By comments on forums, message boards and websites, which muscle-era Mopar car had the best looking grill and front end treatment
Executive summary
The available reporting catalogs which Mopar models are repeatedly praised for styling — the 1969–70 Dodge Charger, 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda and Challenger, 1970 Super Bee and Coronet R/T all recur in lists celebrating iconic front-end design — but the sources provided are professional lists and retrospectives, not forum or message-board comment collections, so direct evidence of “by comments on forums” preferences is not present in the reporting reviewed. The strongest consensus in popular coverage points to the 1969 Charger’s hidden-headlight grille and the E-body ’Cuda/Challenger family as the era’s most admired front ends [1] [2] [3].
1. The Charger’s face: the archetypal “muscle stare” that pops up in best-front-end lists
Journalists and enthusiasts repeatedly single out the late‑1960s Charger, notably the 1969 model, for its grille treatment and hidden-headlight motif that created an iconic, aggressive front-end identity often described as instantly recognizable and influential in rankings of classic front ends [1].
2. The ’Cuda/Challenger E-body duo: pony‑car elegance with purposeful hardware
The 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda and its Dodge Challenger peer are consistently grouped as the E-body duo whose wide, long proportions, quad headlights (on some ’Cudas), shaker hoods and race‑inspired fronts made them staples of “most beautiful Mopar” lists — coverage emphasizes the ’Cuda’s shaker/quad-head arrangement and the Challenger’s balance of pony-car lines with performance cues [2] [3] [4].
3. Super Bee and Coronet R/T: bold graphics and memorable split‑bumper faces
Editorial roundups praise the 1970 Super Bee for a distinctive, muscular front-end and highlight the Coronet R/T’s controversial split bumper and looped grille as a “love it or hate it” treatment that nevertheless commands attention for uniqueness and presence [2] [5].
4. Racing specials and aero oddities: the Superbird/Daytona as statement pieces
When lists move beyond pure elegance into theatricality, the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird get mentioned for their radical aerodynamic noses and high‑profile noses that transformed the front end into a statement about function and spectacle, making them undeniable eye‑catchers in any conversation about notable Mopar faces [6].
5. Functional ornamentation: scoops, shakers and staggered‑tire era details
Many accounts note that hood treatments and functional scoops became part of what made Mopar fronts memorable — the adoption of factory scoops and shaker hoods on late‑’60s Mopars contributed as much to the perceived “best front end” as the grille shape itself, a trend especially visible on Hemis and Trans‑Am homologation specials [7] [3].
6. What the reporting does and does not show about forum opinion
The reviewed sources are curated lists, feature articles and dealership retrospectives that identify the Charger, ’Cuda/Challenger family, Super Bee, Coronet R/T and Superbird as the era’s most lauded fronts in mainstream coverage [1] [2] [5] [6], but none of the supplied material is a systematic compilation of forum, message‑board or social‑media comment threads; therefore this analysis cannot quote or quantify forum‑level voting or sentiment directly — the conclusion that the Charger and the E‑body ’Cuda/Challenger would likely top forum polls is an inference drawn from repeated prominence in the cited coverage, not from primary forum data.
7. Final synthesis — the frontrunners and why they win
Taken together, mainstream enthusiast journalism and “best‑of” lists converge around two visual strategies that define “best” front ends: the Charger’s menacing, recessed grille and hidden‑headlight treatment that reads as pure menace [1], and the E‑body ’Cuda/Challenger family’s balanced pony/muscle face with shaker and quad‑light options that mixes aggression with proportion and detail [2] [3]; other contenders like the Super Bee, Coronet R/T, and Superbird gain votes for distinctive gimmicks or daring design, but the Charger and ’Cuda/Challenger are the most consistently celebrated across the sources provided [5] [6].