Originally Posted by
racingrick
I'm gonna say the 340's ran pretty strong also. I came up driving from 79 up and although not a Mopar expert (but a fan) I personally located 3 friends their challengers (one ended up working for Mopar Musclecar and now works for a dodge dealership.
for about a year one of the fastest cars around here was a kid named hank with an early model 340 duster. definitely a lot in the motor, worked on by one of the early chrysler gods who used to (maybe still lives in Lakeland ) named Morrison.
later, he stepped up to a built 440 and slowed down, always regretted the change. He wasn't even one of the top 20 or 30 street cars after he went big block.
I used to clean up with a 427 tri power vette myself, factory (underrated) at 435hp, really supposedly about 100 hp more.
I also ran untold numbers of old camaros and vettes with small blocks and high compression and nitrous and beat the shit out of them all. For what little mods I did not much nowadays would keep up with them. Plus we ran a lot more compression on the street because of leaded gas. However, stock for stock, tires for tires, and suspension for suspension, not to mention ride quality, the new cars far exceed the older ones.
Same,.. I turned 16 in 83 and you could still buy leaded gas and Sunoco was still selling 100, 105 and 110 octane leaded gas back then. Was nothing to see 396 SS/RS Camaro's, 427 Chevelles, crazy 327 with dual carb Vettes, 428, 351c Mustangs, 440 Road Runners, 455 Skylark or Regal, the 455 Cutlass and the Multitude of 400 and 455 powered GTO's and Tempests. My friends said I was an idiot to pay $7500 for my GT500. After I sold my GTO and came across that car I had to have it. That was in 87. The term collector car and was just starting to kick in around then. But you could still buy nice small and big block powered 60's and early 70's cars for reasonable price. I only paid $2500 for my 67 GTO and I thought that was a lot. In 83 I bought my Chevelle for $700,.. he wanted $1000. You guys can ask Rick,.. back in 83 you could buy a lot of car for between $500 - $1500. $100 beaters in good running condition were common.
Hurst