1971 Plymouth Duster
The Duster was an instant success for Plymouth, so much so that Dodge insisted to Chrysler management that they receive their own version, the (Dart) Demon, which debuted for 1971. In response, Plymouth was given a version of the Dodge Dart Swinger 2-door hardtop named the Plymouth Scamp.
Perhaps as a sign of the vibrant times, some of the colors Mopar had available for the Duster included Lime Green, Yellow Twist, Plum Crazy, and Competition Orange, as well as the more normal colors like Tan, Black and White.The stripes, the colors, the logos, the performance, these where all ways that Mopar got your attention and sold lots of cars. The Superbird, the Super Bee, Magnum, Six-Pack, Charger, Challenger, Barracuda, Duster, Demon, Twister, all these names were the result of a marketing strategy on the attack. This company, and the cars they produced, got noticed....on the showroom floor, at the track, and on the road!
For 1971, only small changes were made to the hot-selling Duster. The "Valiant" badges were removed, as well as the Plymouth logo on the grille. A new trim package was added to the A-body line for 1971. Plymouth had the Duster, and the Twister, while Dodge had the Demon. All where very similar. The "Twister" package gave its owner the appearance of the Duster 340 Wedge, but was available with only slant-six or 318 2bbl-V8 engines. The Twister came with special side stripes that mimicked the Duster 340 Wedge stripes and also had a similar matte-black hood. The Twister had the "looks" of the much-faster 340 "Wedge" but had the powertrain to get cheap insurance for the youth market, which both targeted. Both the Duster and the Twister could be ordered with an optional non-functional dual hood scoop and rear spoiler appearance package. Other options included high-back bucket seats and dual exhaust. For 1971 the performance option for the Duster was the special "340 Wedge". Outwardly, it was a "340 Wedge" decal that was mounted on a flat-black hood at a 45° angle. The "Wedge" small-block referred to the wedge-shaped combustion chambers, which was nothing new, but it was an obvious reference to it's big-block brother, the Hemi. The "340 Wedge" version, as well as the Twister, as seen in the photo above in lime-green, also had a special grill and a competition dash upgrade over the base model 340. Power-wise,the 340 "Wedge" had substantial HP ratings over the standard 318 and base 340. It came factory-equipped with an 850cfm Carter "ThermoQuad" 4bbl. carb in place of the previous years Carter AFB. This new carb featured small primaries, huge secondaries,and a phenolic-resin body to keep the fuel cooler for maximum density. The 340 "six-pack" 3-2bbl intake was available as an option for the 340 Duster, as well the more expensive 340 AAR Plymouth Barracuda, and the 340 Dodge Challenger T/A (both E-body cars). In addition to the larger carb, the 340 Wedge also came with a dual-plane manifold, dual-point distributor, a hotter hydraulic cam, and dual exhaust system. Large-valve heads and a forged steel crankshaft were common to all 340 engines.The later 360's had a cast crank to save on production costs.The 340 Wedge also had a factory-installed cast-iron 4-speed manual transmission and heavy-duty clutch, with a Hurst pistol-grip shifter. For the rear diffential, a 3.23:1 ratio was standard,with a 3.91:1 "Posi-Trac" ratio available as an option. This engine was conservatively rated at 340HP@5800rpm. Very quick quarter-mile times were achieved with the Duster, due to this engine combination being mated to the 2850lb. A-body, which was lighter than all but the '67 Camaro. In 1971 there were 511 of these factory "340 Wedge" Dusters produced, making them much more rare than a standard 340 Duster. 1971 was the one and only year they were built.They cost approx.$2,657 retail, which was a huge bang-for-the-buck. The Duster competed well in sales against both the Camaro and the Mustang in the 70's-era performance-driven small-block wars,often out-selling both of them, and resulted in a huge sales success for Mopar. Ford had the Boss, Chevrolet had the SS, and Plymouth had the Wedge, as well as the Hemi. The '71 340 Wedge was the top level of performance for the Duster, and it could put many other more expensive sport models in it's dust(pun intended!). There were many versions of the A-body built by both Dodge and Plymouth in various configurations of Sport/Economy. Dusters manged to elude the sales slump by not getting the "luxury treatment", and weight gain, as did the E-bodies of the same years. Due to their low price, they were very popular for both the dealers, and the young car-owner interested in performance.
(As an added note, the powerful Dodge Viper V10 engine finds its roots in the mighty 340 small block, which proves what a successful design it was. Siamesed cylinders, bore, stroke, valve configurations and a forged crankshaft are just a few of the design similarities that they share, just add on two more cylinders. However, that design also continues to change from it's beginning form.)
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