Thunder Road Automotive Study II: 1968-69 Pontiac GTO vs. 1971-72 Dodge Charger 🌷

Thunder Road Automotive Study II:

1968-69 Pontiac GTO vs. 1971-72 Dodge Charger

I've always loved these two cars from the Detroit Golden Era. Pontiac design was at it's zenith as were the talents of Chrysler's Dodge division.

The Dodge Charger had already had 2 successful versions already when in 1971 the new "fuselage" bodies which Chrysler first introduced in 1969 were applied to the Gen 3 Dodge Charger. It featured this gorgeously simple face which was clearly borrowed from the '68-'69 Pontiac Le Mans, notably the GTO Judge version.

Just as the '68-'69 GTO was offered with hidden headlights or standard open headlights so were the '71-'72 Dodge Chargers.

Here we have the 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge with horizontal split to the grille texture:

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Below is a 1971 Dodge Charger R/T with hidden headlights closed and a chrome wrap-around bumper with a horizontal split through the grille texture.

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Now we return to the 1969 GTO Judge (again with horizontal split to the grille texture) but with standard headlights:

... here again a '69 GTO Judge with closed hidden headlights:

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Here is an example of a 1968 GTO with it's hidden headlights open and on (note the lack of a horizontal bar dividing the grill texture as well as the difference in the parking lights when campared to the 1969 pictured above):

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And just to show all possibilities below is a 1968 GTO with it's hidden headlights closed.

Now let's take a look at the 1971 Dodge Charger

Below is a '71 Dodge Charger Super Bee with standard headlights, blacked-out grille and color-keyed wrap-around bumper. This was not the Endura impact-resistant material like the GTO had but just a stylish painted bumper.

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Occasionally you see a '71 Super Bee with hidden headlights but not often.. this one with chrome bumpers:

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This was the last year of the Super Bee option and the only time it was available a Charger model - although ironically both Charger and the original Super Bee were based upon the Dodge Coronet!

I did find a photo showing hidden headlights on '71 Charger R/T. With it's subtle horizontal divider it does remind us a bit of the '69 GTO.

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Below is a '71 Charger R/T with hidden headlights and a chrome bumper instead of the body-keyed paint...

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... and another with the hidden headlights in the open position:

The 1972 Charger dropped the Super Bee and the R/T offering the hidden headlights option with the SE (Special Edition) package. The look was similar to the '71 but the regular open headlight design was sufficiently different that I chose not the muddle the waters further by it's introduction here.

Appendix:

Here are a pair of 1968 GTOs for comparison:

The first with regular headlights (note the lack of the horizontal grille divider.. very clean and simple)

and second also with regular headlights but with the Endura bumper "deleted". Note that the standard Pontiac Le Mans grille has been blacked-out for the non-Endura GTO:

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