11th Jan 2008, 05:47

The Valiant Charger E49 is a wonderful, timeless classic. I have owned one since 1979 and used it as my daily driver until about 1985. On the strip, I have got 14.0 at 101.5 mph without any preparation, with a 3.23 diff and cheesy '70s tyres. That's only.6 sec and 2 mph slower than my current 252kw BMW E46 M3 (same driver, same strip). So much for 30 years progress, eh.

Chargers (stock 770s and E49s) were pretty much unbeatable here in NZ on the track in their respective standard production classes as long as they were eligible.

13th Mar 2008, 01:05

Hey guys I just bought a VJ charger and I was just wondering if some one could give me some stock horse power figures for the 245, 265 and the e49 please??

18th Mar 2008, 01:15

From memory it's 160hp for the 245. The 265 had either 203 hp, or 218 for the base model RT. And the e49 had 302hp.

Torque is something like 355 nm for the 265, and about 420-450nm for the e49, but I'm not too sure.

17th Jun 2008, 03:52

Selling a 76 770 charger very soon, in paint shop at moment this car is a real minter all original 'all papers etc I am interested to know what could be worth.

13th Jul 2008, 02:59

I bought an E48 about five years ago for $2000. Would anyone know what it is worth now?

24th Nov 2008, 04:28

Hey just wondering whether it's worth building a E49 replica? And what would be the best Charger body to start with?

Any info, I'd be grateful.

Send to pattymellon@gmail.com

Cheers.

15th Jan 2009, 06:10

How many factory V8 4 speed Chargers were built?

I was told 183, all CL.

Is this true?

31st Oct 2009, 07:05

Let's put things in context:

1. Most people posting have never driven and never will drive either a E49 or Phase 3, let alone both!

2. How much faith do you put in test figures from almost 40 years ago? The technology wasn't was it is today and we know the writers who tested them were not adverse to winging it on occasion, as Joe Oldham admits in his book Muscle Car Confidential.

Also, even with today's timing technology, you still need to factor in mechanical variation. Take 3 identical cars from the showroom. Will they all run exactly the same time down the quarter mile? No they won't! I wouldn't be surprised if you could encounter a variation of up to half a second from cars which are identical. And are/were the cars provided to the mags for testing showroom cars? Well we know that in the US they were often special tuner jobs at the least, or highly modified to the point of having bogus motors and other secret components not available or rarely available to the average punter, so who knows what happened here.

I think the body of evidence has the Chrysler slightly quicker over the quarter, but the Ford quicker from that point and with a higher top end speed.

Personally, I like both cars and I don't think it should be a case of trashing one to build up the other. History has made the Phase 3 the icon of Australian muscle to which all others are compared. Does it deserve this rep? I don't think so. Has the E49 been under rated? Absolutely! I rate it as not just one of our best muscle cars but one of the worlds best. Can either of these cars stack up to today's muscle? No way.

Technology has moved on. Today's cars are faster, safer and much more comfortable and efficient and much less polluting. But the original muscle cars have a charisma that few can match, and that's why people like us write on these forums.

11th Feb 2010, 21:09

Could anyone give me some usable advice on how to refit the small fuel tank filler tube into the VH Charger. It seems to not go into the boot lock box section without modifications to either the panel work or the filler tube. I've spent hours trying to wriggle it back in.

Cheers, John.

2nd Apr 2010, 08:46

There was no four door car faster than the e49 charger in the world.

11th Oct 2010, 20:06

As the owner of a 12 sec street Charger (running a SB V8), I'd like to see some comments clarified.

1st - The 265 CUI Hemi 6 Pack E49 Charger was the fastest ACCELERATING 6 cylinder car in the world until the release of the Porsche Turbo. Even a 1968 E Type Jag 4.2 had a higher top speed, mainly due to weight and gearing.

2nd - Gearing - The E49 was tested using a 3.5 diff ratio, when it recorded the 14.1 qtr. The GT-HO boys have complained for years about this, as the GTHO was tested with a lower gear set (3.2 I believe)

3rd - Alan Moffat once told me at a function - "The Chargers handled well - but Bathurst was really a track for V8s"

The GTR-XU1 proved him wrong, but his point was the Hemi 6 didn't have the legs on the long straights... which is perfectly understandable.

Leo Leonard in NZ also proved how much better in the handling stakes the Charger was over the Ford - completely demolishing Moffats campaign over there one year.

4th - Moffat also told me - the Phase 3 had 161 MPH showing at the bottom of Conrod straight - His Boss Mustang was reading 172 MPH on the same part of the track.

This just shows how a race prepped engine performs so much differently to what the road tests show us in their road going cousins.

Let's not forget though, that the Charger occupied three places in the top 10 in 1972 at Bathurst, so it was no "wood duck". Chrysler had two years to get it there - Ford had 5 years to get a Falcon on the podium, from 1967.

Both cars are Australian icons - the GTHO because of Bathurst success, the Charger because of its engineering, looks and marketing.

17th Apr 2011, 03:37

E49 RT Charger was faster than the GTHO Falcon in a straight line and around the track buddy. Good on you. They only made 1 black and 1 white car. Hemi orange was around 35-40 cars from memory. Start saving now. They aren't cheap!

9th Sep 2011, 06:40

I am trying to identify the year my VH Charger was produced, it was exported to the UK without a build date stamped on the VIN plate, the body number is 993, please could you tell me where the build numbers you have stated can be found, I need an official source if possible. Any help you can provide would be much appreciated, Kevin :)

26th Oct 2011, 21:06

I currently race a E49 replica Charger, and have done so since 1996. I have raced the venerable 265 with hydraulic and solid camshafts, and have had great success with both engines. The hydraulic cam hits the wall at 5800 - 6000 RPM, depending on air temperature, whereas the solid will happily go to 6800 - 7000 RPM.

The class I race in is called Production Muscle Cars, and we operate out of Auckland and predominantly on NZ's fastest track, Pukekohe. Our rules state that you must run the original engine block and heads, and also the brake calipers must be standard, and rotors of original manufacturer's dimensions.

The Charger, although only putting out 290 rear wheel horse power, is more than capable of matching most of the V8 Mustangs, Falcons, Holdens etc that are around the 350 - 400 rear wheel horse power - even in a straight line.

The reason for this is the way an inline six lays down its torque evenly - even with a big cam it comes on smoothly and is in abundance (especially in the 265 version), and the throttle can be applied more rapidly - a feat which most V8's don't do nearly as well.

Most people aren't aware, that even back in the day, all of those teams were cheating the rules to some degree, and what happened on the race track is not necessarily related to the road cars. Ford and Holden were both running wet/dry sumps with auxiliary oil pumps and such like in their V8's, to get on top of oil surge.

In pure road going guise, I can honestly say (I have driven all of them) neither Holden nor Ford produced a product in the era of the E49 (4 speed) to match it in performance or handling, and its acceleration was especially blinding for the day.