 |
The 1971 Dodge Demon 340 was the cheapest way into real Mopar small-block performance, and it arrived wearing a grinning cartoon devil that drew organized protests from religious groups. Under the hood sat a 275-horsepower 340 good for a 14.49-second quarter mile, in a compact that cost roughly half what a big-block Charger did. Only 10,098 were built before Dodge retired the name. Read on to find out why the joke turned into one of the most sought-after A-bodies of the era.
These three overlooked muscle cars all earned obscurity in different ways, from a Hemi Dart built purely for the drag strip to a Rebel Machine unveiled at NHRA’s biggest stage. The Hemi Dart’s 426 engine ran quarter-mile times in the nine-second range not long after leaving the factory, numbers that still hold up decades later. AMC’s Machine countered with a standard 340-horsepower V8 built for straight-line bragging rights of its own. Here’s what made each of these forgotten muscle cars worth a second look.
Only 80 of these Dodge Dart GTS Hurst-Hemi coupes ever left the factory, built with fiberglass panels, a stripped interior, and a 426 Hemi tuned strictly for the quarter-mile. Chrysler skipped the radio, the warranty, and just about every comfort feature to shave weight for Super Stock competition. Today, genuine examples can command prices approaching $250,000, and specialists still build faithful reproductions for collectors who cannot find the real thing. Read on to find out what made this stripped-down Dart one of Chrysler’s most extreme factory experiments.