I would love to get into an older, even up to mid '70s Mopar. Even have The Beast listed for sale or trade. Mopar is one of the things I would trade for. Want at least a 360, big block would be nice. I'm still dreaming. Prices are past sky high.

 

I had a '73 Dodge Dart Swinger.
225 Slant Six w/A904 Trans and 2.73 gears.

I had the A904 taken out and a 727 TorqueFlite (taxicab) trans put in it, plus, I put 3.23 gears and posi unit, in it.

I wound up putting SIX alternators and SIX voltage regulators, along with 4 or 5 electronic ignition modules, in that car!
('73 was the first year for electronic ignition, in MOPARs w/ 6 cyl engines.)
JUNK electronics in '73!

I bought a 'K' frame for it, and was building a nice little 340, when I got broadsided by a Drivers Ed. Teacher, in mid-'75!!!
Total loss. Bent that car, terribly!

 

Bet that looked good on his resume. Wonder what he told his class?

 

Joe that's a nice car wow , looks like it needs nothing ready for show or go ,,,,,,,,, was it started occasionally during the 30 year nap? how is it now up and running,,,,,, sure wish that was mine I really like the old after market rims.......

Can I ask a non of my business question , disregard if so,,,,,,,,,, but how much did your friend score that Road Runner for? A nice find indeed ........

 

Hey Jim thats a true muscle car and a good one to boot,,,,,,,,, Road Runner package , 4 speed bench seat 4 speed very rare and a 383 Big Block......... Mopar did a lot of cars with the Armstrong manual steering it is 5 1/2 turns lock to lock, my car had that but I switched to power at 2 1/2 lock to lock no going back to the manual box cause it safer for drag racing....

 

150.00 what a deal
no jk
his dad bought it new and my friend tells the story of going to the dealer with dad and ordering when he was about 7 yrs old
and then waiting at dealer and seeing it arive on car carrier with some other cool mopar stuff

 

I found you don't need power steering for drag racing......the front tires don't touch very much anyway......haha

 

Hey Joe, I r a tomato head I miss read your post and thought your friend bought the RR privately now I get it was a family deal very cool indeed hope it stays with the family and they all enjoy the the connection that there Dad had to the old car ....

BTW one of my memories as a kid is 1970 or maybe it was 1969 our local neighborhood small time Dodge dealer got a truck load of new muscle cars Charges, Darts and a 69 Daytona in in red , the 70 cars were high impact colors with hood call outs with in two days that dealer got rid of all of them to other dealers he had no interest in selling or servicing muscle cars his target market was the old folks and families wanting a 9 passenger station wagon or a 25 foot long 4 door land yacht , weird huh

 

I hope I get some of that air time , I missed type too, meant to say I am going back to manual steering , T/A power steering on a hopefully low 12 second drag car is not need and manual is safer I think......

 

The neighborhood was crappy but I had the good fortune of growing up about a mile from Mr Norms' Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago. Still remember the address, 3300 West Grand Ave, my friends and I spent a fair amount of time there, Norm was a BIG man and he was cool. My brother bought his 68 SuperBee from him. Fairly tame...383, bench seat, 727 auto on the column, 3.91 posi, yellow with black sb stripes.

Norms' angle was smart. I think he called them "dyno-tuned", every muscle car that left the lot went through service and they tweaked them to the max. Mopar and the others at the time purposely kept the HP/torque specs as low as possible for insurance rating bs but with a couple of turns of a screwdriver and a good scope and these cars were unstoppable. He probably sold more Hemi cars than any other Dodge dealer. Also was one of the 1st dealers to have a segregated DirectConnection parts counter, bolt on HP with a full factory warranty, which at the time was only 12/12 if my memory serves me right.

Norms was the 1st time I saw a Dart GT with a 440! That car sure seemed like it could pull the front wheels off the pavement, 4 speed with 4.56 Dana. My favorite of all (and I was only 8 when this came in) was a 67 GTX convertible, Gold with black stripes, interior and top. As a kid I remember that the bucket seats had headrests for the 1st time and all the chrome on the console. Still my dream car but there's no way I could justify 100 large for it, although I've seen a few as low as 50k needing some help.

As a sort of grown up, I toned down and instead tweaked my 67 Imperial. I've blown away more than a few muscle cars with it, yet it's reasonably quiet and comfortable for me and, say, 6 of my closest friends to tool around in, weather permitting. I also don't have to worry about putting a dent in my kids' inheritance.

Sorry for the LONG story, just reminiscing over my coffee and geritol. Have a great day!

BTW, I can't remember ever seeing a station wagon in the showroom at Norms.

 

Long post are cool can't get enough of the old school Mopar stuff , brings back a memory friend of mine had at 13 years of age inherited a 69 Newport 4door 383 with power everything a land yacht for sure since everyone was too young to drive legally we would take it out to a local abandoned farm field and just hammer that car with in 3 years it was junk and sold for scrap , I swear the Dukes of Hazard got wind of us and decided to make the make a tv show we did it a good 8 years before that show even came out ,,,,,,,,,, it was fun but the the Newport paid the price and we was young and dumb ..........

 

come to think of it i've had a few mopars and 2 i still have today.
i still have my 68 coronet 2 drhrdtp 318/ 727 auto. stock car. and a 90 shadow
mind you the shadow is far from a muscle car.

 

I've got a 1970 Charger which was my first car, 1968 roadrunner and a 1970 roadrunner....all are 383 4spd cars

 

my coronet was a 383 magnun auto car but when i got the old owner knocked a hole in side of the block and the engine was stripped of the heads and intake. and the tranny was junk. and the front end was wrecked. but it wasn't that bad. so i bought a 70 newport bumper and cut 6" out the middle and welded back together and put it on and its been that way since and thats been 20 years now. dirt track stock car racing is hard on a car.

 

The teacher was in his personal car at the time.

When the police arrived, he was about to get a citation (failure to yield right of way), when he said that he was an employee of the county, and taught Drivers' Ed.

The county police officer started laughing out loud, and gave him TWO citations!

Failure to Yield Right of Way.
Failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

Still, that Dart was a decent looking car (for the era). I used to wonder how well that old Dart would have ran with a 340 in it.