72 Duster twister with the 275 horse 340 engine?

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gunmetal72

gunmetal72

Life is a dark ride
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OK, this might cause some controversy. I was speaking with a guy who has at one time or another, owned every mopar muscle car ever made and looking around his yard I believe him He really is a wealth of knowledge and told me some facts that I am sure many are not aware of and may not believe.
Here is some background. I was telling him of my 340 twister I had back in High school. It was a 340 4 speed car with the twister hood, twister decals & 340 decals on the 1/4's. It was an early model 72 with a date code of Oct. 71. When I rebuild the engine in 1978 I noticed the date on the engine said April of 71. I did not think that much about it at the time but when I was restoring the Duster I have now I learned allot of things I did not know back then. I was told the twister did not come with a 340 engine.
After I told the guy about the Duster I had in high school, he said it was very possible I had a 340 twister with the 275 HP engine. He told me that when Chrysler de-tuned the engines in 72 they still had high compression engines in stock they were planning to use in their 72 models. So, because of the US government put an end to our beloved high compression engines, most of these engines were used for warranty on the 71 and earlier models and the lions share were big block motors that were used for warranty engines. Because the 340 engine did not require as many warranty replacements, they had many 275 HP engines not needed for warranty.
This is what I did not know. The lower compression or de-tuned engines was compulsory for 1972 model cars in the US but Canada did not follow the same rules until 73. Many of the high compression engines Chrysler had left over from 71, were sent to Canada. He said he knew that at least 50 of the 275 HP 340 engines were sent to western Canadian dealerships. He also went on to say that the twister package with 340 engine was also only available in Canada in 71 & 72 but they were mostly 72 models. We all know mother Chrysler did some strange things but what he told me I did not know and knowing this, really should not surprise me.
Has anyone else ever heard this?
 
Do you have a picture of your fender tag showing the 340 engine AND the twister code? if not, all you have is hearsay, and there are plenty of BS claims and stories from guys who know all there is to know.
 
Malarkey. Every bit of it.
 
The 71-72 Dart swinger 340 cars are confirmed to have been sold in Canada.

Never heard of any confirmed 340 twister cars

Sounds like the friend has the 71-72 Dart story mixed in with twisters.
 
Near as I can tell, this is the section that gunmetal72 posted that applies to this. I may have gotten some of this wrong, as I can only enlarge the text so much before it begins to blur:

6. North of the border A-Bodies: The E55 340/4bbl engine was combined with the economy-oriented Dart Swinger and Duster Twister (Code A51) to produce rare variations of A-Body musclecars for 1971. They were built in limited quantities for the Canadian market. Please, send info!
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I'm not taking sides either way, I'm just wanting to help people read what the Mopar Muscle magazine had to say about this.
 
High compression engines went in 1972 in export.

I know for sure, that Monteverdi in Switzerland got high comression Bigblocks for their cars still in 1972.

It is also possible that high compression 340s found their way to AMAG - Schinznach in Switzerland.
I own a 1972 Demon 340 produced there and this cars sounds and accelerates nearly like a 1971 340 car. I will verify it and post it here.

Export 340s had different Thermoquad carburetors to US models in 1972 also.
 
I will add my comments for whatever. we all know the 340 was detuned to meet gov't regs. and that Mother Mopar used up leftover parts, from one model year to the next. and that gov't reg for Canada did not necessarily match those for the U S?
i'm not a purist or number cruncher, but it has always been interesting to me, since the mid 80's, to learn some the paticulars of this hobby. I have had originsl cars back decades ago, that we cars not offered by the factory, but we without a doubt as came from the plant. ie 69 roadrunner, black car with blue int. yes documented by all the buildsheet and tags. just an example.
younger folk that weren't there back then, realize this. these were JUST cars, the so called muscle car could have had the original engine blown up with no warrenty, and a quick trip to the boneyard would yield a replacement engine, probably different than what came in it originally. people added stripes, updated parts, whatever.
and mopar was very eager to make the customer happy ( back then). a car could be ordered that wasn't available.. the example of the black road chicken with the bleu int. ( as yes it didn't not look pretty, to me.)
 
barbee6043 said:
ie 69 roadrunner, black car with blue int. yes documented by all the buildsheet and tags. just an example.
and mopar was very eager to make the customer happy ( back then). a car could be ordered that wasn't available.. the example of the black road chicken with the bleu int. ( as yes it didn't not look pretty, to me.)
Click to expand...

