Story
The car enthusiasts now call the 1962 Dodge Dart Max Wedge was introduced by Dodge as the Ramcharger 413. It was a factory acceleration package, not one separate Dart trim. Dodge offered it across eligible Dart, Dart 330, Dart 440, and Polara 500 passenger-car bodies, including a handful of four-doors and convertibles. Station wagons were excluded. Keeping those bodies on one model-year page preserves the actual option structure instead of turning every trim into a duplicate car.
Two versions of the 413
The standard engine used 11.0:1 compression and carried a 410-horsepower gross rating. An optional 13.5:1 version was rated at 420 horsepower. Both used a one-piece aluminum short-ram intake, dual four-barrel carburetors, unsilenced air cleaners, large-port heads, a high-lift solid-lifter camshaft, dual valve springs, strengthened rotating parts, and a baffled oiling system with a swinging pickup.
Dodge paired the package with a heavy-duty three-speed manual or heavy-duty pushbutton TorqueFlite. The factory bulletin does not establish a four-speed Ramcharger path. A Sure-Grip rear axle with 3.91 gearing appears in the package parts schedule, alongside available ratios from 2.93 through 4.89.
A factory drag package
Streamlined headers emptied into three-inch dual pipes with removable lake-pipe caps. Heavy-duty Torsion-Aire suspension and lightweight 10-inch manual drum brakes supported the package. Dodge's own bulletin said the combination was best suited to supervised acceleration trials, an unusually direct description of its purpose.
Verify the car, not the hardware
Cross-ram induction, Max Wedge exhaust, badges, and a 413 can all be added later. Authenticate a car by reconciling its VIN and body record with engine, transmission, axle, body, paint, trim, and ownership evidence. The production table on this page describes the reviewed Dodge Ramcharger census; it does not authenticate an individual car.