Ever been "Dusted?"

By the late sixties, the government safety Nazis and insurance companies were cracking down on high-performance vehichles. For drivers under 25, sometimes insurance premiums were more than the payments on the car! This obviously hurt musclecar sales, because it was primarily young males that wanted them. Mid-size cars with engines over 360 cubic inches were hit particularly hard. Well , that was just about every Musclecar built. In 1970 Chrysler came up with a brilliant "Insurance Beater".  They took the Valiant economy car, gave it a great-looking semi-fastback body and stuffed the hot 340 V8 in it. They re-named it the "Duster" and gave it a flat-black hood with a big "340" graphic on it. They also gave it a cool "Twister" stripe down the side- at the end of the stripe stood a little tornado with eyes-"A Duster." It was available in wild colors-Sub-lime, Plum Crazy, Panther Pink, Hemi Orange, etc. Since they only weighed about 2,900 lbs, they were fast. With a 4-speed or a Torqueflite, a 340 Duster could rip off low 14 second 1/4 mile times right off the showroom floor. With very litte tuning-i.e.-headers and stickier tires and traction bars or a pinion snubber-they could run low 13s and give big-block musclecar owners a lesson in power to weight ratio they'd not soon forget. Priced less than a Road Runner, and just as fast, they were an immediate sales hit. Although Dodge had 340 powered Darts since 1968, they never had the sales success of the Duster. For 1971 Dodge took their version of the Dart/Duster plaftorm and went even further. Besides swapping in the 340 V8, they put twin hood scoops on it, and a 'Cuda style "Go-Wing" spoiler on the decklid. They also put stripes on the hood and sides and a decal of a Devil holding a Pitchfork. Inside, it had a three-spoke "Tuff" steering wheel and Husrt shifter for 4-speed models, or a "Slap-Stick" console for automatics. They named it the "Demon." Get it-"Speed Demon?" When I was a kid, I thought the Demon was the coolest car around.  In 1972, Mr Norm of Grand Spaulding Dodge put a Paxton Supercharger on a Demon and called it the Demon GSS. These are quite rare today. Even in the '70's the ever-tightening emissions controls and political correctness was creeping in. The Demon name was dropped in 1973 and the "Dart Sport" moniker used again. Plymouth still had 340 Dusters, but the graphics were toned down.  In 1974 the 340 was dropped, and replaced with a 360 truck motor that although it may have had a similar horsepower rating- ( 245 hp ) it didn't have the performance that the high-winding 340 did.  By 1976  a 318 with a 2bbl was the largest engine available. By 1977 they were replaced with the ( Yuk! ) Plymouth Volare / Dodge Aspen platform. For a few years, the Duster and the Demon were great performance cars. Now they are starting to gain in popularity again, probably because people are finding the B and E bodies too expensive.  Even if you get a 318 version, they can be hopped up easily, or a fire-breathing Mopar Performance 390 hp 360 crate motor is a bolt-in swap. And Mopar Performance offers crossmembers to allow installation of the B / RB big-block engines.  If you want big performance for low bucks, just like when they were new, Dusters offer a lot of "Bang for the Buck".  Mastermind