YouTuber discovers cheap Dodge Charger is actually very rare

This YouTuber got a Dodge Charger for a very cheap price, before discovering it was extremely rare.

Chris Birdsong, the host of the channel Junkerup, discovered a 1974 Dodge Charger SE while browsing Facebook Marketplace.

He was swayed into buying it due to the uber-cheap price of $1,400.

Given that it’d been advertised as a parts car, he figured he’d make more selling off parts than he would have spent to buy it.

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The unexpected twist that came with purchasing this Dodge Charger

The content creator checked on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and discovered that the car had left the factory with a U-code 440-cubic-inch V8 engine.

In Mopars produced before 1972, this was fairly standard.

However, the 400-cubic-inch was on the up and the 440 was on the way out.

Dodge only sold 222 cars with a 440 engine in 1974.

This car in particular was one of 208 hardtops brought out that year with that engine type.

But it doesn’t end there, as it also has a remarkably rare feature – a sunroof.

In 1974, 74,376 Chargers were sold, but only 2,388 had sunroofs – accounting for 3.2% of the overall production.

It’s hard to say how many cars had both a 440 engine and a sunroof.

But it’d be fair to say that this car is likely part of a small club.

It could be as rare as this 1969 L88 Corvette, which is one of 17 made.

The state of the car

Upon bringing the car home, Chris discovered that the color wasn’t part of the regular 1974 palette.

Admittedly, it was an obscure place, being underneath the hood.

But the color there was a dark metallic blue, as opposed to the other blues on offer that year.

Chris claimed that the hood color was KB8 Starlight Blue Metallic, which would only been used on C-body Dodges made in 1974.

It’s clues like this that tell us what year the car was actually produced, given that the Facebook ad incorrectly stated it to be a 1973 model.

To be fair, an unexpected shade is better to find under a hood than what this detailer discovered when he opened up a Dodge Challenger 340 and ‘nearly cried’.

Now that Chris knew how unique his car was, he couldn’t take it apart for parts surely?

Correct – he’s going to rebuild the engine and turn it into a race car for the Duct Tape Drags, which take place later this month in Tucson, Arizona.

It shouldn’t be too much of a challenge, as it’s at least in better shape than this 1968 Dodge Charger which was left in a barn for 43 years.