The 340 is the biggest POS V8 Chrysler ever made.

I like the old school guys that were there and appreciate their posts. When I bought my 70 Swinger 340, I did a little research. there were about 13,000 340 Swingers built in 1970, and you can further sub divide by transmission, color, options etc. It is pretty clear that not everyone was buying the Dart equipped for performance. I have heard and agree that the 340 Dart was "fast out of the box" and that came form an older co worker who was a young man at the time. I would compare the Swinger 340 of the late 60's / early 70's to the Neon SRT that was around about 10-12 years ago, it was an economy car with a performance package. I don't argue that modern technology doesn't produce more power with less, I agree. But I also don't think its fair to compare old with new in terms of what the 340 A body was, a low priced performance package in an economy car. One would have to compare with a modern variant, like the Neon SRT, or whatever is comparable now. Does anyone know the quarter times of the factory stock SRT Neon? ( I would look it up. but dont really care, how many do you still see on the street 12 tears later?) or what the latest economy car performance package for that matter? I don't think that muscle cars "ruled the world", they were around at a time when the government didn't regulate emissions, fuel economy and all the other requirements that killed the original muscle cars off. Look at how long it took performance to come back. It wasn't untill the Fuel Injected 5.0 Mustang in the mid 80's that they actually started figuring out how to make "clean" horsepower. Fast forward to now, there are emissions compliant V-8's making horsepower, but its so expensive that not everyone is buying it. So comparing the old 340 to the new high tech expensive engines is like comparing Blueberries to grapes, yeah they are the same color, but that's about it. :)