PLYMOUTH DUSTER - WHY WAS PLYMOUTH SO CONFUSED?

The Duster Was A Valiant Coupe
The Valliant was a small car. The Plymouth Duster is a semi-fastback two-door car that cost $15 million to make. This was done to make it look and feel sportier. In 1970, the Duster was labeled as a Valiant, but after that it was just called the Duster. It had the same front end as the Valiant, but the back hood was different, which is what made the Duster so popular among young people. The 198 and 225 slant-six engines and 318 and 340 V8s were the only engines available at first. This year, there were three trims: the regular Duster, the 340 performance Duster, and the Gold trim, which came out in the middle of the year.

The Duster Was Key To The Dodge Demon
The Duster became a runaway success. Pitted against the likes of the slightly smaller Ford Maverick and the AMC Hornet, the Duster also managed to complete well with the slightly larger Chevrolet Nova. Of course, while the Maverick and the Nova also came in four-door versions, the Plymouth Duster was a two-door coupe for all of its short if impactful life. It was also marketed as an alternative to the Volkswagen Beetle and enjoyed so much attention that soon Dodge also wanted its very own version of the Duster. So in 1971, the Dodge got the Demon, and the rest, as they say, is history.

That Unmistakable Duster Logo
Not many people know that the Plymouth Duster was going to be named after a Warner Bros. character. The Duster was going to have a name based on the cartoon Tasmanian Devil, like the Plymouth Road Runner. By that time, Warner Bros. had pulled out of the deal because they wanted a lot more money. So, the Duster got the name "Duster." Thomas Bertsch of Chrysler made the image, which was also based on how the Tasmanian devil moves in the cartoon, which is in a cloud of dust. So, the image for the Duster became a twister with eyes. It is still one of the most well-known car designs to this day.

Performance At A Cheap Price
The top trim of the Duster offered a 340 V8 that pulsed out 275 horses and 340 ft-lb torque – for a car the Duster's size, these were serious performance numbers. The 198 and 225 slant-sixes managed 125 and 145 horses respectively, which could also propel the Duster with good speed. Of course, the 5.5-liter 340 V8's performance was boss, with a 0-60mph sprint of 6.2 seconds, and a quarter-mile run in 14.7 seconds. All that performance came at just $2,947 for the top trim. Ford Mustang cost upwards of $3,300 – so the Duster was quite the steal.

The 1971-72 Dusters: No More Valiants
The biggest and most important change to the 1971 Plymouth Duster was that the Valiant logos on the fenders and the Plymouth name on the grille were taken off. The Duster had become its own car and was easy to spot on the road. The Duster Twister was another new trim. It had special side stripes, a matte-black hood, and the shark-tooth grille from the 340. A non-working hood scoop, back spoiler, dual exhaust, and cool bucket seats were added. In 1971, more than 186,000 Dusters were made. Even though horsepower went down because of a new way of measuring, the power of the 1972 model stayed the same.

The 1973 Plymouth Duster: Spruced Up
The Valiants and the Plymouth Duster were refurbished for this year. There was a new hood and grille, and the fenders, bumpers, and taillights were redesigned. A Space Duster package was also added, which had nothing to do with space and more to do with car space. the backbench could be folded down to add to the cargo space.

The 1974 Plymouth Oil-Embargo Duster
Despite 1974 being flush with the first wave of the oil crisis, the Plymouth Duster outperformed every other year's sales by shipping out more than 280,000 examples. The engine was now a 5.9-liter 360 V8, de-tuned to meet the strict emissions regulations of the day. This engine still churned out 245 horses by using a combination of the camshaft, intake manifold, a dual-exhaust as well as the carburetor. A Duster 360 model was introduced for this engine – and it also had power disc brakes, attractive tape stripes on the side and rear, an upgraded suspension and shocks, and a sway bar. The Duster was still all heart and muscle.
A Strange, Abrupt End
In the middle of 1976, the Plymouth Duster was suddenly replaced by the Plymouth Volaré, and the Dodge Dart was replaced by the Dodge Aspen. We all know how this sad story ends. The Volaré and the Aspen were some of the most beautiful cars Dodge and Plymouth ever made, but they weren't well made. Both cars were perfect examples of rust buckets, as they were very unreliable and leaked a lot. The moisture in the air made them rust like nothing else, and this soon brought about an end to the Volaré, and later Plymouth in general by the turn of the 21st century.