Black with a blue int was a readily available color combination for a RR in 1969

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/dealerships/1969PlymouthColorAndTrim-03.shtml
 
crackedback said:
Black with a blue int was a readily available color combination for a RR in 1969

http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/dealerships/1969PlymouthColorAndTrim-03.shtml
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or was it green????? that was back in early 90's. or maybe I was mistaken on combo. I believe combos for body color, interior that were not listed as " available" from the factory could be ordered by a savvy salesman????

I've forget half what I did know, and didn't know it as to begin with.. LOL
 
maybe it was black car with green int???? don't remember

body color/ int combos that were not factory available, were sometimes ordered by a savvy salesman.

I used to study GG books like a preacher would study the bible. i finally out grew GG. I have forget half what I did know, and didn't know it all the begin with!! LOL
 
Back in 1971, I bought a 1969 RR. That was B-5 blue with the Mod interior. I have never seen another one like it.
 
We all know that Chrysler made different models for export to other countries that were not available in the US. I mean no offence or disrespect to our US brothers but just because they did not make it available in the US doesn't mean that it was not available in other countries. I for one am very interested in everyone thoughts and knowledge on this.
I wish I still had my old Duster from high school but back then I was young and did not give it much thought or care for that matter, about keeping records much less a pic of a fender tag from a car I owned to impress the girls and make chevy's look bad on the street
 
gunmetal72 said:
We all know that Chrysler made different models for export to other countries that were not available in the US. I mean no offence or disrespect to our US brothers but just because they did not make it available in the US doesn't mean that it was not available in other countries. I for one am very interested in everyone thoughts and knowledge on this.
I wish I still had my old Duster from high school but back then I was young and did not give it much thought or care for that matter, about keeping records much less a pic of a fender tag from a car I owned to impress the girls and make chevy's look bad on the street
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I understand your thoughts, but without PROOF, its just a fairy tail.......
 
I think so:

It was a 340 4 speed car with the twister hood, twister decals & 340 decals on the 1/4's.

For 1972 models it was possible to have a 340 with Twister-Option.
 
One thing that guy did not tell you is that Chrysler was advertising their 340 as 275 HP but in reality it had 325 HP. Mopar was not the only one doing this, just about all car makers building performance engines was downgrading the HP for insurance purposes. this applied to GM, Ford, all their performance cars were downgraded usually 50HP...and sometimes more.
 
- Marvin - said:
I think so:

It was a 340 4 speed car with the twister hood, twister decals & 340 decals on the 1/4's.

For 1972 models it was possible to have a 340 with Twister-Option.
Click to expand...

Do you have PROOF? I bet you DONT........
 
It was my understanding that the '71 and earlier high compression 340s came from the factory painted orange. The de-tuned '72 and up 340s came painted blue.
I'm 64 and grew up and lived on the Canadian border (Calais, Maine).
We drag raced all the time on late weekend evenings during the summer on a straight stretch about 20 miles out of town. I had a '73 340 Duster with the "blue" motor.
I matched up on many ocassions against a Canadian '72 Demon that belong to a friend of mine. He swore it was stock and I had no reason to doubt him. I could never beat him, but I can distinctly remember the 340 motor in his car being orange in color. Was it the high comopression 340 engine in a '72 Canadian car? Obviously, I have no way to prove it to be, but it was consistantly faster than my '73 car. We even swapped cars on one occassion and I beat my own car with his...LOL Maybe he just had a steeper rear end ratio. But I know for sure it was an orange motor in his car.
 
The engine in my 72 Duster was orange. Not sure if that meant it was a 275 HP or not but I do know there were other 72 engines that were blue. Now, one of the reasons I started this thread was to see if anyone might have run across this when they were younger or when doing a rebuild. According to the magazine article in the 2nd post there were many other strange things that Chrysler did and depending how rare based on the limited quantities made, there must be other members on here that have either owned or seen some of these very unique models
 
gunmetal72 said:
The engine in my 72 Duster was orange. Not sure if that meant it was a 275 HP or not but I do know there were other 72 engines that were blue. Now, one of the reasons I started this thread was to see if anyone might have run across this when they were younger or when doing a rebuild. According to the magazine article in the 2nd post there were many other strange things that Chrysler did and depending how rare based on the limited quantities made, there must be other members on here that have either owned or seen some of these very unique models
Click to expand...

My point is there are also people who remember there brothers uncles cousin had a factory 440 hemi six pack in a 64 cuda.............
 
yup, there are those people and lord knows we have all run across them, but there are also the ones that really do know and those are the people that I would like to reach out to.
 
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