produced in the lowest numbers – at the time, the HEMI alone was a $1,000+ option. Granted, it was also a very, very powerful weapon on the dragstrip, but only for those who could afford it.

Mr. Norm’s cars left no margin for second thoughts – either they were the fastest, or they weren’t at all. That would explain the small detail cited in the opening of this story – some of the cars prepared by the famed Illinois dealership weren’t allowed in public.

Chrysler had a different, more easy-to-swallow approach to this radical segregation – the corporation’s sale literature recommended that some of its engines be used in ‘sanctioned events.’ Mr. Norm wasn’t the man to beat around the bush and said it plainly: keep it on the track.

One of those rare cars that got his seal of approval for ‘supervised acceleration trials’ is this 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T HEMI. (By the way, if anyone asks, the phrase cited in the previous sentence equates to precisely 440 yards, 1,320 feet, or a quarter of a statute mile). The car was ordered as a drag strip battle ram from the get-go, with a four-speed manual transmission and a 4.10:1 rear end.

As if the HEMI-ness of it wasn’t rare as it is, the engine and gearbox combo reduces that number to 137 examples (this figure does not include the 19 units ordered from the other end of Niagara Falls). To make it downright exclusive, the Dark Green Metallic and black bucket seats make this particular hero a one-of-two unicorn.

The car has been fully restored to a ‘like new’ state, but the selling dealer doesn’t specify if the powertrain has been fiddled with in any way. The ad only states the mileage - 33,141 (53,324 km) – but that’s about it regarding the condition of this ultra-rare Challenger. Oh, and then there’s the small detail of the price - $350,000 at the time of writing. If only Artificial Intelligence would be so bright as to predict the lottery numbers…