Often times our Craigslist finds are horrendous cars that we gut with clever and witty criticisms. The follow up to that is receiving death threats from the seller, such as Dave Nutting did regarding his last CL find. Believe it or not, we’re going the other way with this 1970 Plymouth Duster that is a largely original survivor car for sale in Connecticut. We have to thank Mopar lovin’ BangShifter Lawrence Smith for the tip on this car. The seller claims that it is a factory H-code machine meaning that it left the plant with a single 4-bbl 340 in it which was (under) rated at 275hp. While that certainly isn’t as cool as a 340 six-pack engine, this was still a fun car right out of the box in 1970. Unlike lots of these cars, this Duster was never hot rodded, hacked up, or changed from virtually stock, or so it appears.
The car has a Sure-Grip rear end with 3.23 gears (again, according to the seller) and optional automatic transmission (it would have been a three speed unless the other optional transmission, a four speed stick was specified). The Duster 340 was obviously aimed at younger buyers and it hit its target due to several factors. One of them was the fact that Chrysler threw a lot of promotion behind it. Other manufacturers put their market UMPH behind larger, more expensive cars. This was a budget hot rod with a small block, disc brakes, sway bars, torsion bars with a higher rate than lower end models, etc. The interior had a cool gauge cluster, a meaty Chrysler Tuff-wheel steering wheel and all of the attitude a young guy who wanted to burn rubber for a few shekels could want.
24,817 examples of the Duster 340 were sold in 1970 with a factory MSRP of $2,547. Consider that, $2,500 bucks! The listed curb weight was 3,110lbs. As with all Chrysler models at this period in time there were a myriad of wild paint colors available. This one appears to be sprayed Lime Light Green. Lots of people may say “Sassy Grass Green” but we think that “Sassy Grass” was a darker hue than the near retina melting tone of this car. The hood and trunk lid are apparently swapped from other cars and one of the photos from the rear seems to show primer or sealer or something sprayed on the car but other angles don’t indicate that. We’re not sure if that is from weird lighting or what.
The asking price is $8,900 and we think that is pretty good stuff for a survivor car that looks super clean and devoid of massive rust or other huge issues. Maybe we’re way off but the odometer sure seems like it says that the car has 37,000 miles and some change. Maybe it could have rolled over once but if this car was bought and lived in Connecticut for the majority of its life, it would have rotted into pieced by the time it went that far from road salt and Agent Orange and whatever else they were spraying around willy nilly in those days. All we know is that if we had $8,900 we’d be on this thing like a new suit.
Scroll down to see our photos and then hit the CL ad link!
CL AD: THIS 1970 PLYMOUTH DUSTER IS A CLEAN SURVIVOR PRICED TO SELL
* it said @ the end of the ad that the hood & deck lid were off a newer Duster…..?
trunk lid is in primer, none of the shots really show that. The primer is almost covering the Duster graphic. It still looks like a sharp car for a CT car.
wonder how much bondo are in those 1/4s….
Hot little pocket rockets, those were, more than capable of punching above their weight in the stoplight wars! I particularly liked the 71s with the different grill treatment. Demons were very cool as well.
That’s a good looking east coast car with lots of potential, I’m sure it won’t last long with that asking price.
Bring a magnet . . .
340 was one of the better “Junior Supercars,” as the legendary Roger Huntington called ’em back in the day. They were surprisingly fleet when Car and Driver pitted one against an LS6 Malbu, an original 289 Shelby Cobra, and a Boss 302 in 1970. And they helped avoid the insurance surcharge problem that helped kill off the original muscle cars (doesn’t make any difference now, though).
Column shifter is kind of a disappointment.