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22 economist suntribune thursday sept 5 2002 theres no replacement for displacement except more displace ment in other words the bigger the engine the better ifs a rule if not one of newtons laws that stands to this day and in 1 970 perhaps the last full year of the allout muscle- car wars that had been escalating since the pontiac gto hit the streets in 64 it was the rule of the road close your eyes for a moment and imagine that its friday night and youre perched curbside on detroits infamous woodward avenue its dusk and the big threes heavy hitters are out in force at the time chevrolet was mopping up the boulevards with its new 450horsepower ls6 chevelle while fords bigblock mustang mach 1 looked down right evil and breathed fire to boot and then there was the hemi groomed for the high- banked nascar ovals of daytona and darlington super- speedways the 425horsepower street hemi was available in everything from the newfor1970 cuda to the plymouth road runner and gtx as well as the dodge super bee coronet charger and challenger rt cars all were topdrawer muscle machines with hefty sticker prices and healthy appetites for gasoline and insurance premiums finding a lower sticker price usually meant there had to be a corresponding drop in perform ance expectations look down a rung on the musclecar ladder and you were generally greeted by smaller 383 chrysler 390 ford and 396 chevrolet powerplants whether by design or by accir dent the real fun especially if you were on a tight budget was down one more level in the ranks of smallblock powered mini mus- clecars although chevrolet had rolled out its new z28 for 1970 it was a hefty brute and ford well the mustang just wasnt the same without a f0m0c0 big block over at chrysler the guys had been playing around with the idea of mixing a highperformance small block v8 with a nimble lightweight body since 1 967 and while you could order the dodge dart with a 383 big block the smaller lighter 340powered ver sion handled better and was near ly as quick some would argue in the right hands even quicker by 1 970 a new plymouth sib ling had emerged based on a fast- back version of the abody dart chrysler as it turned out did have a replacement for cubic inches it was called the duster during that era even high- performance cars often had four- door grocerygetter counterparts the dart for example was avail able with a sixcylinder engine and four doors same for the chevelle the road runner too was available with four doors badged as a belvederesatellite the corvette camaro mustang barracuda charger and challenger were joined by anoth er twodoor specific vehicle the swoopy new duster weighing in at just over 3000 pounds it was hundreds of pounds lighter than the camaro thanks to its unitized body con struction no frame and with a 275horsepower 340 dynamome ter figures showed power to be closer to 31 5 a fourspeed manu al transmission and deep 391 1 8 34inch rear differential you had a car capable of humiliating near ly everything short of the topshelf highdollar musclecars that this feat was achieved with such a mild engine compared to other small blocks of the day was noth ing short of amazing mild despite its 202inch intake valves it had relatively low com pression for a highperformance motor 1051 a mild hydraulic camshaft and was saddled with castiron intake and exhaust man ifolds a simple camshaft swap fourspeed 340 dusters were already equipped with a more rad ical cam than the automatic cars and the addition of exhaust head ers and aluminum intake manifold could easily yield 350375 horse power from a 340 hence the pop ularity of the durable little engine and if that wasnt a big enough hook for you there was the price around 3000 typical quarter- mile times for a stock 340 duster were in the low- to-mid-14-sec- ond range at about 100 mph with some tun ing and decent tires slicks mid1 3second times were with in relatively easy grasp of even the novice driver a cam header and intake swap could take you into the 12s if you could get the thing to hook to the asphalt the appre ciation of cars such as the duster increased as the musclecar wars ground to a halt by 71 big- block bigcubicinch speed machines were dropping like flies emission regulations the price of gas and skyrocketing insurance premiums were chiefly to blame for the demise of the highprofile boulevard bruisers in the meantime the econo- duster had gained quite a follow ing as everything from inexpen sive family transportation io the darling of corporate fleets the country wide while the 340 made the duster famous it was really the 31 8v8 and 225 slantsix cars that by far made up the bulk of the dusters that roamed the streets by 1974 the torquey 360 small block had replaced the high- winding 340 as the performance v8 as well the front sheetmetal had lost its bluntness in favour of a protruding nose whose style found its way to the aspen and volare duo later in the decade defanged and growing long in the tooth the last year for the duster was 1 976 and so ended an era of highperformance budget vehicles as collectors snap up the famous bigblockpowered mus clecars of that generation the duster is again enjoying a resur gence in popularity while its acceptance may never again reach the height of the early 1970s the 340 duster will have neverending status as a legend in the annals of automotive lore jeff melnychuk is wheelbase communications managing editor and senior tech nical writer wheelbase is a worldwide supplier of automo bile news reviews and features j vfa a ii v lillhhiilluihrctt north pointe chev olds welcomes philippe demets to their sales staff north pointe chev olds would like to congratulate nick zanzonico as the salesman of the month for august north pointe chev olds welcomes frank coppa to their sales staff norh ohbvholkt inte olosmooile 5336 hwy 7 markham jut et of mccowan 9052941440 wwwnorthpointechevoldscom