Yes, wild and hairy cars were built between 1964 and roughly 1972. Wild colors, nuclear option engine choices, exhaust notes that could make the dead perk up and take notice…they existed. You can argue who was faster or whatever until the cows come home, but there is no denying that Chrysler had a lock on the wild and psychotic looks for the last few years of the era. You know what we’re talking about: the eye-searing colors, the cartoon characters, the inability to hide in traffic vibes. If you don’t understand what we’re talking about, just imagine a 1971 Plymouth GTX painted Sassy Grass Green driving through your town’s normal traffic and imagine how blatantly it would stand out. Got it?
Now, those machines exist, but they were not the everyday items. Cars like this 1970 Dodge Cornet sedan were. If you look only at the nose or only at the tail, you can see Dodge Super Bee. But then you see four doors and a majority of people immediately stop, feel nauseous, and walk away. Myself, I’d immediately want to build a phantom four-door Super Bee, attitude, big-block and all. But for Dylan McCool, this Slant Six-powered, three-on-the-tree B-body is inspiring a different vision. But until that car gets a fuel tank that doesn’t tear apart like you were ripping apart notebook paper, it ain’t doing squat. Click on the video below to see this old sedan get back on its feet.
Oh yea! A good friend in The Army when I was stationed at Ft. Carson, CO. Owned a similar hardtop sedan, that had been a Colorado State Police Patrol Car. That was fairly basic with vinyl floors and bench seats, except the front seat had more to it with thicker foam and arm rest. Plus it had power disk brakes and power steering with Police suspension package, plus a honking 440/4 brl dual exhaust, with HD 727, feeding a 3:09 posi. That had a certificate speedometer that went up to 140, plus oil pressure, temp and charging gauges. He bought it at an auction with only 64,000 miles in mint condition in white with tan/ gold interior with AM radio. Together we sort of tweaked the most out of it with long tube headers, feeding big custom made mandrel bent pipes and new high rise intake with 750 Holley 4 brl. Plus cranked up the front torsion bars, then add a leaf in the rear, that leveled the car about an inch higher, plus huge heavy duty shocks. That helped the car in snow, especially with the rear posi. We took many road trips all over the West, on every long weekend we had. Just him and I and if we were lucky a couple local girls. If not a couple more guys to help with the gas. Year round he an Uniroyal Tiger Paw radial tires, the biggest we could find, with an extra set of Uniroyal Snow Country studded radial tires for the winter, alway having a set of tire chains, we used a handful of times in deep snow, and on dirt trails. He always insisted on Uniroyal Tiger Paws, because of how the car look so much like the car in their commercials. That car was indestructible! Last I heard he sold it to one of the road trippers after he was discharged.