.

the car junkie daily magazine.

.

Rough Start: A Dodge Diplomat That Isn’t Taking Anything Seriously – Anybody Got A Roots Blower Available?


Rough Start: A Dodge Diplomat That Isn’t Taking Anything Seriously – Anybody Got A Roots Blower Available?

Build it to be a Pro Touring car. Build a drag car. Clean it up to near-new. Save it. Restore it. All the advice you get when you start car-hunting can be daunting, especially if you are the type prone to accepting adjusting their plans based on slight hints here and there. The only advice you truly need, really need when it comes to the second car, the project car, the fun car is: don’t take it seriously. A serious car is the perfect boring daily grinder that gets good fuel economy and is as exciting as watching butter melt in the afternoon sun. If you’re shopping around for something to screw with and hot rod a little, why wouldn’t you go for something that has a bit of comedy, a bit of flair to it?

It should be no shock that I would find a Dodge Diplomat with dual quads on a 360 on Craigslist at random. One of the early boat-tail coupes, the somewhat formal M-body Dodge has a kind-of Brougham, kind-of ratty muscle car thing going that ordinarily might put some people off as a posermobile. But we see hope…and a small Roots-style blower in this car’s future. Discounting the hole in the hood, the Diplomat is at least a decent twenty-footer…there’s only one picture of the outside of the car available. But with it’s comfy whorehouse red interior, what appear to be fairly new slot mags, and the dual 450s sticking up through the hood, we can’t think of a better car that deserves to be made legit. Throw that blower on the 360, make sure you aren’t going to scatter the rear axle at the first whack of the throttle, and go drive the hell out of this Dodge. Take it from someone who knows…these things do NOT appreciate in value otherwise. Use three grand to buy the car, a grand for a proper 8.25 axle and good gears, and start saving up for that blower…

Craigslist Link: 1978 Dodge Diplomat


  • Share This
  • Pinterest
  • 0

3 thoughts on “Rough Start: A Dodge Diplomat That Isn’t Taking Anything Seriously – Anybody Got A Roots Blower Available?

  1. Chevy Hatin' Mad Geordie

    Crush it!

    As with all car manufacturers of this period, Dodge tried to sell down-sized piles of crap in response to the energy crisis. But thankfully they rode the nostalgia wave and gave us the Hellcat!

  2. Matt Cramer

    Never noticed the Diplomats from this era had a bit of the coke-bottle styling from the late ’60s Coronets in them. Interesting find.

Comments are closed.