The Omni/Horizon did its job, which was to provide a semi-homegrown econobox to help replace the captive-import Mitsubishis and keep the revenue flowing until Chrysler could start moving K cars into the showrooms and pay back that big government bailout loan. In fact, this platform continued in production until 1990.

You'd better approve! V8-powered Chrysler A bodies are fine, but a hot-rodded Slant Six car just seems cooler. I spotted this car in my neighborhood, just across the street from the '66 Ford Ranchero and down the block from the '83 Sentra wagon.
The owner happened to be with the car, so I was able to get its story. This thing is pretty much original, except for the upgrade from 3-on-the-tree to 4-on-the floor and the Offenhauser dual-carb setup. And it's for sale! If you want to work out a deal with the owner (I have no idea how much he wants for it), email him and start makin' some deals!

Somehow, this big Chrysler made it through a pair of Energy Crises, the Malaise Era, and the Rise Of The SUV- 41 years of survival before being brought down by the Financiapocalypse. Or maybe it had been sitting in a back yard since 1974 prior to being hauled off to The Crusher's waiting room. Either way, plenty of good parts left on this wagon, so let's hope they get pulled prior to being melted down to make brand-new Cherys.

The first Chrysler Flathead Six, a 68-horsepower engine displacing 201 cubic inches, appeared in 1924, and it was still being installed in Dodge Power Wagons and military M37 trucks as late as 1968 (the last of the Flathead Six-powered Chrysler cars rolled off the assembly line in 1959). After that, Chrysler kept making the engine for industrial and farm use well into the 1970s. 50 years, or just close to it? We'll need input from you serious vintage Mopar experts to know for sure!
[Wikipedia, Allpar]

My parents abandoned Minnesota for Northern California when I was six, so my memories of mosquito swarms, May snowstorms, and rusty quarterpanels aren't particularly vivid. I'd assumed that I'd be seeing nothing but late-model Buicks in my Wisconsonian travels. Not so!
What a find! A beater '51 Plymouth sedan with an IHC Milwaukee Foundry sticker on the bumper!
This fine machine was providing some vintage ambiance to Milty-Wilty's Diner, located on State Highway 21 in Wautoma. With a name like Milty-Wilty's and an old Plymouth setting on four flats, we had no choice but to stop.
Good move, too, because David Lynch appears to have designed Milty-Wilty's decor; check out this plywood sign, beckoning kids to the "play area" in back! My first impression was that I was suffering from Grain Belt Beer and cheese curd-induced hallucinations, but it was all gloriously real.
Later on, at an art gallery near Sturgeon Bay, I caught sight of this '50 Chevrolet in the bushes. The Eau Claire dealership emblem just beckons to be photographed.
At this point, the old Chevy serves mostly as a yellowjacket breeding facility. I spoke to the property's owner, and he said that they'd discovered the Chevy hidden in the weeds. They cleared enough of the undergrowth that visiting artists could see the car and be inspired by its lines. I'm pretty sure that a LeMons team with a hundred bucks could make this car their own!

That means that his tow vehicle, the blue '67 Belvedere II that has been to so many Oakland tailgate parties, is now back on the Alameda street… and thus it qualifies for Down On The Street! This car has a healthy 360 crate motor and serves as Adrian's daily driver (when he's not out in the Belvedere wagon, the Sawzall Convertible Belvedere, or the big-block Belvedere convertible).

Adrian picked up the homemade '58 Dodge pickup bed-based trailer for 75 bucks, after spotting it on a some guy's lawn in lovely planet-buster-nuke-designin' Livermore. I'm sure his new neighbors (in one of Alameda's more upscale tree-lined neighborhoods) love it as much as I do!

