What car got you into Mopars?

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Dad had a 70 Charger in B5 that was beautiful. My 2nd car was a 68 Satelite with /6 three on the tree. paid $600 and drove it for 12 years. sold on the slant 6
 
In 1970 dad had a 1968 Dodge Phoenix 4 door hardtop.I was 10yo.
A Dodge Phoenix is what you good US people would call a Plymouth Fury but they were up specced and all the hardtops were 383 powered.
The big Americans are what everyone looked up to back then and everyone used to drool over dad's car.
In Australia only the big americans had bigblocks so the performance was outstanding in it's day.
It was my job to wash and clean dad's car each week and I did so with much pride.
In 1972 the 68 model was traded in on a 69/70 model Phoenix.
 
I was given home when born in a 69 or 70 hemi r/t. My first ride in a race car was dean hohiemers dodge demon named grandpas toy. it was black with want I can remember red stripes. I was very young and it was so loud I was kinda scared. My dad has always had old race cars and his brother races. Now I think all my uncles kids race and his grand kids when they can. But the mopar kicker that made me want to own a dart was a yellow 72 dart. Big tires and slammed on the ground chassis car. My mom got it on video when I was in college and sent it to me to watch. That was many years ago. Now I have my dart and love it. Only now I'm craving another mopar. that being a 63 330a which I had a chance to buy at the same time as my dart.

Truthfully I have always just loved the sound of a big mopar motor. It's unique all its self. If you hear one you know what it is.
 
for me it came just a few short years ago. I was a chevy guy I had a 79 malibu with a cammed and headed 350. Dropped on a 150 shot on nitrous and thoiught it was the badest thing ever. Then I ran up against a frieds dakota R/T. That just blew my doors off. The 03 ram came equipped with a hemi, and I knew I needed one. Unfortunately I was in the army and it was out of my price range. Got the 4.7 instead. About a year later I sold it and got my hemi. Built that truck to run 12's. I was happy as could be. Then it got rear ended one night by a guy who fell asleep at the wheel. I bought it back and now the motor is getting twin turbos and going into my duster. I have not even looked at a chevy since they day I lost to that dakota.
 
I was born into it. That's all my family ever owned. My Grandfather worked for GM and bought Mopars. The car that my dad was restoring, that he started as far back as I can remember, was a 1957 DeSoto Firedome. Love that car.
 
Probably the general lee. When I was young I would stay up late with my dad and watch The Dukes of Hazzard. I've always liked mopars but after seeing pictures of a 1970 AAR Plum crazy cuda, I just knew I had to own a mopar....
 
I dont have any cool stories to share. I just like older cars like everyone else here. As a kid my dad would tell me stories of when he street raced when he got back from Vietnam. He raced in a 55 Chevy and would always bring up how the Mopar drive train was tough as nails and a pain in the ***.

I was looking to buy a "muscle car". My criteria was something with a V8 and a 4 spd manual and very minimal rust. I happened to run across a 74' Scamp w/ a 69' Valiant grill/hood and 440 RB. My first Mopar (moldy mid 80's Dodge Aries doesnt count lol).

I think the roof lines of a lot a old Mopars are absolutely beautiful.
 
When I was in grade school a kid in high school had a blue 68 Charger, and his brother had a 70 Duster, or Demon, with a crazy 70's paint job. Their dad owned a body shop.
The kid wrecked the entire front end of the 68 after school one day, the dad fixed it, and did a horrible job matching the paint.

70 440-6 GTX, lime green, near my house growing up- immaculate. Bought the model and built it, still have it.

67 Formula S near my high school for sale for $1,000, too much for a high school kid at that time.

68 GTX blew the doors off of my friend one night. He turned in front of us going out a long country road, and my friend commented about the "crappy Dart" that just pulled in front of us, and he was going to blow it away. I immediately corrected him, and egged him on at the same time. He had his car pinned at 120 for about 10 miles and this guy kept slowing down, then down shifting when we got close. Boy that thing made a sound when he pulled away.
Here is the best part. At the end of the road, he waited at the light. We pulled up next to him, gave a nod of acknowledgement, and turned right.
He continued to wait at the light.
My friend gunned it hoping to provoke the GTX.
As we again approached the other end of the speedo, we kept looking back. We were both freaking out knowing he would come for us. Before he was out of sight and only a matchbox in the rear window, he came after us and blew buy like we were standing still.
It was a huge rush, and my friend and I will never forget that crappy Dart GTX.
It was an odd color combo too, a metallic brown, with black on the very bottom, and a white vinyl top- it looked factory in every detail.

I will never forget that, and it is one of the finest memories.

For some reason, although Mopars always seemed utilitarian when I was growing up, Diplomats, Aspens, 4 doors and wagons, they were also always unobtainable- (the ones I wanted anyway), either rarely seen, too much money, or never for sale.
 
I was at the local illegal street racing spot in Vancouver Wa (lower river road)(1985) one night and had been drinking to much so I was just watching and a guy with 69/rr asked if I would like a ride. I have had a mopar ever since, Including a 69/rr,70 cuda, 3 64 furys, 1 67 barracuda, just to name a few. I currently have 72 duster,360/727/8n3/4, It runs mid 13s on street tires and launching at at 1500
 

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I was watching a movie with Dean Martin driving a 1965 Dart convertible.................! Now I have one of my own!
 

