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The 1972 Dodge Challenger is the epitome of the tired muscle car. Not yet bloated and altered beyond any recognition like the 1974 Mustang, but showing clear signs that the muscle car phenomenon was dead thanks to stringent emission and safety regulations that turned all of America’s muscle to mild fat.
The Challenger, which debuted in 1970, has somewhat always lived in the shadow of the bigger Charger but, there, it had a life of its own. It raced to some success in the then-sprawling SCCA-governed Trans-Am Series, and that spawned a highly popular homologation special: the Challenger T/A. Then, things changed and new regulations swept away all of the big engines, so the 1972 Challenger was only available with a choice of three small block engines.
To make it even more evident that the status quo had changed, Dodge decided to give the Challenger a makeover. Basically, the body itself remained unchanged, but the car sported different front and rear sections which made it, arguably, uglier than the original iteration. With that being said, it’s unarguably still a work of art compared to the generic Japanese car Dodge decided to rebrand as a ’Challenger’ in 1977…
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