NASCAR Maximum Warlord Bill France saw that the new American compact cars- the Ford Falcon, Chevy Corvair, and Plymouth Valiant- were getting a lot of attention in the marketplace, so he created the Compact Series, which ran during 1960 and 1961. Some big names participated, including Curtis Turner, Richard Petty, and Fireball Roberts, and a few Volvos even got into the act. The Valiants utterly dominated, thanks to the Hyper-Pak Slant Six engine, but the Corvair managed to earn an all-important NASCAR racing pedigree, 49 years before UDMan's 24 Hours Of LeMons Corvair really put the rear-engined Chevy on the racing-history map. Thanks to UDMan (who else?) for the tip!
[Persh.org]

No problem- we'll return to the Thunderbolt another time. Today, we honor the functional scoop that was available as an option on 1969 and 1970 Plymouth Road Runners, a scoop so fearsome that it actually had teeth. Could Citroën's engineers and designers, with all their innovative genius, ever have come up with the Air Grabber? Hell no! Apparently designed by a crew of 9-year-old boys armed with limitless high-sugar-content snacks and a portfolio of every Rat Fink drawing Ed Roth ever made, the Air Grabber was ridiculously awesome (and awesomely ridiculous) and should have been standard equipment on every motor vehicle Chrysler produced between 1969 and today, including the Frank Sinatra Edition Imperial and all those rental Cirruses and Sebrings. And, hey, you can buy repro Air Grabber decals for $15.95 from Year One- just the thing for your PT Cruiser! Thanks to Tonyola for recommending this scoop last week.
Image source: vw-busman

I'm not including the Dodge- and Plymouth-branded Mitsubishis here; you'll need to check out the 450 DOTS: The Japanese post for the Colts and Arrows.

1947 Plymouth	1950 Dodge	1950 Plymouth	1951 Dodge
1951 Dodge	1952 Dodge	1952 Dodge	1955 Plymouth
1956 Imperial	1957 Chrysler	1961 Plymouth	1961 Plymouth
1962 Dodge	1962 Chrysler	1962 Chrysler	1964 Imperial
1964 Dodge	1964 Dodge	1964 Chrysler	1965 Plymouth
1965 Plymouth	1965 Plymouth	1965 Dodge	1966 Dodge
1966 Dodge	1966 Dodge	1967 Plymouth	1967 Imperial
1968 Plymouth	1969 Dodge	1969 Dodge	1969 Dodge
1970 Chrysler	1970 Dodge	1970 Dodge	1970 Dodge
1971 Chrysler	1971 Plymouth	1971 Imperial	1971 Chrysler
1971 Plymouth	1971 Plymouth	1972 Plymouth	1973 Plymouth
1973 Dodge	1974 Plymouth	1975 Dodge	1977 Plymouth
1978 Chrysler	1978 Dodge	1978 Dodge	1984 Plymouth
1986 Dodge	1986 Dodge	1990 Chrysler

When you're done here, check out the rest of the 450 DOTS Celebration:

You might notice that there's no Vanishing Point Challenger, no Two Lane Blacktop '55 Chevy or GTO, no Road Warrior Falcon, no French Connection Pontiac LeMans, and so on; you can go anywhere to find those admittedly deserving machines in a Top Movie Cars list… but you're in for something a little different when your Rambler clanks into my drive-in!

