[Lee Stewart]

The second generation Charger was all-new for 1968 and so were the Cincinnati Bengals. Dodge dealer Tom Kneer decided to create his own special edition Dodge Charger in the team’s colors and learned from the team HQ that the team’s uniforms would be black with orange and white stripes and helmets would be bright orange with black “Bengal” lettering.

So he placed the order with Dodge for 50 1968 Chargers. Tom scanned through the paint samples in Dodge’s color guide and discovered an orange used for Michigan state fleet vehicles that he dubbed Tiger Orange.

Black vinyl tops and dual black stripes around the trunk rounded out Tom’s specifications for his Bengal Charger. Most cars were ordered with the 318 or 383, none were ordered with the 426 Hemi. He had a few 6 cylinder cars built for marketing purposes and an estimated 10 - 12 R/Ts.

Because Tom was purchasing so many cars, Chrysler agreed to throw in the black Sport Stripes for free. In 1968, Chrysler put Sport Stripes on the Charger R/T only. Since most of the Bengals were not R/Ts, obviously, an exception was made. For this reason and because they were free, the stripe does not appear on the broadcast sheet but instead was part of the special order processing along with the orange paint.