What got you into Mopars?

[tparker]

My town wasn't a mopar town. Early Chevelles, Camaros, Mustangs, a GTO Judge were the main cars in High School (late 80s). Maybe there was a couple Mopars flying under the radar but I don't recall. Technically my first car was a mopar, 70-ish Duster. LOL. Slant 6 I think. I had it before I could drive. Boy could our town use a 440 GTX or Road Runner or maybe a 68 Charger. Of course I was a Dukes fan and loved the 68 Charger. Anyways, a buddy of mine turned me on to the Challenger and we rented Vanishing point somewhere in 87 or 88. I was sold and was the main reason I have the Challenger I have today.  Just before I got my Challenger I worked at a paint shop and there was a 440 4 speed Black `Cuda that was the epitome of muscle. Shortly after that I bought my '70 a Western Sport Special Challenger. Perhaps I should have waited and looked for something with more muscle, but I found a nice '70 318 Challenger, Yellow with a vinyl top. My plan was to build it to be a road car based on the T/A. I drove it for a few years then parked it during my Army carrer before the neighbor's kids shot the window out and the elements got to it. 30 years later and I'm a few weeks from firing up a stroked 340. 

So, what got you into Mopars? 

[chargerdon]

Two things.   First, my father was always a Dodge man...  and i learned to drive on our 60 Dodge Dart Pioneer with the 318 Poly engine and 3 sp torqueflite.   Nice big car with a wonderful back seat.. lol...and faster than the standard 283 and 289 Galaxies and Impalas that most of the other fathers owned.   

Then in my Sophmore year in High school Ford brought out the 64 1/2 Mustang it is was all the rage!!!!!!!   However, something else happened in 64...The Hemi returned to Nascar and Dodge/Plymouth took all of the top ten places at Daytona.  Well, i was hooked, and when Dodge brought out the 66 Charger with the Hemi option...i remember going to the Dodge dealership and standing in awe in front of the first 66 Charger with the two four barrel carbs atop the hemi and thinking...performance cars will never be the same !!!   Wow...I was hooked for life.   

Dodge continues to be the performance king with the Hellcats and Demons.   

[dodj]

No family reasons for me. Other than me, everybody viewed a car as a tool to get you from 'A' to 'B'. That's it, who cares what it looks like so long as it gets you there and back.
Then during a summer job at a golf course in Haliburton, ON....when I was 13 I saw white 70 or 71 cuda in the parking lot. I thought it was a fantastic looking car. From then on I was noticing
'cudas and Challengers on the road..at first thinking they were the same cars different years....I was 13....
Then there's the Dukes. Love 68-70 Chargers...always wanted one...never owned one.
So a few years later I started going out with my future wife and we were over at her brother's house. In the back yard was a white Challenger being neglected. I asked if he would sell it and he said sure. I asked how much and he said he would take my Remington 700ADL in trade...Sounds good to me I said..
The seats had gone missing and I drove it home while sitting on a milk crate. For those of you that think the stock seats have no support....try a milk crate!!

I've owned it ever since.

[captcolour]

My dad had Plymouth wagons growing up.  I remember a '59 dark blue, a '61 blue/white, '68 white/paneling, and a '73 tan/paneling.  My first car was a hand-me-down '65 Coronet slant 6.  When that seized up, got a '74 Gold Duster slant 6. Around town lots of Camaros, Chevelles and Mustangs.  Coolest was a late 60s GTX or maybe just a Satellite red convertible 383.  Hooked.

[Cuda_mark]

I was born and raised in a Chevy family. My father had new 66, 67 and 69 Chevelle SS's before I was born. I have his 67 SS to this day. When I was around 18, my friend introduced me to a local Mopar restorer/hoarder. He had a pink fender off of a 1970 Challenger up in his rafters and I though that was a strange factory color...what kind of car manufacturer would do such a thing??? Then I saw the 68 HEMI charger he was restoring. I was hooked after that. My father wasn't thrilled that I had crossed over to the "dark side" but he eventually caved in.

[cuda hunter]

1997, purchased a firebird as my first new car purchase.  Turned that into a 98 ram air ws6 the same year.   
My friend (much older) had a 67 barracuda and thought I was out of my mind to pay the kind of money per month for a new car. 
The dodge dealership turned me down and turned down my chunk of change to purchase a viper so that's why I got the firebird.  Still have the bird but I only drive it a few times a year. 
Anyway, my friend wouldn't let me drive his mopar.  One day his wife threw me the keys and let me drive it.   It was all over at that point.  It was this car that I now own. 

