The advertising campaign that outlived the car it advertised.
A work of art?
In 1977, Dodge ran the campaign “The night belongs to Charger.” A trendy young man cruises alone through the streets of the night in a Dodge Charger. Today, you can buy clippings of the full-page ads on eBay and Amazon . Many people frame them and hang them on their walls.
The Dodge Charger became my dream car
I read the ads in Motor Trend and Road & Track. One of the American car magazines had a big test of the Dodge Charger midway through the model year. If I remember correctly, the car writers never brought up any superlatives. It didn't worry me. I was 19 years old and dreamed that it was jeg who drove the Charger through town after the evening shift - to admiring glances from the ladies.
Not sold here at home
The problem was that I had yet to see a "new" Charger with my own eyes. In 1977, you could not buy a Dodge Charger in Norway. The importer, Harald A Møller, only included the Dodge Aspen in his passenger car range. Today there are six 1977 models in the vehicle register. In total, there are 19 cars left from the Charger series between 1975-1978. Several of them without signs. The probability of seeing one on the road in Norway or anywhere else in the world is actually quite small. Nevertheless, I came across one last Sunday. A group from Cars & Coffee had gathered at Texburger by Maritim to go on an excursion. Among amcars, fat BMWs and AMG-Mercs, there was a sleek 1977 Dodge Charger in Spitfire Orange on old Fredrikstad signs.
Almost a Norwegian car
The owner said that "everyone" thinks it is a Chrysler Cordoba. There are probably more Cordobas on the road than Chargers. One can safely say that the Charger is a rare vehicle. This was brought into Norway in 1983, - that is, as a fairly new car. It has been well taken care of, which the pictures testify to.
Last "proper" Charger?
Dodge is known for providing affordable, fully-engined cars to the American people. The Dodge Charger was a huge success in the 60s. The fourth generation, which arrived as a 1975 model, was a re-badged Chrysler Cordoba. It wasn't a bad car, but ended up a little overshadowed, both by earlier Charger models and Chrysler's more luxurious stablemate, the Cordoba.
It was going to get worse
From 1979, Chrysler/Dodge came with their new scaled-down L-body platform. It formed the basis for models such as the Chrysler Horizon and the Dodge Omni. The same platform eventually also became the basis for a brand new Dodge Charger – a front-wheel drive model in the Golf class. A bottom level compared to previous Charger models.
1977 Dodge Charger in a nutshell
The model could be delivered with three different V8s. The standard was 318 (5,2 litres), but you could also choose 360 (5,9 litres) and 400 (6,6 litres). The few cars that exist in Norway are evenly distributed among the three engine options. Gearbox could be 3- or 4-speed manual or 3-speed automatic. There were 3 different roof solutions. T-bar roof with landau design, color-coordinated vinyl roof and standard roof. The latter two could be delivered with a normal sunroof. You could get two different rim types, – Wire Wheels and Rallye Road Wheels. The latter was standard in the Daytona variant. Inside, in addition to fabric seats, you could get vinyl seats, as well as corderoy/vinyl. The fourth generation Charger was delivered in several variants, the base variant, S, LE and Daytona. I don't know if all were available as a 77 model.
Seen through the eyes of the 70s
Think back to 1977. Men's fashion back then was jackets with waists, garish ties - for those who wore them - shirts with collars as long as elephant ears. There was still a bit of slack in the trousers and the bravest liked to wear platform shoes.
Check out this commercial!
He weaves through the day in the usual way, but it's night now
now the feel of the wheel and your put on the gas ain't the same
you're driving your Charger for the night has but one car and you know that Charger's it's name
the night belongs to Charger
the night – it belongs to Charger
with the look that was shaped for the night
thus Charger was born to excite
the night belongs to Charger
and Charger belongs to the night
See
