Elsewhere today, you will find that Brian has put up his engine tribute for 3/30, which features units from Oldsmobile, DeSoto and the Ford 5.4L unit of late. Good selections, for sure, but 3/30 makes me want to highlight something different: the Dodge 330. Not exactly a model name that’s well known, especially when you start asking younger folk, but if they’ve been around a track long enough they’ve seen what a 330 can do. What’s impressive is that this is genesis for the B-body platform that Chrysler ran through the end of 1979. So this 330, a 1967 Charger, 1970 Superbird, 1971 Road Runner, 1975 Fury Sport and 1978 Magnum XE are all tied to this exact setup, with only slight wheelbase differences to mark any real difference.
The 330 was a trim level of the intermediate cars and didn’t mean much more than whether or not you got a cigarette lighter and some extra fluff inside of the car, but that’s not what BangShift remembers about these cars. No, what you need to know is Max Wedge: the 426 cubic inch Wedge motor crammed into a lighter-weight plain as day 330. Wearing lightened body panels and showing up much smaller and lighter than the other contenders who used full-size machines to house their big hitter engines, the Max Wedges effectively made everybody angry. The little old lady’s Dodge and it’s Plymouth twin would proceed to smack the competition around wholesale with these cars.
My brother’s first car was a brand new 1964 Dodge 330 Max Wedge sedan. He wanted the aluminum front end, but they wouldn’t do the aluminum front end with the 11:1 engine, and dad didn’t want him having the high compression engine on a car that’d see occasional street use. Still. 52 class wins in two seasons!
Had a 63 4 door in high school. Push button tranny and the leaning tower of power slant 6. Primer red with some classy chrome rims. I paid $500 for it and drove it for years before selling it to a buddy. Car never once failed me and drove pretty damn good down the road for a beater.
Used to pull into a gas station, fill it full of oil and check the gas. Had a huge back seat and trunk. Growing up in a rural farm community we spent plenty of weekends country cruising. Would pile people in that thing, put a couple coolers in the trunk, crank up a battery powered boom box, and off we went. No haters I’m not condoning drinking and driving as things were a little different back then.
By far the most fun (and pretty reliable) vehicle I’ve ever owned. It still gets brought up at reunions. Not sure where it ended up but if that thing could talk, the stories it would have…..
Great hearing the voice of Ron Leek on the mic!!!
It’s just an incredible sight. I bite my elbows because I did not see and hear all this live.
I wonder if this is the car formerly raced by Al Desalvo, “Spartacus”?
Sweet AND salty. I love Super Stock.
Nothing beats big Mopars. I could watch this all day, these cars have the looks and the soul that made our sport.
For the love of God (and real race cars/street cars) someone please bring back the 60’s………..