My 1971 Duster 6.1 Hemi build

I’ve had a 6-cylinder Duster sitting in my garage for several years after selling my matching numbers 1971 Duster 340; GB2/GB7/white stripes bench/blue printed 340 w/pocket ported heads/XE268 727/3.55s. It was a great little Duster that ran 13.60s @ 102Mph and was in the Dodge Dart & Plymouth Duster Musclecar color history book, Johnny Lightning Mopar Muscle 1/64” and also in Mopar Muscle. Eventually I just tired of it and didn’t want to modify it. I sold it several years ago and bought the 6-cylinder DUster with the idea of building a FAST clone that was streetable. I was looking for 11.80s @ 118Mph in a drivable combination. This project stalled with two kids in college (Texas A&M and University of Texas grads) and then other priorities.

This past summer my wife was getting the itch for a new Plum Crazy shaker hood Challenger 6-speed; so we drove a Tor-red one and probably would have bought it if it was the right color. She really wanted something to drive with modern convinces. I told her we could build the Duster for about the same price with a Gen III Hemi or look for a Challenger that would meet her requirements. End of story, build the Duster!

Lucky for me, Uhcoog1 (Wade) and Alex, both into Gen III Hemi conversations were close by. I drove Wade’s car this past July and was hooked on the conversion as well as moving more toward a corner carving, stiff Unibody car.

I’ll start with a little history; my first car, a 1969 GTX in 1974 (As we refer to as “Back in the day”), a 13.50's @ 105Mph car at Connecticut Dragway and it's untimely death!

More pictures of my 1971 Duster 340 from the 2000's and of the 370 Hemi Duster build to come!