SSS Bass
New Member
It was the fall of 1970. I had been to the new car show at the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor Ohio and was impressed by the new 1971 Mopar lineup.
Being a big block Ford and Chevy fan, I was impressed when my buddy had cleaned my clock with his 68 340 Dodge GTS. I was driving my cherry 1967 SS 396 4-speed Chevelle at the time. I was wowed!
Now just 20 years old, I had convinced my Dad to sign for a new car, and off to the dealers we went. First stop, the Dodge dealer where we were looking closely at a 1970 Challenger R/T 383 auto Plumb Crazy with a black vinyl top. Sales guy threw the keys at us and said take it home for the weekend and let us know how you like it. Yeah, they actually used to do that in the day. Drove that car all weekend and did like it very much, however, it had 4K miles on the clock which in my mind made it a used car. Yep, it was the dealers demo car and they wanted to get rid of it for the new model year coming in. They still wanted the list price for the car of 4 grand! I thought that was outrages so we went down the street to the Plymouth dealer.
The Duster had impressed me most at the new car show, so we sat down with the sales guy to order one up from scratch. When it was over we had on paper a brand new 1971 Hemi Duster with every performance option available. The price was $3590. About a hundred bucks a month. Alright, Im ready to put my John Hancock on the dotted line when the sales guy says Ah, the factory cant give you the 12 month standard warrantee on this configuration because the torque developed by the Hemi engine has a tendency to twist the unibody.
So, my Dad, being from the you must have a warrantee school, would not co-sign for me. My Hemi Duster order then fell quickly into the circular file by the sales guys desk. I was bummed
However, we started over again, this time with the underrated 275 horse 340 with the 727 Trans coupled to the 391 8 ¾ posi. So far so good. Made it Sassy Grass Green with a black vinyl top. Bucket seats, console and a floor shift. All totaled - $3100. 93 bucks a month cool! Got the warrantee and dad was happy. Sales guy said about 6 weeks to deliver. During the wait cycle, a couple calls from the dealer flew in. Since I had ordered every performance option available as of February of 71 enhancements to the car were becoming available. Like a beefed up rear end which added an addition leaf spring, high impact paint (I always got a giggle out of this one for obvious reasons) and hood pins. All of which I added for about an additional 80 bucks or so.
Nowhere were there options for spoilers or blacked out hoods with 340 Wedge or hood scoops that I see so often today on optioned out cars. Maybe these items came after I ordered mine in mid Feb. of 71. Who knows? I never saw any of those options on the street either. Of well, be that as it may, I picked up my new car on April fools day and drove her home!
I was never a believer in the 500 mile break in period, so my foot was in the thermo quad from that moment on.
After about a month and this car running like a rapped ape, I pulled into a buddys speed shop to install a few mods. Installed a set of Hooker headers with a couple of cherry bomb mufflers and Excel ignition. Put in one level hotter Champion plugs and strobed and welded the distributor to full advance. The difference was like night and day. The Duster run well before, but after it just screamed.
It got to a point where the 340 Cuda guys would seek me out on weekends to see if their fine tuning had helped their street times. I was smoking most everything on the street with this car. Small blocks, big blocks it made little difference. I was convinced that this car had to have been built on a Wednesday because it was so tight and fast! It would put down an additional 10 to 15 feet of rubber following the shift to second gear without a problem.
I drove this Duster for 20K miles before selling it to move to Arizona in 1972. Still have all the very fond memories and a ton of Duster stories tucked away for when the occasions arise .
Later,
John A.
Being a big block Ford and Chevy fan, I was impressed when my buddy had cleaned my clock with his 68 340 Dodge GTS. I was driving my cherry 1967 SS 396 4-speed Chevelle at the time. I was wowed!
Now just 20 years old, I had convinced my Dad to sign for a new car, and off to the dealers we went. First stop, the Dodge dealer where we were looking closely at a 1970 Challenger R/T 383 auto Plumb Crazy with a black vinyl top. Sales guy threw the keys at us and said take it home for the weekend and let us know how you like it. Yeah, they actually used to do that in the day. Drove that car all weekend and did like it very much, however, it had 4K miles on the clock which in my mind made it a used car. Yep, it was the dealers demo car and they wanted to get rid of it for the new model year coming in. They still wanted the list price for the car of 4 grand! I thought that was outrages so we went down the street to the Plymouth dealer.
The Duster had impressed me most at the new car show, so we sat down with the sales guy to order one up from scratch. When it was over we had on paper a brand new 1971 Hemi Duster with every performance option available. The price was $3590. About a hundred bucks a month. Alright, Im ready to put my John Hancock on the dotted line when the sales guy says Ah, the factory cant give you the 12 month standard warrantee on this configuration because the torque developed by the Hemi engine has a tendency to twist the unibody.
So, my Dad, being from the you must have a warrantee school, would not co-sign for me. My Hemi Duster order then fell quickly into the circular file by the sales guys desk. I was bummed
However, we started over again, this time with the underrated 275 horse 340 with the 727 Trans coupled to the 391 8 ¾ posi. So far so good. Made it Sassy Grass Green with a black vinyl top. Bucket seats, console and a floor shift. All totaled - $3100. 93 bucks a month cool! Got the warrantee and dad was happy. Sales guy said about 6 weeks to deliver. During the wait cycle, a couple calls from the dealer flew in. Since I had ordered every performance option available as of February of 71 enhancements to the car were becoming available. Like a beefed up rear end which added an addition leaf spring, high impact paint (I always got a giggle out of this one for obvious reasons) and hood pins. All of which I added for about an additional 80 bucks or so.
Nowhere were there options for spoilers or blacked out hoods with 340 Wedge or hood scoops that I see so often today on optioned out cars. Maybe these items came after I ordered mine in mid Feb. of 71. Who knows? I never saw any of those options on the street either. Of well, be that as it may, I picked up my new car on April fools day and drove her home!
I was never a believer in the 500 mile break in period, so my foot was in the thermo quad from that moment on.
After about a month and this car running like a rapped ape, I pulled into a buddys speed shop to install a few mods. Installed a set of Hooker headers with a couple of cherry bomb mufflers and Excel ignition. Put in one level hotter Champion plugs and strobed and welded the distributor to full advance. The difference was like night and day. The Duster run well before, but after it just screamed.
It got to a point where the 340 Cuda guys would seek me out on weekends to see if their fine tuning had helped their street times. I was smoking most everything on the street with this car. Small blocks, big blocks it made little difference. I was convinced that this car had to have been built on a Wednesday because it was so tight and fast! It would put down an additional 10 to 15 feet of rubber following the shift to second gear without a problem.
I drove this Duster for 20K miles before selling it to move to Arizona in 1972. Still have all the very fond memories and a ton of Duster stories tucked away for when the occasions arise .
Later,
John A.
