VJ Charger Sportsman

In March of 1973 Chrysler released the VJ Charger, which was essentially a mild facelift of the popular VH series Charger.
The Charger R/T race programme was over and due to other un-foreseen circumstances towards the end of the VH series model cycle Chrysler was under performing financially. Selling large, thirsty family cars was proving difficult and profits were falling. Quite simply Australians were not buying Valiant sedans and wagons leaving the Charger as the only model generating any real sales volume. This effected the amount of money available to give the VJ series any significant restyle thus leaving the styling team the challenging task of creating a new look, whilst keeping within the tight budgetary restrictions.
The VJ upgrade was limited to a new grille with round headlights and modified tail lights. Design ingenuity was at the fore-front such as producing the new grille in plastic with each half being a mirror image of the other reducing tooling costs significantly. The interior gained a new dash pad and the instrument panel from the VH Charger became standard across the VJ Charger range. Model options were trimmed to just 3 after Chrysler decided to drop the R/T version when it announced the VJ upgrade.
To give the VJ Charger series an image lift Chrysler released the limited edition Sportsman. The Sportsman had a distinctive colour scheme of Vintage Red with contrasting Alpine White beneath the hip line and around the wheel arches. Alpine White was also used on the roof from the A pillars to the rear of the rear-side windows and between the rear tail lights. Inside the distinctive theme continued with cream trim, bold new cloth inserts and body colour matching carpets. The wheels were the steel sports rims as used on the 770 Charger. The engine options were limited to the Hemi 265 matched to the four-speed manual or optional three-spIn March of 1973 Chrysler released the VJ Charger, which was essentially a mild facelift of the popular VH series Charger. To give the VJ Charger series an image lift Chrysler released the limited edition Sportsman. Production of the VJ series lasted for two and a half years with only 399 Sportsmans ever built.

Item includes certificate with individual production number.