Yeah, this is a weird matchup, which is why we love it…
A lot of people love to see classic muscle cars like this beautiful 1971 Dodge Charger R/T. It’s even better when you get to see such machines in action on the drag strip instead of just sitting in a parking lot. However, the last thing you’d probably expect it to be racing against is this 1973 Buick Riviera.
Remember the disastrous flight of the Lincoln jet car here.
You might be thinking this is some lopsided race, that the Buick has no chance. Well, if this were just a run-of-the-mill Riviera that might be the case. However, this one is packing some serious heat with a Stage 1 455ci V8 rated at 260-horsepower. Sure, that doesn’t seem so impressive versus the Charger R/T with its 440 V8 pushing 370-hp. But keep in mind horsepower for the Buick is rated at net not gross, so it’s not an apples and oranges comparison.
Buick only sold the ’73 Riviera with a TH400 automatic transmission, but the Dodge comes with the TorqueFlite automatic transmission as well. Rear gears for the Riviera is 3.42 while for the Charger they’re 3.55. So far, this is turning out to be an interesting matchup on paper.
Where the Mopar starts to look like it might be at a big disadvantage is weight. Tipping the scale at 4,224 lbs., the Charger is a bit of a porker. But the Riviera is even more portly at a shocking 5,044 lbs. Both of these land yachts could stand to shed some pounds!
Since this race is part of Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Race, they don’t have to be entirely stock but they can’t be crazy. In fact, no car can run the quarter mile faster than 11.50 seconds or it’ll be disqualified automatically.
Now, check out the video to see how this race goes down. If you want to skip straight to the action, go to 4:33.