Fee Waybill's 1968 Plymouth Sport Satellite
Ladies And Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, 1981. Just look at this evil '68 Satellite, driven by the character played by Tubes mastermind Fee Waybill in the nearly-forgotten punk classic starring Diane Lane.
Stacey Keach's 1972 AMC Matador
Up In Smoke, 1978. Some folks might try to tell you that Cheech's '64 Impala is the automotive star of this all-time Malaise Era classic, but those same guys will sell you a bag of "Acapulco Gold" that turns out to be oregano. Sergeant Stedenko's unmarked Kenosha sedan, take a bow!
Isaac Hayes' Cadillac Fleetwood
Escape From New York, 1981. An apocalyptic Caddy with chandeliers on the fenders, in jail, being driven across a mine-studded bridge by Isaac Hayes? Why the hell didn't Cadillac issue a chandelier-equipped Escape From New York Edition Cadillac?
Barbara Stanwyck's 1937 LaSalle
Double Indemnity, 1944. It's taking all my willpower to avoid stacking this list with nothing but film noir cars- for example, the cop '49 Ford stalking Sterling Hayden in the opening sequence of Asphalt Jungle- but there's no way we can neglect this LaSalle, which features in the greatest post-murder-victim-body-dump 'car won't start' sequence in cinema history.
Robert Mitchum's 1950 Ford
Thunder Road, 1958. That ol' dope-smoking Bob Mitchum won't let the '57 Chevy-drivin' revenoors catch his triple-carbed Ford, no way! You'll get some nice closeup shots of the triple-carbed overhead-valve Ford V8 in this excellent car movie.
All 250 Vehicles In The Final Sequence Of Used Cars
Used Cars, 1980. The greatest Malaise Era movie of all time! You'll see everything from an early Bronco to a Fiat 128 burning rubber in the final ten minutes of this Kurt Russell classic.
Mel Gibson's 1994 Chevrolet Caprice
Conspiracy Theory, 1997. A movie in which Crazy Mel delivers the line "It's time someone lifted the festering scab that is the Vatican" is already starting off on the right foot, but his awesomely evil Caprice cab sets a new standard for scary movie taxis.
Harvey Keitel's 1972 Imperial LeBaron
Mean Streets, 1973. What do low-level mob associates drive in Early Malaise New York City? Exactly. Spoiler: this car doesn't get a happy ending.
Reese Witherspoon's 1967 Dodge Coronet Wagon
Freeway, 1996. This movie features cynicism galore, a nightmarish Danny Elfman soundtrack, Brooke Shields sticking a gun in her mouth and pulling the trigger… and this beautifully wretched Coronet wagon, the crapping out of which starts Witherspoon's character on her Red Riding Hood-esque adventures. Murilee says check it out!
Bette Davis' 1947 Lincoln
What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, 1962. Yeah, so I like my movies dark and cynical- you got a problem with that? Davis' character, Baby Jane Hudson, uses this reminder-of-past-glory luxury machine to haul her crippled sister to her death on the Santa Monica beach.
Ronald Reagan's 1959 Ford
The Killers, 1964. Man, imagine having an actor become governor of California! Watching The Great Communicator- in this case, playing a criminal mastermind plotting a mail-truck heist- hoon this gigantic boxy Ford down a dirt road while wearing the same exact suit he wore as President… well, I'm shopping for '59 Fords now!
Dick Rude's 1976 Toyota Corolla
Repo Man, 1984. I'm going to go on record stating that Repo Man is the Greatest Car Movie Of All Time, and that choosing one car to honor in this list was quite difficult. I've read the screenplay many times, and it's telling that Alex Cox specified the exact year, make, and model of every car to be used in the film (and, in most cases, those are the cars that were used during the production). The red Eldorado? The Government Agents' Matador? The Malibu? I'm going to give the honor to the "get sushi and not pay" gang's very punk Toyota… and that reminds me that I've committed a grievous mistake by omitting the Torino from Suburbia in this list. Well, next one!
John Lurie's 1965 Dodge Coronet 440
Stranger Than Paradise, 1984. What's the best possible car for a pair of small-time gamblers to drive from New York to Cleveland to Florida during the winter in 1984? Jim Jarmusch knows!
Rodney Dangerfield's 1966 Mulliner Park Ward Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III
Caddyshack, 1980. What car best epitomizes bad taste and conspicuous consumption, Middle Malaise Era style? Sure, a Zimmer might have worked just as well, but a Mulliner Park Ward Silver Cloud is just as horrifying and ten times as expensive!
Matt Dillon's 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood
Drugstore Cowboy, 1990. When you're ripping off drugstores for that good pharmaceutical-grade junk during the Nixon Era in the Pacific Northwest, there's no better ride.
Billy Bob Thornton's 1940 Dodge Coupe
The Man Who Wasn't There, 2001. Of all the Coen Brothers' films- which show excellent taste in vehicular selection- I settled on this one as my favorite. Tough choice, and I almost went with the '85 Cutlass Ciera in Fargo, or the detective's Beetle in Blood Simple.
Roger Sloman's Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
Nuts In May, 1976. This annoying little car is so perfectly suited to Sloman's fingernails-on-chalkboard character that it's impossible to imagine him driving anything else.
Gloria Swanson's Isotta-Fraschini
Sunset Boulevard, 1950. Wicker bodywork. Leopard skin upholstery. 800 feet total length. Best of all, a golden telephone to speak to the driver!
Burt Reynolds' 1972 Citroën SM
The Longest Yard, 1974. A drunk-driven SM being chased by Malaise Era Mopars, with Burt Reynolds at the wheel and Lynyrd Skynyrd on the radio. Enough said!
Ömer Simsek's Opel Manta
Manta, Manta, 1991. As any longtime Jalopnik reader knows, we have a sick love for the Opel Manta, otherwise known as "the German Camaro." Here's one of the many, many gorgeous Mantas from the German film Manta, Manta.
Image source: Automobilsport

