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Vanilla Vice: 1989 Dodge Diplomat AHB – Clean As A Whistle!


Vanilla Vice: 1989 Dodge Diplomat AHB – Clean As A Whistle!

If you’re in your mid-thirties or older, there is only one automatic response that is appropriate for seeing a refrigerator-white Dodge Diplomat: “Oh, shit, it’s the cops!” That’s pretty much who bought these cars. Old people bought Fifth Avenues, and cops and taxi drivers snapped up Diplomats and Gran Fury sedans like they were going out of style. Well, truth be told, they were: since Lee Iacocca though the M-body platform was outdated and archaic, he refused to do any kind of upgrade. No overdrive automatic, no visual refresh, nothing. You got a 318, a TorqueFlite, and gearing for days that made starts from a dead stop suck but that second-gear windout something to enjoy, especially with the Thermoquad wailing away. If you had luck, you had a 318 choked with a two-barrel carb on your back end…those cars matched the Reliant 2.2 for speed. If you were unlucky? Well, there’s a rumor that’s been around for decades about certain departments in Florida and New York going to town in the engine department, possibly with 360 crate motors from Direct Connection.

What’s the story here? Perfect restoration or meticulous maintenance, we can’t tell which. This is a last-year M-body (note: padded dash and driver’s side airbag) but outside of those two mods, this would be the same car as a 1984 model. Same 155-horse 318, same automatic, same brick-like shape and same beads of sweat on anyone who saw it roll up behind them. It’s cool that all of the equipment is still present on this car. Just don’t forget to get those “NOT IN SERVICE” decals or magnets made up.

You know, now that we think about it, a phantom clone of those rumored 360 cars would be bitchin’…

eBay.com Link: 1989 Dodge Diplomat AHB


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5 thoughts on “Vanilla Vice: 1989 Dodge Diplomat AHB – Clean As A Whistle!

  1. HotRodPop

    Yup! Rocked many, both Dips and Grands, drivin’ Yellow Cab in Houston in the ’80’s. rock solid (if boring), dependable, easy to work on. First car was a ’70 Dart Swinger with a 318. Just got rid of a ’93 Dakota with a 318. Awesome little engine!

  2. B-mil

    Supposedly the K-member failure that plagued these cars was \”fixed\” sometime in 1988. Thats probably why it hasnt ended up in the junkyard or stripped. 85+ po-po packages had quadrajets (the electronic feedback p.o.s.\’s) and 360 heads with .020\” raised compression height hypereutectic pistons on the 318 mill. What boggled me was the 2-barrel units were roller cams, the 4 barrels clear up to 89 were still flat tappet. The roller lifter \”spider\” bosses were in the block, but they weren\’t drilled or tapped on my 87 unit I swapped into my early dart years go. The intake pad was also about 3/4\” higher than a regular OE 4 barrel intake. It was an oddball for sure. Hands down one of the most reliable engines Ive owned. I beat that thing like it owed me money damn near every time I turned the key. Ended up selling it to a friend to go the 408 route in my dart after finding a crack in the block, and he has been running the trusty 318 in demo derbys for the last 5 years. It still rips! The damn thing is simply too pissed off to die.

  3. B-mil

    Supposedly the K-member failure that plagued these cars was “fixed” sometime in 1988. Thats probably why it hasnt ended up in the junkyard or stripped. 85+ po-po packages had quadrajets (the electronic feedback p.o.s.’s) and 360 heads with .020″ raised compression height hypereutectic pistons on the 318 mill. What boggled me was the 2-barrel units were roller cams, the 4 barrels clear up to 89 were still flat tappet. The roller lifter “spider” bosses were in the block, but they weren’t drilled or tapped on my 87 unit I swapped into my early dart years go. The intake pad was also about 3/4″ higher than a regular OE 4 barrel intake. It was an oddball for sure. Hands down one of the most reliable engines Ive owned. I beat that thing like it owed me money damn near every time I turned the key. Ended up selling it to a friend to go the 408 route in my dart after finding a crack in the block, and he has been running the trusty 318 in demo derbys for the last 5 years. It still rips! The damn thing is simply too pissed off to die.

  4. Scott Liggett

    I drove one the one year I was a Yellow Cab driver in Sacramento. We sourced them the CHP auctions. Some were much faster than others. Never bothered to figure out why, it was a cab. I wasn’t out drag racing them.

  5. CW

    My town council scrapped up enough money in 89 to purchase intakes and 4bbl carbs for ours. The PD complained about what junk they were. The intake and 4bbl didn’t help. The cars were with a two year lease with 1/2 the fleet replaced every year. So in 1990 they switched to the Caprice. It was a better car.

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