With a 360 cubic-inch small block, factory fender flares and a custom set of window louvers, the 1978 Dodge Aspen Street Kit Car not only looked the business, but was one of the best performers of its day. On this episode of THoM we take a ride in a very rare and low mileage MOPAR that’s been brought back to life to once again roam the streets and show people what design was like back in the late 1970s.
** QUICK NOTE: There were actually 145 Street Kit Cars Produced – not 1,045, thus making it an even RARER vehicle than we originally thought! **
Watch more new videos about Car | Synthesized by Mindovermetal English
And there was a Volare Kit Car as well – they were 2-tone blue. I only ever saw ONE of those on the road, & I'm from the Motor City. These were insanely rare cars. I owned a Super Coupe Aspen for a couple of years – same drivetrain as this. After playing with the lean burn system for about a year, I installed a single point distributor which made it feel like I had tapped into 100 more HP. With the ignition working right, this car had good power & definitely had a great muscle car feel. The E-58 360 was no slouch, AND these cars handled like they were on rails – VERY sporty & comfortable cars to drive!
I’ve always liked the F body cars. But they sure had a lot of problems: tsbs, recalls, etc.
Still see a lot of earlier Duster/Dart Sport in the body lines.
had a 1979 dodge aspen rt . bought it used in 1987 for 3000 dollars it was black with the gold stripes. was rare even back then got many compliments and people wanting to know what it was. had the 318 auto and was not fast but kinda did look the part in the late 70s
Made in petty blue called the Richard petty special
Just discovered this channel please do a video on the valiant charger from here down under it was only a hemi slant 6 265 but was a real competitor back in its day
I like the blue One
I had a 1977
Its cool hearing how people drove aspens back in high school,and im getting mine fixed up for my sophomore year
I had the blue one but previous owner didnt have the 43 on the doors, bought it like new in 1982, had like 30,000 miles on it. $5000
Had lots of (cheap, used) 1970s MoPars! If the (shoddy, but AVERAGE, for ALL) workmanship had improved, '70s Chrysler cars (at ANY price level) WERE TONS BETTER THAN FORD OR G.M.!
MoPars (pre-Iococca era) were ROCKETS! The AWFUL workmanship is what killed them! The drivetrains were BEST, but the poor workmanship on the rest of the car ruined ONE TRULY GREAT VEHICLE!
i want one!
I remember seeing one of these at the Chrysler dealership in Topeka Ks. Then low and behold my uncle got one – the blue and silver version. All of us kids loved it and it was really fast to us. Great memories.
Radio delete is the coolest feature.
I would pull that motor cam it up and build the inners up and least get 350 hp out of it and put a shift kit in the tranny and good sounding exhaust. It will still look stock but it would run.
727 bulletfroof? Ha ha
The graphics would come in the trunk. Is was up to the owner to put on or not.
This was featured in Car and Driver Magazine. I was in vocational school at the time. My teacher was a MOPAR guy. Showed him the article and we drooled together
just add a Supercharger On 'HER'…& you'll Get the 0-60mph…down to 5 seconds!! Love IT THOUGH!!
my dad bought a '80. my lead guitarist had the '78. We thought that we were cool. great memories, cheap beer, loud amplifiers, and slow cars, what else do you need, ? Fast Women!
I absolutely love these and the Super Coupes.
Petty is Plymouth not Dodge
nice, an old man from my neighborhood gave me a volare plymouth because his sons didn't like it, can you believe it, I want to restore that beauty.
Dodge Aspen Super Coupe 78-79 . Only 2 years just like the Magnum.
I always wanted one of these too. They had a lot of potential – a little tuning on that 360 and a better exhaust system and it would really wake up, even with the lean burn system.
I have a 1979 Dodge Aspen R/T with the same red interior it has the tuff wheel and has the police 360 not as rare as the Street Kit Car but still cool
.
You should do a review on the 78-79 Lil Red Express Truck!!
Friend of mine had one of those
At least if you have one you won’t see five hundred of yourself on the road when you want to cruise.
The first widebody Mopar!
They were waiting for a 426 hemi or a 440 magnum.
I remember seeing these in the Direct Connection catalog.
79 R/T ASPEN had the same drivetrain and T TOP.with out the fender extenders.it also had the wing minus extender and bucket seat interior and side window luvers.
I got a dodge aspen, looks like this one, sitting in the junk, only its got a 318 in it
Rare doesn't mean valuable! It's still just an aspen!!! I had an 78' dodge aspen RT 360-4bbl automatic! It had just 175hp with single exhaust and only 2:45•1 rear and it's only good for 0-60 in 9.1 seconds and quarter mile in 17.1@ 80mph…. you can call it anything you like, it is what it is! It was a nice car I bought new at 18 years old, but I got blown away by just about everything in that era of the later 70's…
Chrysler was scheduled to build 1000 Plymouth A-43 street kit cars and 1000 A-43 Dodges. But Richard Petty left Chrysler mid season for GM so Chrysler halted production. As a result only 247 Plymouth's were built and only 145 Dodge's were built. Very cool cars for the day!
Well…it was in the video description 😀
I didn't even know about these cars. Pretty cool in context, especially when so many cars of this era were more advertising the EPA fuel economy rather than how quickly the cars would even go.