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A 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger spent decades hidden in a garage before anyone heard its 340 run again. Chrysler rated the small-block at just 275 horsepower — enthusiasts have spent 50 years insisting that number is a lie. Here’s what happened when this rough, unrestored survivor finally came back to life.
Dodge built only 80 Hemi Darts in 1968, turning a humble compact into a six-figure drag-strip legend almost overnight. But a deep dive into the Dart’s full history reveals the real bargain hiding in plain sight: the ordinary Slant-Six version, famous among owners for outlasting engines twice its horsepower. Here’s what separates the unicorn from the daily driver, and why knowing the difference matters before you buy.
Chrysler and Hurst sold the 1970 300H as a hardtop only, but George Hurst had one convertible built for himself and for Linda Vaughn’s drag-strip appearances. Fifty-plus years later the numbers-matching 440 TNT drop-top survives in a private collection, and Rocket Restorations walks through every detail that proves it is real.
Before the Road Runner or GTX existed, Plymouth offered its 425-hp Street Hemi in the understated 1966 Satellite, and only 503 four-speed hardtops were ever built. Owner Randy Cook found one identical to the car he watched race as a kid and traded his own car to get it. Lou Costabile takes a ride in the Forest Green Hemi that makes two grown men laugh the moment the hood goes up.
A 1970 Plymouth HEMI Superbird and a 1969 Chevrolet ZL1 Camaro both fought their way into the top ten at Barrett-Jackson’s record-breaking $207.6 million 2024 Scottsdale Auction. Fewer than 150 Superbirds were ever built with the HEMI, and the ZL1’s all-aluminum 427 came from Can-Am racing, not the street. Only one of them claimed the top spot. Watch the full countdown to see which one it was.
A stranger bought this 1965 Plymouth Barracuda without ever seeing it, betting on a car that had sat untouched for roughly two decades. It’s the same model that beat the Mustang to dealerships by sixteen days and wore the largest single piece of glass ever installed on a production car. Here’s the real story behind Plymouth’s original pony car, and what it actually takes to wake one back up.
A YouTuber dropped a supercharged Hellcat V8 into his 1968 Dodge Charger chasing 1,500 horsepower, and the swap didn’t go quietly — the torque twisted the chassis off the line and blew the supercharger’s intake apart before the video even wrapped. Here’s the story behind ‘Tater,’ one of the wilder modern Mopar engine swaps making the rounds this year.
Only 2,743 buyers ordered the R/T package on a 1971 Dodge Charger, and just 63 of those left the factory with a 426 Hemi under a mandatory RamCharger hood. Steve Dulcich’s own ‘Golden Boy’ is one of the survivors still doing exactly what Dodge built it to do — getting driven, hard, on the open road.
A Cleveland engine shop is turning genuine 797-horsepower Hellcat Redeye HEMIs into complete, pre-wired units that ship on a pallet and bolt into nearly any Challenger. The clip proves the concept about as literally as possible, firing the motor with nothing else attached. Here’s what’s actually inside the swap, and why Dodge never sold this powertrain as a standalone option.
A factory Hemi Road Runner is rare enough on its own, but this 1970 hardtop belongs to an even smaller club: cars built with Chrysler’s TorqueFlite automatic instead of the four-speed most Hemi buyers demanded. MotoManTV takes it for a drive during a 2015 Classic Car Week special, digging into why Plymouth’s rarest drivetrain pairing almost never got ordered at all.
Plymouth priced the Road Runner to undercut everything else on the showroom floor, then quietly offered a 390-horsepower triple-carburetor 440 for $250 more. Fewer than 2,000 buyers in 1970 said yes. Nick’s Garage just put a numbers-matching survivor back on public road, pistol-grip shifter, vinyl bench seat and all.
Plymouth’s A51 Twister package put the Duster 340’s grille, stripes and even its hood scoops on cars powered by a 145-horsepower slant six, and Dodge did the same thing with the Demon Sizzler. Half a century later, buyers are still confusing them with the genuine article. Here is exactly what separated the look from the muscle.
Plymouth built the 1971 ‘Cuda with a look it never repeated: quad headlights, fender gills, and billboard graphics found on no other year. UFC president Dana White picked exactly this rare-bodied ‘Cuda for a full restomod, swapping in a 425-horsepower 440 and a Curry 9-inch rear end. The result became one of MuscleCar’s most-watched builds ever.
A George Barris-customized 1968 Dodge Dart GTS convertible spent years chasing criminals on TV’s Mannix before disappearing into obscurity and eventually turning up dilapidated in a field. Automotive reporter Dave Kunz tracked it down, confirmed it by its hidden Barris touches, and restored it to its on-screen British Racing Green with the original 340 V8 still under the hood. Jay Leno takes it for a drive to find out why this compact GTS could out-hustle flashier detective-show muscle cars of its era.