In case you've never heard of Lebowski Fest, or God forbid, The Big Lebowski, it's a festival celebrating the movie about about a slacker and the hijinks he gets into after a case of mistaken identity and a soiled rug. Lebowski Fest is attended by all manner of degenerate, dressed up as their favorite character or donning some costume only understandable if you've memorized every word of the script. Drunken nerds, basically, of which we'll include ourselves.

One of the events was pulled from a scene in the movie, in which the character Walter tosses what's supposed to be ransom money from a moving car, instead it's a ringer, a bag of his dirty undies. Ever thus was created the Ringer Fling. A doller bought you the chance to throw a ringer from a very well worn, and super-cool Plymouth Fury acting as a stand-in for the Gran Torino used in the film at on of the "kidnappers," here, an effigy of Richard Nixon for reasons too complex to explain here. All proceeds from the event, along with those from the "Marmot fling" which was odd in its own way, went to benefit children's charities. The Achievers (those in attendance, it's another long story) certainly enjoyed it, and the car made us happy inside.

Yesterday proved a bit of a challenge, but, in fine Bond fashion, the '88 Lotus Esprit ended up easily escaping Crackpipedom at the last minute, and managed to seduce several of you into its bed, er garage. And now for something completely different.

Nothing says performance like Belvedere. What? When you think Belvedere you picture Bob Uecker? Well, that's probably why Plymouth, back in the day, minimized the Belvedere name, emphasizing the GTX on their upscale muscle car.

Sitting atop the Road Runner in the Belvedere model lineup, the GTX rocked the massive 440 as standard, or, optionally, the staggering 426 hemi, distancing it from its coyote-vexed brother which was graced by the Super Commando 383 as standard fitment. The GTX was also offered in both a pillar-less coupe, and as a convertible version for 1968, while Road Runners had to keep their tops on.

That 2G 426 Hemi is topped by a pair of Carter AFB 4 bbls and that was good for a factory claimed 425 bhp, which will move this 3,470 lb car with alacrity - contemporary tests pegged the 0 to 60 time at around 6.2 seconds, and quarters in the low 14s. Part of the reason for that is the factory 4-speed backing up that elephant.

Now, the 426 in this GTX is not the one it had when it left home. And despite the apparently impeccable restoration and presentation, this bright blue GTX - which is being offered for the not insubstantial sum of $119,900 - is not a numbers-matching car. Not only that, but the seller claims that the car could only muster 2nd in class at the Mopar Nationals. Hopefully they have been in contact with the judges of that event, and have taken to rectifying the egregious issues which denied it the first-place crown.

Other than those issues, this is a very nicely done, and sufficiently out of the mainstream (but not too far out so as to be weird) muscle car, which have been seeing both stratospheric highs on the action block, as well as investment-crushing disinterest of late.

So what do you think, you Mopar-maniacs? Is $119,900 a NIce Price for a muscle car from a broken home? Or, is that six-figure price so Crack Pipe, you'd leave this one at the Orphanage?

You decide!

eBay, or go here if the ad disappears.

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The Maserati-powered Model T definitely made an impression at the last Billetproof Nor-Cal, which is totally understandable. After all, the [flawless Model A, B, or T] + [Chevy or Ford OHV V8] formula has been done so often and so well that you need a body machined from pure plutonium to really stand out these days, while the [rusty-ass ancient non-Ford] + [weird yet hypnotically cool engine] formula still offers plenty of fun for each pint of blood you spill in the Hell Garage. Tonight, we're going to look at a total of nine possible vehicle+engine combos, any one of which would draw vast crowds of Bettie Page lookalikes at the next Billetproof. Hear the rusty iron doors of the Hell Garage swinging open for you? Once closed, they'll be welded shut until you're done... or insane!

