Dad had actually bought a 1969 dart for me before I can remember. It was a 318 4 speed b5 blue GT car with a 340 hood on it. Maybe it was a 340 car originally or just had the hood. Anyway, it was kind of rusty, and ended up getting flipped for a few bucks instead. Dad had a 1970 340 that he had since 1978 that he pulled out of a 1971 duster. It had a blown head gasket. He put a different 340 in it and sold that car.

So, that brings us to my early teens. We were set on building a car using this 340 dad had. We looked around a bit, my favorite a body, as was my dads, was a fast back barracuda. They were out of my price range at that age though. We happened to find a 1976 dodge aspen slant 6 car with 20 000 miles on the clock. We offered $800 for it, and someone else bought it for $1000. Turns out the buyer wanted the low mile powertrain for a resto he was doing. My parents bought the car for $200 for my 15th birthday and that's where it started.

It was a cream colored car with no options. True granny car. I always liked the paint scheme on the dusters using the flat black and the 340 wedge decal on the hood. My first job was at a decal shop. So, I drew up some stripes, and went down to Canadian Tire and bought some flat black cans of paint and some masking tape.

Here is a picture on the return road, picking up a timeslip and my girlfriend at the time (now my wife) and yes, she is wearing a winter jacket. Gets cold up here at the end of the season haha.



The car ran a best of 12.32 @ 111mph with the 340.


A couple years later, I painted the car at my high school with another mopar buddy



Of course, the natural progression took place, it's caged now, and it's an R3/W2 small block now. Still my leaf spring street car! Always will be.


-Kenny