Retro Review: 1970s Dodge Magnum
“That other version” of the Dodge Magnum was a short-lived personal luxury model by day, and NASCAR by Sunday.
The Other Dodge Magnum
The Dodge Magnum of the mid-aughts is fondly recalled as the American version of the classic European style muscle wagon. The Magnum was basically a wagon version of the Dodge Charger. And while most were built with V6s, some were graced with either a 5.7L or 6.1L Hemi V8. This Magnum has quietly cultivated a fanbase who’s devotion has not diminished even long after i’st2008 discontinuation. But this was not the first Dodge to carry the Magnum name. The original Dodge Magnum sought to replace the Charger on both the street and in NASCAR, struggling none too mightily on either front before its two-year run swiftly concluded.
By the mid-’70s, the muscle car era had come to an ignominious end as once great and powerful nameplates were converted from fire breathing beasts to *gasp* personal luxury cars, felled by a combination of emissions regulations, soaring insurance rates, and the 1973 Oil Crisis. The result was a lot of slightly more efficient, infinitely weaker V8s (the industry took much of the decade to shift to gradually smaller displacements).
NASCAR “Glory”
The Dodge Magnum is a perfect case in point. The Magnum was a two-door coupe built on Chrysler’s B-body platform that had once been the foundation of many of our muscle car heroes, the Roadrunner, Charger, and GTX, to name but a few. The Magnum had two jobs. First was to replace the Charger which had by this time morphed from muscle car to a semi-luxury model in the mold of the Ford Thunderbird. The Cordoba-based Charger was no longer pulling in sales, and Dodge needed a fresh name, if not a fresh formula.
The second job for the Magnum was to keep NASCAR champ Richard Petty in the Chrysler family. Petty had been racing the Charger throughout the early- and mid-70s, but NASCAR’s ever evolving ruleset meant the Charger was no longer in compliance with aerodynamics regulations. The Magnum’s new body met requirements.
The Dodge Magnum debuted for the 1978 season with Petty behind the wheel. The Magnum’s aerodynamics might have met with regulations, but they were not great for the car’s chances. Petty said the car was unstable at high speed, calling it “undrivable at 190 miles per hour.” By mid-season, both Richard Petty and Niel Bonnett had dropped the Magnum for GM cars (Chevy and Oldsmobile). A few teams continued to race the Magnum through 1981, to little success.
Showroom Struggles
The Dodge Magnum wasn’t capturing glory in the showroom, either. Remember those weak late- ‘70s V8s? The 1978 Magnum was offered with a trio of V8 options: a 318 cu.-in. with 140 horsepower, a 360 cu.-in. with 155 horsepower, or a 400 cu.-in. with 190 horsepower. All three paired to a three-speed automatic transmission. The 400 was dropped as an option after the first half of the ’78 production run as Chrysler discontinued the engine.
Performance was not on the menu in the late ‘70s. Instead, the Magnum was built as a personal luxury car. It featured plush leather upholstery and deep pile carpeting, your choice of a sunroof or T-tops. The GT trim ran the larger 400 and 360 V8s and came with upgrades to the suspension and rear axle. The Magnum’s exterior even had luxury touches like a landau vinyl roof and triple stacked rear opera windows.
Buyers weren’t much more enthused about the Magnum than Petty had been. After a two-year run, the Dodge Magnum was discontinued after 1979 in favor of the new Dodge Mirada, itself short-lived. While the original Magnum wasn’t the business on the track and didn’t do much business for Dodge, its name found a worthier iteration with the next Charger-based Magnum in 2004.
I had a 1978 Chrysler Cordoba which was basically identical to the Magnum. I loved that car.
I had a ’78 318″ 4 barrel, and a ’79 built 360″ great cars!
I had a 75 Cordoba and a 82 Cordoba the ride was awesome and the 75 was a 360 and the 82 was a 318 I’ve had a lot of mopars but they were my favorite