The Charger 500 HEMI Is So Rare Most Mopar Fans Have Never Seen One

The 1969 Charger 500 HEMI is a very rare bird. While estimates project that somewhere between 392 and 580 examples of the 1969 Charger 500 were ever built, only 67 were produced with a 426 cubic-inch HEMI engine, and only 27 of those HEMIs were produced with a four-speed manual transmission. The remaining 52 HEMI-engined cars came with the Torqueflite automatic transmission, while most of the other Charger 500s had the 440 cubic-inch engine mated to the Torqueflite. This was just two years after a limited-run Barracuda packed one of the rarest HEMI engines. 

The 1969 Dodge Charger was the second year of the new-for-1968 Charger 'coke-bottle' body style, which was selling very well. But while the new Charger had great appeal to retail consumers, it was not achieving the desired success on the NASCAR circuit, where these body design elements limited its ultimate top speed. With a very poor Dodge showing of only five victories out of 49 races, the manufacturer's championship for 1968 went to Ford. Dodge needed to up its game to compete at speeds up to 200 mph on the superspeedways.

Dodge engineers concluded that the Charger's aerodynamics needed improvement, so they went to work on the Charger's shortcomings. This new version of the Charger was named the Charger 500, for the 500 examples NASCAR required to be built with the necessary modifications for homologation. A bumblebee stripe wrapped around the rear of the Charger 500 is emblazoned with the '500' name. 

The two main aero problem areas on the 1968 Charger consisted of its inset grille and its 'flying buttress' rear window. To resolve the grille issue, Dodge engineers simply replaced the Charger's grille with the flush-mount grille from the 1968 Dodge Coronet. They then converted the Charger's rear window to one that was also flush-mounted, combining it with a shorter trunk lid. The modifications done to the 392 Charger 500s were made at Creative Industries in East Point, Michigan.

Dodge then took the 1969 Charger 500 with its aerodynamic modifications to NASCAR racing, where the company discovered that while their attempts to smooth the Charger's body contours provided an increased top speed range of between three and seven additional mph, this was not enough of an improvement. The next step in the Dodge Charger's racing development would be the high-winged, nose-cone-equipped Dodge Charger Daytona, which was banned by NASCAR.

One interesting example of the Charger 500 HEMI, pictured in the photos, is owned by the American Muscle Car Museum, located in Melbourne, Florida. It has the HEMI/four-speed manual powertrain and underwent a four-year rotisserie restoration that began in 2009 and ended in 2013. It was ordered with a special exterior paint color, Omaha Orange, and is the only Charger 500 to be painted in this color. It is a numbers-matching car with its original drivetrain and is rust-free, making it an excellent example of a 1969 Charger 500 HEMI.

It is interesting to note that none of the 1969 Dodge Charger 500s ever produced actually raced. Once the grille and rear window modifications had been homologated for racing, the racers simply used the relevant parts, updated their race cars to the newly approved configuration, and returned to the track to do battle at higher speeds.

You might think that the value of a given 1969 Dodge Charger 500 would greatly depend on whether or not it has a HEMI engine with a rich history in it — and you would be right. Prices for Dodge Charger 500s sold in original condition over the past five years, according to Classic.com, start at $104,500 for an example with the 440 cubic-inch engine and automatic transmission. Prices for the Dodge Charger 500 HEMI over the same period range from $137,000 for the most recent sale to $341,000 for a very special Charger 500 HEMI time capsule with only 181 original miles on it, sold in January 2023.

The 1969 Dodge Charger 500 was a very rare NASCAR homologation special, created solely to increase Dodge's dominance on the high-speed ovals, with speeds up to 200 mph. Even though these aero mods did not quite move the needle far enough for the Dodge brand in NASCAR, what remains with us today is one of the rarest Dodge street cars, especially when it has a HEMI under the hood.