1965 Dodge Coronet A990
In the early 1960s, Detroit was locked in a high-stakes horsepower war. Factory teams, independent racers, and gearheads across America were all part of a drag racing renaissance. The Big Three automakers—Ford, GM, and Chrysler—were in a full sprint to dominate the 1/4-mile, and Dodge, a division of Chrysler, was ready to take its place at the top. What emerged from this competition was a machine built not for the boulevard, but for the battlefield of the drag strip: the 1965 Dodge A990.
The A990 wasn't just a car—it was a purpose-built factory drag racer, conceived in secrecy and bred for speed. It was based on the Dodge Coronet body but heavily re-engineered to do one thing: go fast in a straight line. To comply with NHRA Super Stock rules and qualify for competition, Dodge produced just 101 units of the A990 package, making it as rare as it was formidable.
Dodge engineers knew that to win on Sunday, you had to cut weight. The A990 came with no frills—no sound deadening, no rear seat, no armrests, and no heaters. The hood, doors, fenders and front bumper were crafted of “chemically-milled” steel, shaving precious pounds while still remaining legal as fiberglass was not legal in the Super Stock class. The windows were special 1/8” Chemcor glass specially designed for Chrysler by Dow Corning to be light yet strong enough to be considered street legal. Some 40+ years later, this material was rediscovered by Steve Jobs and refined for use as the screen in his new consumer product; the iPhone. The front seats were thin-shell bucket seats from Bostrom that were used in Dodge’s commercial vans. It was raw, brutal, and uncompromising—exactly what racers wanted.
At the heart of the A990 was the newly refined 426 cubic inch HEMI V8, a monster of an engine that Chrysler engineers had been perfecting since its debut in 1964. In the A990, this HEMI was even more aggressive, featuring aluminum for the cylinder heads, water pump and oil pump, a magnesium intake manifold, topped by a pair of Holley 4-barrel carburetors. Officially, the 12.5:1 compression engine was rated at 425 horsepower—but insiders knew it was well north of that, with some estimates putting real output at over 500 hp.
The Driveline included a beefed-up 727 TorqueFlite automatic featuring a reverse-pattern valve body and the Park function deleted, paired a stout 8¾-inch rear axle with 4.86:1 gears—perfect for launching off the line. But even with all that engineering, taming the A990 on the strip took a skilled hand. These cars were ferocious, known for lifting their front wheels at launch and blasting through the 1/4-mile in the low 11-second range—mind-blowing performance for a factory car in 1965.
The A990 dominated the Super Stock class. Campaigned by legendary racers like Dick Landy, Ronnie Sox, and Bud Faubel, and these cars became icons in the NHRA scene. Their success helped cement the 426 HEMI as one of the most legendary engines in muscle car history and paved the way for Mopar’s dominance in the drag racing world for years to come.
Today, the 1965 Dodge A990 is among the most desirable and collectible muscle cars ever made. With only 101 built—and many raced hard—surviving examples are rare and revered. They represent a fleeting moment in automotive history when manufacturers went all-in on performance, without compromise.
The 1965 Dodge A990 wasn’t meant to cruise down Main Street or impress at a drive-in. It was engineered to tear up drag strips, to intimidate, and to win. In the brutal arena of 1960s Super Stock racing, it was a weapon—and one that proved Dodge knew exactly what it took to dominate the quarter-mile.
This example, the 49th of 101 Dodge A990’s built, and one of just 3 produced in “Medium Tan Metallic”, was delivered from the factory on March 17th, 1965 to Butch Flames at Bob Sam’s Dodge in Ohio. The car passed through several subsequent owners until rediscovered in a barn in eastern Tennessee in 2010, with a majority of its original features intact and just 843 original miles on the odometer. Restoration was completed in 2025 by Greg Fernald of SS/AFX in New River AZ, a specialist in early Mopar factory race cars.