Easily one of the most radical factory show cars of the 1960s, the Dodge Charger III has made a lasting impression throughout the automotive world. Here’s a closer look at Chrysler’s famed wild thing. 

Created for the national auto show circuit, the 1968 Charger III concept was designed by the staff at Chrysler’s advanced styling studios. However, the construction and details of the far-out show car were handled by the noted Detroit fabrication team of Vince Gardner and Paul Shedlik.

An automotive prodigy, Gardner was barely out of his teens when he helped Gordon Buehrig craft the original clay model for the Cord 810, while his own designs included the Ford Vega sports car and the Studebaker Gardner Special. The Charger III was one of many projects Gardner and Shedlik tackled as sub-rosa Motor City specialty contractors. The two-man team personally crafted the fiberglass body shell for the Chrysler show car, which was 74 inches wide, only 42 inches tall, and rode on a 100-inch wheelbase.

With no engine or drivetrain installed, the Charger III was a non-functional pushmobile, or glider as they are known in the biz. However, the automaker’s press materials suggested that a Dodge 426 Street Hemi could be installed up front under the low-profile hood. The power required to operate the Charger III’s numerous display functions, including the clamshell-style cockpit canopy, was actually provided by a 120-volt electrical cord that plugged into an onboard inverter. Photos indicate that the Charger III wore at least two different paint jobs over its career: the gold pictured here at the Chicago Auto Show, and the brilliant Candy Apple Red applied by master painter Shedlik.

While there was no drivetrain installed, the Charger III’s cockpit was completely finished and detailed, featuring a pair of bucket seats and a distinctive control pod that swung out of the way to ease driver entry and exit. Instruments and other hardware were borrowed from the 1968 Charger production car, which gave an air of reality to the far-out “idea car,” as Chrysler called the project at the time—the modern term “concept” was not yet in vogue.

This black-and-white photo montage (above) from an original Chrysler brochure highlights some of the Charger III’s innovative gadgets. They included articulated air-brake flaps, which also concealed the racing-style fuel fillers, a flip-up periscope rear-view mirror, and an electronic switch console mounted at the driver’s left elbow. A small hatch in the left front fender provided access for battery service and fluid level checks.

Like so many non-functional factory show cars, the Charger III was reportedly destroyed once its display career came to an end. However, the car has still managed to achieve its own kind of immortality in the gearhead world. Somehow, a handful of additional bodies were pulled from Gardner and Shedlik’s original molds, and one was mounted on Al Vanderwoude’s Flying Dutchman nitro funny car. Biilled as the only Charger III in drag racing, it was quite a sensation on the match-racing circuit in the late ’60s.

Matchbox offered a miniature Charger III in its collection, and we don’t know this, but many say the Twin Mill toy car in the Mattel Hot Wheels line is based on the Charger III design. And back in the day, Model Products (MPC, below) produced an authentic 1/25 scale plastic model kit version, which has since become a collector’s item among the modeling crowd. If you want a Charger III of your own, It will set you back a few hundred bucks on eBay.