Car of the Week: 1978 Dodge Li’l Red Express

[dodgechargerfan]

John Roberts thought it was just an ordinary Friday evening. The Rotonda West, Fla., resident was on his way back home when his son Wes called from Indiana, where John had raised his family before moving to Florida. “I talked to him for a minute and then he said I’ll call you when you get home,” Roberts recalled. “I thought that was a little strange. He had me on the phone and I was thinking, ‘Why don’t we just talk now.’ We always talked on the phone once a week and I didn’t think anything of it …

“So I get home and pretty soon I hear a rumbling down the street and I look up and there’s this Li’l Red Express truck coming toward the house. It pulls in and Wes is driving it! He got out and said ‘Hey Dad, this is your truck.’ Geez, I get choked up even today thinking about it. I said, ‘Wes, what are you doing here with this truck?’ He said, ‘It’s yours. The truck is for you.’ I said ‘I can’t afford this,’ but he said, ‘You don’t owe me anything. The truck is yours.’

“He just decided to do something nice for his dad.”

The red pickup was the same one that the pair had checked out in Muncie, Ind., several months earlier when John headed north for a visit. John was blown away by the wonderful condition of the truck and knew the asking price was “a steal,” but still couldn’t bring himself to write out the check and take the truck home. “I just couldn’t pay that much money for a toy for myself,” he lamented. Roberts had to pass on the truck, but he still talked about it occasionally and one day Wes decided to see if the truck was still available. “He’s a big Mustang guy and I was helping him look for one, and then he called me one Sunday afternoon and asked me for the number of the guy that was selling the Li’l Red. He said he just wanted to call the guy and see if he still had it.”

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[restoman]

Love it!!!!!!

Bask in '85/'86, I traded for a rusty Warlock truck. With the E58 360, it was a blast! It was run pretty hard through it's life and I was more into cars than trucks so it got traded away. The guy that ended up with it parked it in his garage and it sits in the same spot today as far as I know. Green with a black bench interior.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Love it!!!!!!

Bask in '85/'86, I traded for a rusty Warlock truck. With the E58 360, it was a blast!

It was also probably a lot more rare than a Li'l Red. The Warlock was an appearance package that did not include any performance upgrades... most were 318 and 360-2V engines. E58 Warlocks aren't common, and E74s (440HP) are even more rare.

The article makes it sound like the Li'l Red's E58 was really something special, but the only real differences from the "standard" 195HP E58 were the freer-flowing exhaust (from lack of converters), the fresh-air intake, and the ignition which was non-ESA w/vacuum advance and a better curve (necessitating a specific carb number). The cylinder-head myth is a leftover from the original engine specification which called for W2 castings along with the '68 340 4-speed cam, and a special aluminum intake topped with a Holley. As-delivered, the engine was the exact-same dressed longblock found in cop cars and the '79 300.

 

[restoman]

The article makes it sound like the Li'l Red's E58 was really something special, but the only real differences from the "standard" 195HP E58 were the freer-flowing exhaust (from lack of converters), the fresh-air intake, and the ignition which was non-ESA w/vacuum advance and a better curve (necessitating a specific carb number). The cylinder-head myth is a leftover from the original engine specification which called for W2 castings along with the '68 340 4-speed cam, and a special aluminum intake topped with a Holley. As-delivered, the engine was the exact-same dressed longblock found in cop cars and the '79 300.

Yep. They stood out simply because nothing else did. Being a truck made that fact much more apparent.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Being a truck...

When you're not fond of the rules to which you must adhere, find different rules. :dance:

A good number of '79 300s was supposedly built at the beginning of the run without catalytic converters. According to the information I once had, Chrysler had found a loophole involving "police package" engines that was quickly closed by the Fed. If memory serves--but it may not--168 cars got built that way (all US-spec). The original owner of mine (later Stretch's) claimed the exhaust system had never been changed, and it did not have cats when I bought it in 1989. My belief is that she simply didn't know or didn't remember, because with 229,000 miles traveled in a decade of U.P. driving, it's not likely a '70s-quality exhaust system would've survived the repeated salt baths. On the other hand, the car was in remarkably good shape when I bought it--so who knows.

 

[restoman]

It's been a while since this section was updated, and it's not a 1:1 version, but here's my recent build of the Little Red Express, in 1/25 scale.

 

[Stretch]

When you're not fond of the rules to which you must adhere, find different rules. :dance:

A good number of '79 300s was supposedly built at the beginning of the run without catalytic converters. According to the information I once had, Chrysler had found a loophole involving "police package" engines that was quickly closed by the Fed. If memory serves--but it may not--168 cars got built that way (all US-spec). The original owner of mine (later Stretch's) claimed the exhaust system had never been changed, and it did not have cats when I bought it in 1989. My belief is that she simply didn't know or didn't remember, because with 229,000 miles traveled in a decade of U.P. driving, it's not likely a '70s-quality exhaust system would've survived the repeated salt baths. On the other hand, the car was in remarkably good shape when I bought it--so who knows.

I did love that 300! When I was a kid I had a paper route. The lady Pierre bought that car from was on my route. I lusted for that car. I told Dee (the original owner) that I would have that car one day. Many moons later, after I bought that car from Pierre I showed up in Dee's drive way with it.
She had a big ol' grin on her face and said "you always wanted this car".

That car was so much fun! I never gave a shit about the leaky T-tops! Only the back seat got wet!