The heyday of muscle cars was already ending when the insurance companies caught up with the auto industry’s propensity to negotiate down excessive premiums. The Plymouth Duster is the clearest illustration of this tendency, which was Detroit’s response, by putting out smaller, lighter vehicles with stingier punches.
The Valiant-based Duster was designed to boost the low-cost Plymouth’s image while maintaining a competitive pricing. It was introduced in 1970, and after a successful and enthusiastic start with an average of more than 200,000 units per year in the first five model years, it was discontinued in the middle of the year in 1976.
The Plymouth Duster was a tremendous bang-for-your-buck value muscle car. It was more affordable than the Road Runner by a few hundred dollars and offered decent performance with a 275-horsepower 340 V8 for the first years. When emissions restrictions stuck their tails in the carmaking business, the punchy 340 was terminated in 1973.
To further hammer the nails in the Duster’s coffin, Chrysler suddenly added some hundred to the vehicle’s price tag starting in 1975, and the result of this stroke of genius marketing was immediate. The car’s sales dropped from the all-time best of 281,000 in 1974 to a little over 120,000 in the following year.
Curiously, in 1974, the 340 eight-cylinder engine was not offered – and it had been the best part about a Duster for the first four years. The little 340 cubic-inch V8 (5.6 liters) came with a four-barrel carburetor and produced 275 hp and 340 lb-ft until 1972. Restrictions detuned the car to 240 hp and 290 lb-ft in ’72 and further smothered output the following year to 235 hp. Strangely, torque went up to 295 lb-ft.
The ‘two-door Valiant’ bid farewell to its ‘340’ badge in late 1973, effectively ending the Duster 340 nameplate, which had been the hot model in the previous years. Plymouth proudly sported the engine displacement on the cars, with big decals showing off its superiority over blue-collared, regular, everyday, average Dusters.
Here is a Duster that can attest to the fact that they are currently among the most reasonably priced vintage muscle vehicles from the 1970s. This Mopar is purportedly fully original and has less than 42,000 miles on the odometer, but what’s really intriguing and thrilling about it is the price. This magnificent home in Wichita, Kansas, is listed on Craigslist for $35,900. This time capsule of a Mopar, which was assembled in December 1972, proudly displays its original sheet metal without rust. Not many Dusters can make that claim since Mopar guys were aware of how environmentally conscious the Valiant spin-off was. The cars would give in to the elements with such frenzy that they earned the nickname ‘Ruster’ in climates where corrosion would bite off chunks of it over a single winter.
Has a good argument for why the pricing is more than fair: why spend $80k on a restoration when you can have this Mopar that is ready to go for less than half that amount? Between 1968 and 1973, the 340 CID V8 drove almost 217,000 Chrysler Corp vehicles. Strangely, the sales year it spent on the market was also its final year. 15,731 Duster 340s, along with 11,000 more of Dodge’s Dart Sport (formerly known as the Demon 340), rolled off the assembly lines.
The hero of our story was finished in December 1972 and has several unusual options installed – like the air conditioning, power steering, and the console shifter for its three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The astute observer will probably have a say about the difference in color between the rear and front clips. It could be something as simple as the primer – Chrysler might have used two distinct shades, one on the front fenders and doors and another for the back end.
As for where the bumper guards are – since the ‘73s had the bumpers with rubber shock absorbers on them – that’s a question for the seller. Chrysler found a workaround for the then-new government bumper requirement by installing big bumper guards. The bumper crash tests were conducted in a relatively straightforward manner – literally hitting a flat barrier head-on.
The 340 V8 engine had already been detuned a year prior, with the compression ratio dropping from 10.2:1 to 8.5:1, even though 1973 was the model’s penultimate year. Intake valves were also reduced in size from 2.02 inches (51 mm) to 1.88 inches (48 mm). In the end, there was only one option available to consumers looking to save money: either the 318-CID (5.2-liter) V8 or one of the two Slant Sixes (198 cu in or 225 cu in). The famous 340 was superseded by the 360 V8 in 1973 for those seeking a little bit more pleasure. Instead of keeping a neutered 340 alive for its own purpose, Chrysler made the call to write off its tenacious engine.