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My dad had a '48 Chrysler with a six and "western rear end" while he was in the Navy. It was gone before I was born, but my parents bought a new '67 New Yorker with a 440 in 1967. Yes, it had "440 air conditioning" (4 windows down at 40 m.p.h.) because we lived in NY. He was so impressed with the power of the car on family road trips.

Not long after that, I became aware of Chrysler's racing history (the Hemi was kicking *** all over the place in the late 1960s) and engineering innovations. My first car, which I still own, was a '68 GTX 440. My next-youngest brother's first car was a one-owner '70 Superbird (he still has it). My youngest brother's first car was a '70 440-6 'Cuda. So, I guess the MoPar gene kinda runs in the family.
 
My mom's boy friend picked up a 70 Dart with a 340 and a 4 speed. I was hooked the first time I saw it.
 
As a kid I knew Dad always had Dusters, Satelittes, Superbees and Dusters.... but wasn't REALLY into them at that point. Then when I was 14 I saw the first episode of Nash Bridges and I was hooked! Thats the car I want. Currently restoring a 73 340 Duster with Dad that I'll never part with.... but I still want a 71 Cuda ragtop sitting next to my Duster!!!
 
when i was a kid , my dad had a gold 73 fury with the police package . we travelled all over in that car. i got hooked when my parents bought a dodge van back during the 1970s and built a bed with shag carpet and the works. we used to go camping and to the drive in movies, they were in a custom van club that went all over. it was a great time. later on when i was nearing 15 my parents said that i could have the old rusty van. i learned alot about mopars while i had that van which led to me buying a 750. challenger.
 
When I was a kid, My dad and grandpa always used to buy me mopar die cast models that were 1:18 scale. The first one was my favorite and I had it forever til the vinyl top started to peel off then my mom chunked it in the trash sadly. It was a 1970 Dodge Dart with a 340 as it had the blacked out hood, the scoops, the black tail stripe, and black vinyl top and interior. It would always fly down hallways and smack into things:-D. The second one I got was a '66 Plymouth Fury, identical to the one below, wheels and all. My mom ran it over less than a week after I had it and I took the wheels off it and screwed 'em on my Dart.
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Well, after the Dart got chucked, I'd always pester my dad to tell me stories about his cars before he got married to my nutjob mom. Well, my favorite to hear were about his first car that my grandpa gave him. An ivy green '71 Plymouth Satellite with a 383 4 barrel, column shift 904, rally rims, and a suregrip 3.91 gear and bucket seats inside of the same ivy green. He used to tell me all the trouble he got into in that car and how he used to race people around Paramus, NJ all the time and won his share and lost his share. He used to switch license plates to get gas for it everyday during the gas shortage. I still wanna find this car and drag it home to restore for my grandpa and dad to enjoy, they both miss that car quite alot.

Recently, for my 20th birthday, I traded my 2006 Dodge Stratus for my first real Mopar (cuz I don't count some Mitsubishi-Mercedes made "Dodge" as a Mopar at all) A 1972 Dodge Dart (aka Zombie Dart) which I thought I would end up swapping a '70-'71 grille into up until I saw that '72 grille and that decision became null and void:toothy10:. I am working on getting it road worthy to use as my daily driver which shouldn't take alot but just a bunch of small things. The day my dad saw it he looked at me and smiled and said that he was really proud of me and then he asked me "So what's it got in it?". When I told him it had a 318 in it he chuckled and said, smiling ear to ear, "So, are you gonna put one of those beastly 383s in it?"
here's a pic of my car in its current state, its pretty damn solid, just looks like hell. lol. I'll fix that when I get the money to paint it nice, but I am still damn proud as hell of it.8)
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What got me into Mopar's were my Dads old racecars! And being at a dragstrip every weekend, and the cars that really stood out to me were the Mopar's.
 

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First car 1975 Plymouth Duster- slant 6/Auto
Second car 1973 Plymouth Duster- 340/ Auto
Third car 1988 Dodge Shadow 2.2 turbo/5 spd
ect.....
ect.....
 
A few of my cousins had Mopars ... mostly early 70s stuff. But I guess the car that got me started was my first car ... a 74 Challenger. After my brother introduced it to the neighborhood power pole I followed up with a 68 Charger. Was hooked ever since.
 
My ex wanted a '64-'66 Barracuda, so i bought the '64 for her and put a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and $$ into it. The car grew on me. It's mine now, not hers. I wanted a Demon or Duster for a long time, and got an OK deal on my '74 a couple years ago. After digging around through it and finding that it wouldn't really be worth it to try to do any kind of restoration/restification to it, I decided to slowly make it a race car.
 
My Dad was a Ford guy and tried hard to get me going in that direction. My first car was a '63 Fairlane with a 289 swapped in. When I had some motor problems with it, we found a nice '69 Fairlane 2 door coupe with a 302.

But it was my brother's 71 340 Duster that got me going. I used to go to every show I could with him, and just loved how the motor looked under the hood. Seemed like the Ford engine compartments always made the motor look like it was in a box and hidden, but the Mopar engine compartment put the motor on display. Never did get over that car. He sold it several years ago and it went to Canada, then to Barret Jackson (I think) and now some famous baseball player owns it (last I heard).

He even put a functional Airbrabber hood on it. Mopar missed a golden opporunity when they didn't built that hood from the factory, I'm sure they would have sold a 1/4 million more Dusters if they had.

Only got to drive it twice (that I remember), but those stories are too long and better saved for later.

StevesDusterpg1.jpg


StevesDusterpg2.jpg
 
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