1970 Dodge Dart 340 Clone

back in the late 90's , a friend and I went to look at a " '1973' Duster , 318 auto , etc. " over in Silver Lake ( L.A. , Ca. ) .
The only reason we went to look at it is because it was advertised as a 1973 ; at that time , good ol' Cali required that 1974 and newer cars be smog checked .

So , we're getting near this guy's house , and I spot the car in question : 1974-issue Ca plates , 1974-style rear bumper guards , yucky Uni-Belt seat belt setup , etc. , etc.
I hoped that this was an unrelated car , but no such luck ...

Apparently , this 1974 Duster somehow got registered as a 1973 (!!) . When and how that happened is / was a mystery ... it's v.i.n. was VL29G4G , whereas the registration read VL29G3G .

Well , the car was cheap enough , so my friend bought it anyhow . He figured that since there was a clerical error at the DMV , he could sneak it through again as a '73 ...

... no such luck !

I think the crooks at the DMV actually looked at the car , and saw its '74 v.i.n. , or recognised its 1974-issue plate .
Either way , my friend got hosed on having to smog the car ( passed at the pipe ; failed the visual ... what a surprise , huh ? Cali strikes again ! ) .

He ended up parting it out after he found a '73 Dart Sport that was in decent condition , and more importantly , smog check exempt !