Chad thinks that within a couple of years, that he’ll have me in a “traditional” Mopar. I think that means that he believes that he’ll find a way that I’ll suddenly fall in love with an A-body Dart or Duster and that he can quit using the words “weird Mopars” to describe my automotive background. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I don’t see that happening anytime in the next two to three years…and with respect to A-body Mopars, ever. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t consider another way, it’s just that Road Runners, GTXs, nice Coronets, Ramchargers and just about every other desirable car is way out of my range, and what’s affordable doesn’t do it for me.
What does do it for me are the Aussie Mopars, the ones that were fully done in country. Ever since I saw a 1973 VJ Charger done up as a Hemi-6 car visually, packing a 340 Six Pack under the hood, I’ve been in love with ’em. And of course, because ‘Straya, I’ve looked very hard at the utes. Sorry to every Rampage and Scamp fan out there, but unlike Ford and GM, Chrysler never offered up a coupe utility that was worth a crap. The Omni-based trucklets were, at best, cute. But looking at Andrew Dunnett’s CL (1976-77) Valiant is giving me lots of ideas. Dunnett’s machine is a restomod, packing a 6.1L late-model Mopar mill that shoves the Valiant into the 11.90 range. The new Hemi bolts up to an A904 automatic and the paint…I’m not big on orange but look at this car as it makes pass after pass and tell me that it isn’t working here.
So there…all I need to get away from the weird Mopars is to import one.
You might also be interested in this build, a sedan with the same engine, and a cool back story,
http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?67309453-1979-Valiant-CM-Regal-Survivor-Thread