Every time I see the amazing DOTS '47 Plymouth rumbling through my neighborhood, I realize anew that old suicide-door Plymouth sedans let you roll in the purest Hell Garage style. Affordable examples are quite easy to find in diamond-in-the-rough condition, too. Say f'r'example, this 1937 Plymouth sedan, which has a no-doubt-negotiable $1,000 price tag. The patina is already perfect, and the "toast" interior should be viewed as an opportunity to commission a special burlap-and-studded-pleather extravaganza!

It's tough to argue with the appeal of a 62-year-old sedan, but an elderly pickup made by a farm equipment manufacturer might make you forget all about that Plymouth. This '38 IHC pickup, which has been sitting in an Iowa field since Syngman Rhee was in office, has the perfect paint finish for Billetproof stardom, though we're not sure that "no bullet holes" is really a selling point. No matter, though- you can always make your own bullet holes!

Sedans? Trucks? Don't forget station wagons! Sure, you'd like a two-door wagon, and a Ford Ranch Wagon would be an excellent choice... but even that might veer uncomfortably close to the overchromed aesthetic behind those hyper-sanitary Chevy Nomads we see at mainstream car shows. Don't worry, because LeMons Rabbit racer Casadelshawn has tipped us off about this Opel Olympia Caravan, which is priced right in LeMons territory... which isn't relevant, because you know that mini-Euro-Nomad will be just the car to receive the engine of your deepest fears dreams! And, speaking of engines...

Now that you've picked out your chassis, what would you say to a 317-horse, DOHC/4-valve aluminum V8 that should be making good power until the Sun goes supernova? You can get this Nissan VK56DE out of a Nissan Titan pickup for well under two grand, though you'll need to spend many a few more bucks setting it up with an octet of Weber carbs and some sort of transmission.

A Nissan 5.6 liter V8 would be fun, but imagine all the wild Teutonic Maltese-cross decor you could put on your Opel, Plymouth, or IHC if you were to drop a Mercedes-Benz 5.6 liter V8 into the engine compartment? An M117, freshly torn from the still-twitching corpse of a big ol' Cocaine Dealer Grade 560SEL, would be just the ticket, and here's a 69,000-mile specimen for a mere 710 bucks! You'll need to ditch that irritatingly modern fuel-injection system and replace it with some carburetors, of course, and we recommend a homemade pipe-organ-style intake manifold made from galvanized plumbing fittings and sucking fuel from as many updraft Cessna carburetors as you can obtain. Then you'll start your junkyard quest for a functional junkyard transmission. How hard could it be?

Is there some rule that states you've got to have a V8? No? Well, how about one of GM's coolest engines ever, a high-performance inline six that struggled to get attention while in the shadow of big-inch monster V8s during the Muscle Car Golden Age? Yes, we mean the Pontiac OHC six-cylinder, which was a Chevrolet 230 or 250 six equipped with a futuristic (for 1960s Detroit) belt-driven overhead-cam cylinder head. The high-performance Sprint version, installed in regrettably few Firebirds and Tempests, could hold its own against V8s with vastly more displacement... but real Sprints are hard to find. No problem, though, because you can build your own Sprint from this Pontiac OHC 250, which is sitting with a top bid of just 150 bucks.

Ready to decide? Let's vote!

1964 Chevrolet Impala wagon

1969 Plymouth Suburban wagon.

The RB series, which included the 413, 426 Wedge, and 440 engines (as well as the trivia-question-obscure RB 383 of 1959-60), might well be included with the B (it was a taller version of the B design) but we're going to stick with the B alone here. The Chrysler B engine, in 350- and 361-cubic-inch displacements, debuted in the 1958 model year and was dubbed the Golden Commando by Plymouth, the D-500 by Dodge, and the Turboflash by DeSoto. The 383 is the best-known of the Bs, being installed at some point in just about every vehicle Chrysler made during its 1959-1971 run, and let's not forget the 383-powered Jensen Interceptor! The final B engine was the smogged-down 400, which was essentially a bored-out 383; the last one drove onto the Malaise Highway in 1978.
[Allpar, Wikipedia]

We haven't seen many Belvederes down on the Alameda street so far. In fact, this '68 wagon has been the sum total, prior to today. Given that Belvedere Adrian is an Alameda native, that just seems wrong.

