'80 Volare Duster

NMNA

https://peoria.craigslist.org/cto/4756023138.html

Wow, I don't remember Volare Dusters at all.

Me either. And I'm old enough to.

My buddy bought one last year. Up until then I didn't remember them either. His is a nice maroon color with a 318 and pretty rare 14" painted magnum 500 wheels. He said he didn't know why he bought it, but his first car was a "real" duster, this one was sitting by the road for cheap, and he couldn't pass it up. He owns a funeral home in our town, and the thing has just been sitting in the parking lot with a flat tire since he bought it. I told him it needed a Hemi and big and littles....

Dart/Duster/Demon/Scamp of early 70's vintage is on the list of possible cars after we move next year. Preferably with a slant 6, 3 on the tree combo. Squirt, boost, cruise after that.

I remember them, but only because my friend's parents had one and mocked their own car relentlessly.

Mr. Bundy, your car is ready.

I can tell this place is having an effect on me because I looked at that and thought, "Hmm, that's cool."

I remember the Volare/Aspen "Kit Cars"

http://autoweek.com/article/1978-plymouth-volare-street-kit-car-no-43-bullet

I found one for my little brother's first car back in the 80s. '79 with the Super Six; originally a grampa car with 86K on it. Would run 100+ all day long, and the A/C would frost you out with that RV2 compressor.

He wrapped it around a tree...

I'm surprised these haven't caught on with the Mopar guys more. Two-door, V8, rear wheel drive. ??

FSP_ZX2 wrote: I remember the Volare/Aspen "Kit Cars" http://autoweek.com/article/1978-plymouth-volare-street-kit-car-no-43-bullet

Get rid of the numbers, and paint it all to match and I would drive the hell out of that.

There's just something about these cars that I love. I want one.

stan wrote: I'm surprised these haven't caught on with the Mopar guys more. Two-door, V8, rear wheel drive. ??

It's because of the rust, that one appears to be missing a lot of sheet metal behind the rear wheels and the frames are known to break in half. I prefer the diplomat for a regular driver but those "kit cars" in red/black are absolutely delicious.

After looking into these a bit more, I also want a Feather Duster. Super light with aluminum body panels, a Slant Six with a stick, and no frills. Sounds like a good foundation for something fast and weird.

The Petty Kit cars were cool, along with the Super Coupes and Volare Roadrunners.

My sister had an orange 76 Volare Roadrunner - Orange with white interior, 318 buckets auto on the floor with a factory FM - CB radio. I think it started rusting out in 3years.

In reply to SilverFleet:

From Wiki:

"The Feather Duster featured lightweight aluminum parts including the intake manifold, bumper brackets, hood and trunk bracing, and manual transmission housing, for a weight savings of about 187 lb (84.8 kg)—5% lighter than a standard Duster similarly equipped. It came with a 225 Slant Six with its distributor and single-barrel carburetor calibrated for economy, a low-restriction exhaust system, an extra-high rear axle ratio, and was offered with either the Torqueflite 3-speed automatic or A833 overdrive 4-speed manual transmission. It was the most fuel-efficient car in its size class, achieving up to 36 mpg highway and 24 in the city with the manual transmission option. (along with Dodge's version, the Dart Lite)."

GAH! Now I want one!

The Feather Duster and Dart Lite are incredibly weird and cool.

Make mine a Spirit of '76, Pleez!

Those mpg numbers, if accurate, are amazing!

That's better than a whole lot of modern fuel efficient vehicles and quite a bit better than my 2.2 powered Impreza.

Those numbers are part of what fuels the big oil/gubment conspiracy theories. Look at the MPG numbers from a number of the 80's econobox's like the Crx. They got TDI and hybrid like fuel economy, but with all our technology we struggle to break 40mpg. Blame diluted fuel, emissions restrictions, and higher speeds. A lot of oem stuff back in the day came with 2.xx:1 gearing, and was tuned for low end torque, now it's no big deal to run down the interstate @ 2.5-3.5k RPM. My 86 Camaro with 2.73's ran down the interstate @ 1500 rpm or so. 2k RPM was grounds for a serious speeding ticket.

I had an '86 Mustang GT that was geared similarly; 2,000 rpm in 5th was 80 mph. It got decent mileage but it was also gutted, had no A/C, a tubular k-member, a fiberglass front bumper and probably weighed a tick under 3,000 lbs.