Nightmare In Maranello - Dodge Li'l Red Express Truck

The late ‘70s wasn’t a great period for the American automotive industry. As the story (which you’ve probably heard a trillion times) goes, the oil crisis presented a need for more economical cars. The American marques had no interest in economy up until this time, caring about performance mostly, though Japanese and European manufacturers started importing, stealing all the sales from the domestics. In order to keep up, Cars like the Mustang and Camaro suffered dearly, with the most powerful factory Camaro (for example) for sale in 1979 having little over 200HP. All the development was put into making the engines run cleanly, whilst using as little fuel as possible.

Whilst Dodge, too, had to make sacrifices to stay in the game (I’m looking at you, L-body Charger), they had a dark horse. More like a dark horse on speed, but the point still stands. Thanks to clever manipulation of the strict smog regulations of the time, Dodge outfitted their D150-series pickup with a catless, 360ci police-spec V8.

Courtesy of the newly-shoehorned lump, this was now a truck with 225HP and just shy of 300 lb/ft of torque, potent figures for today, let alone 1978. Whilst the power might seem a little lacklustre, the torque more than made up for the slight deficit. These figures helped the Express become the quickest accelerating vehicle of the year (test conducted by Motor Trend) with a surprisingly spritely 0-60 time of 6.7 seconds, out-doing major players in the sports car game, such as Ferrari and their 308. The very first muscle truck. So, a pickup faster than a Ferrari, with Oak wood on the sides. Does it get any better?

The big V8 exhaled through the unashamedly bold chrome stacks just behind the cabin, producing a throaty roar from the furious 8-cylinder’s hefty breathing. The power was put to the ground through a modified 727 auto ‘box and heavy duty (3.55) rear axle, coming to its final resting place via a set of meaty 275 Goodyears.

The interior received some special treatment, too. Bench seats were standard, though buckets (above) were optional extras. Red or black interiors were offered, though most were ordered with the simple black. It looks like a nice, comfortable place to be whilst cruising along, with a nice, big, classic gauge layout on the dashboard.

The Express however, along with all Dodge’s other ‘Adult Toys’ vehicked, was just created in the wrong decade. Across its two year production run, about 7,300 were shifted off the lot (2,188 in ‘78, 5,118 in ‘79) with plenty being merely due to the dealers cutting prices to simply sell the things during the oil meltdown. The spirit lives on today, through things like the F-150 Tremor and Raptor, but none of the modern performance trucks have quite the charm of the D-series bruiser.

Thanks for reading!