[71vert340]

In 1969, my brother had a 1965 Cutlass convertible with a 330 cu in -4 bbl auto in it I believe. I thought the car was fast. One day, we were on a two lane road in lower Michigan and we were about the 3rd car back in a line held up by a slow driver. Traffic from the opposite direction didn't allow us to pass multiple cars. All of a sudden, my brother said to watch a car he saw in the rear-view mirror. It was a Road Runner whose driver decided he could make the pass and he did. I just remember the roar of the engine and him shifting gears as he flew by us. So cool. Another friend had a 69 hemi GTX and I remember him beating many cars street racing it. He raced it until he got too many tickets. It was a beast. In 1971, my parents bought a 70 Duster 318-3spd manual and it was a snappy little car for what it was. I drove it several times. A friend then bought a 70 Duster 340 with a 4spd and it was quick. In June 1972, I bought my 71 Challenger 340 and have had Mopars since.
Terry W.

[erik70rt]

When I was 17, I was driving a Ford Pinto.  One day on my way home the engine block split/cracked and that was the end of it.  I needed a car, knew I wanted a muscle car, and saw an article in Musclecar Classics Magazine about Dodge Challengers.  A 1970 popped up for sale locally, so I called the number and asked to come take a look.  When I arrived, I saw it was purple, had 340 and a pistol grip shifter and I was hooked.  Wish I still had it.  That day started my love of Mopars and 1970 Challengers in particular.  I've had other Challengers, Chargers, Road Runners and Barracudas (A & E), but always come back to the 1970 Challenger. 

Now I have a 1970 Challenger convertible and a 1970 Challenger R/T Hardtop.  Just need to get my hands on a real T/A now and I'm all set!  LOL

[71vert340]

@dodj  . Like this? 
Terry W.

[JH27N0B]

My family had GMs, mostly Buicks, when I was growing up.  When I started building model cars in the early 70s my favorites were often Fords.  I really loved '72 Gran Torinos!
Fortunately at age 14 Vanishing Point was shown on TV one evening, and seeing Kowalski thrashing that '70 Challenger across the desert affected my mind as much as the bulldozers affected the 67 Camaro at the end of the movie.  I'd never even paid attention to Challengers before, but after seeing the movie, Challengers and cudas were my dream cars.
40+ years later I'm still a hard core Mopar guy.  I always wonder how my life would have been different if I hadn't watched TV that fateful evening in the mid 70s. 

[Racer57]

1972 graduated from High School. Everyone was cruising with Chevys and Fords and 1 Blue with black Vinyl top 340 4 speed '70 Cuda. I had a 69, but thought the 70 was THE most beautiful car ever produced ! Only took 45+ years before I finally got one. 

[70vert]

My dad got me into cars but not Mopar, he was a Ford guy. I learned a lot from him and other family friends about working on cars. When the RoadRunner came out (yep I am that old) I really wanted one but of course could not afford one so settled for a '69 Satellite that was a 318 bench seat car and I loved it. Been a Mopar guys ever since, have had lots of them.

[DeathProofCuda]

My dad, he was one of those unlucky Chrysler-Plymouth service reps that were assigned Superbirds as their company car in 1970 when no one wanted to buy one of those ugly things. 
I was too young to remember that car, but IIRC it was a blue 440 4V automatic car.  He always joked about getting a police escort everywhere he went with that car.  Prior to that he had a 69 GTX.

Most of my dad's stuff from those days got lost in the shuffle at some point, but I still have hard copies of a bunch of the tech service manuals that C-P put out at that time, as well as some company issued memorabilia tools.

Of course, all the cool Mopars in movies like Vanishing Point, Phantasm, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, and Christine (his buddy's Charger) also helped.

[Cuda U Code]

Grew up in Detroit during a time when future classics such as the e-bodies could be purchased for very little money, always owned Chevrolet until I joined the Navy and purchased a 72 Cuda 340 4 speed car all original matching numbers, original paint. Paid $2,100 in 1982. Now that I am retired, I have started collecting and working on keeping these old cars alive for as long as I am the caretaker. Prices have sure changed over the last 40 years

[Dakota]

Great stories!   Mine's not so interesting, but here goes.

With one exception, my dad was a loyal Chevy customer.   Always went to the same dealership.  His last car was a used Buick.  Growing up, two guys next door were huge Mopar fans.   They did a fair bit of street racing with 440 six pack Charger (68 or 69?).  They were always working on them too, with the radiator boiling over after shutting down the engine being a particular problem.   Cooling issues aside, that thing was a rotating rocket off the traffic light.

I had some other cars once I started working and several Dodge trucks, but for project cars I followed the family path and got a '79 Camaro to work on with one of my sons.  It was supposed to help us mend a stormy relationship.   It didn't.  (Thankfully, we get along fine now.) Anyways, dumped the Camaro to the great joy of my wife after dragging it around for about 10 years.   Ten days later, my sister called to ask if I was interested in a 70 Challenger that her boyfriend was selling.  So much for my wife's joy.  I've had the Challenger since 2010 but didn't get it back in the road until 2020.