I found this car parked in the same spot in which I photographed the 1975 Toyota Celica last summer. I hadn't seen the Belvedere around town before, so I thought that it might be just a one-time visitor. Since I took these photos, however, I've seen this car several times; not only is it a very straight and original V8 Belvedere, it seems to be doing daily-driver duty.

Yesterday, the Prostreet Pinto got favorable reviews from a slim 53% of you art lovers. However, many of you called into question the sellers assertion of street-ability. Today, we have a car that's road-ready, but which comes with a sad tale. This is a sale of necessity, the seller having reluctantly posted the car when he lost his job. Unlike many a compatriot, he did find gainful employment again, but now faces a gas gauge-cramping commute to his new gig.

Hence the listing of this two-toned '64 Barracuda. Now, the 64 - '66 ‘Cuda has a lot more Valiant in it than the later cars, but that doesn't mean this little coupe doesn't stand out. The one-piece wrap-over rear glass defines that aggressive fast-back roofline which slides in between the vestigial fins capped by the Valiant's vertical taillamps. This was the only year that the car was to be badged as a Valiant Barracuda, and all ensuing years dropped the Valiant moniker and logo altogether.

With few exceptions (noteworthy amongst those being the wheels, URL door decal, and black & gold paint scheme), this ‘Cuda is very nicely kitted, and provides tire churning by way of a pro-built 318 and 4-speed row-your-own. All is not perfect with the Plymouth as that tranny leaks, and first gear may lose a battle with a new-born kitten, but the front end is all rebuilt, and the car looks straight and complete.

When she was hot-dogging it on the basketball court, Sarah Palin earned the nickname Sarah Barracuda for her aggressive style of play. That name accurately reflects the personality of the same-named salt water denizen, but less so these early Plymouths, as it wasn't until the later cars that the ‘Cuda became a true pony car and could run wheel to wheel with the ‘Stangs, Camaros and Javelins of the day. But that doesn't mean this '64 is lacking in both style and entertainment value. You'd be hard pressed to find many light-weight, mid-sixties V8 coupes in as nice of shape and near this price, and it does have a bit of a uniqueness factor going for it.

So, with all that to consider, is that $5,300 a Nice Price? Or is that Crack Pipe from a seller who ‘cuda done better?

You decide!

San Diego Craigslist, or go here if the ad disapears.

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Admittedly, the 290-horse 318 Poly engine with the twin 4-barrel carbs was a $320 option (the 301 was standard), but what kind of clueless car buyer wouldn't have wanted that setup on a new Mopar wagon? Plymouth Dealer Quick!

I haven't owned many Plymouths- just a lone Fury and a couple of Valiants- but I still felt real sadness when Chrysler sent the brand to The Crusher. That Fury was a fleet-spec '73 sedan formerly owned by EBMUD, the water/sewage agency popularly known as "East Bay Mud." My parents bought it for my younger sister when she turned 16, shelling out a princely $150 for it at a county auction (they came close to getting her a retired AC Transit 40' bus, but decided that some jokes aren't worth the hassle; yes, they're probably to blame for me turning out this way). It had the government-grade "everything delete" option package (no carpets, no radio, no headliner, no power accessories, dog-dish hubcaps, etc.), but included a snazzy EBMUD paint scheme (turquoise and white), a totally unkillable 318 V8, and a bunch of cryptic water-company tools in the trunk. As is the nature of 16-year-old girls the world over, my sister passionately hated the idea of being seen behind the wheel of an unwieldy, 13-year-old, cop-car-looking barge and refused to have anything to do with it. Naturally, I added it to my fleet of wretched, low-buck heaps cool machinery and drove it often. It took a while for the 318 to get 3,800 pounds of Mopar steel moving, but I've never had a car that was as much fun for dirt-road hoonage, or as good at jumping the berms at the Island Auto Movie drive-in theater (where I worked as a ticket-taker my senior year of high school), or that could withstand as many extra-cruel, Ronny Montrose-soundtrack, neutral-drop burnouts.

Now it's your turn! What was the very first Plymouth you ever owned, or rode in, or at least formed some sort of emotional attachment to?

[Image source: Old Car Brochures]