Restored 1971 Duster 340 vs Supercharged 1995 COBRA Mustang

[Brian]

Monday afternoon January 3, 2000 my daughter and I are driving to our store with my wife and son behind us in the Durango. A 1995 5.0 Mustang Cobra catches up to us from behind. This thing is nice! All black with a glass hood, lots of gauges inside. As clean a car as my car. Wouldn’t you know we catch a light together. This guy is blipping his throttle, he wants to race and so does my 12-year-old daughter! This mustang has an eerie wine to it when he is hitting the throttle. I just bring the tachometer on the Duster up to 1000Rpm’s and brake torque it. I look in my rear-view mirror and my wife is shaking her head, my son is smiling. Just as the light turns green, I hit it. Lots of wheel spin, but the Duster is biting as the Pinion snubber lifts the car as it leaves. I smoke this guy so bad, by 70; I’m waving by by to him in the mirror. The torqueflite automatic shifts at 5500Rpm’s, way to low but it doesn’t matter.

I back down to 50 MPH again, just cruising and he wants to go from there. He’s in second gear pulling lots of Rpm’s and I’m in drive. I let him hit it first then I go after him. He slowly pulls away this time until I back out at 75Mph. We pull up next to each other at the next light and he wants to know what I’ve got under the hood. I tell him, all stock with a little cam. He just shakes his head. That eerie wine I heard was a super-charger blowing 10 Lbs. He has 3.08 gears; in it and it has run 13.0’s at Houston Raceway Park.

My day was made!

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From a safety point, I have upgraded the following components in my Duster:

1) I installed an NHRA approved drive shaft loop six inches from the front universal joint per NHRA specs. I was willing to ‘carve up’ my numbers matching car for safety.
2) I have also replaced both universal joints and a completely rebuilt the 3rd member in my Duster so I would be safe and legal when I raced it.
3) I installed one of the stock looking ‘lock-up’ motor mounts to keep my engine from lifting out of the engine compartment.
4) I converted my Duster from the stock 10" drums to the factory optional 5x4 discs. Oh my, another deviation from pure stock! My reason for this conversion was strait stopping without the wheel jerking associated with the all drum setup. The Duster now stops as good as any modern disc/drum car on the road. From a cost stand-point, this was an expensive conversion because I replaced everything in my brake system including SS lines, DOT5 fluid, shoes, wheel cylinders, springs turned drums in the rear, new master and proportioning valve.
5) I also rebuilt the entire front end at that time using all new TRW parts.


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1971 Duster 340 'RTS'
1999 Durango 360

http://www.damnimc

[GS -]

I had a similar experience with my teenage daughter and son in my Dakota. I was driving down a 4 lane and hit a light and lo and behold a guy in a Chevy truck pulls up and revs his engine. C'mon dad....well the Chevy lost and the kids loved it so they told Mom and she shook her head to.

[Richard Reardon]

Brian,

Nice story and not too crazy. As you get older you start to take on "some" responsibility and realize what could happen before it actually does.
Me and a few friends I've had since the 60s kick around old war stories when we're working on our current rides in the garage on a friday night and we wonder and kid ourselves about how the hell did we ever make it to 50 and better!
Guess this comes w/ maturity, but boy were those real crazy days - fun!

Richard