It was 1970, and Plymouth had just reformatted their Barracuda onto a sportier, and frankly more expensive, model platform. In its wake came this exciting new car, the 1970 Duster 340, which, like the previous Barracuda line, was based around the A-body chassis design. This member of the Rapid Transit System was actually a standalone model. Though all Dusters featured the fastback roof line, this version had but one single engine option, the LA-series 340 CI, 275 HP small-block. Here, this car still retains its matching-numbers engine, with the 4-barrel carburetor, displacement-noted air cleaner, unique exhaust manifolds, electronic ignition, dual exhaust with Turbo mufflers and a detailed engine bay and undercarriage. Behind this is the matching-numbers A833 4-speed manual transmission and a 3.55-geared 8.75” rear axle, and this car also features power steering. The exterior, finished in Blue Fire Poly color, is stellar with all the cool Duster pieces from that first 1970-’71 season – black body-length stripes with displacement callouts, Duster 340 rear panel icon, twin-scoop hood with full blackout and J45 pins, sharktooth vertical-slat grille and chrome exhaust exits. Inside, the optional bucket seat interior is now restored to factory specs. This includes the 150 MPH speedometer in the Rallye dash instrument cluster with an auxiliary tachometer equipped with a shift light, factory AM/FM stereo radio, Hurst floor shifter with wood-type ball knob, woodgrain accent dash facing and driver’s side mirror remote. Outside, there is new tinted and shaded glass, dual body- color sport mirrors, new chrome trim and bumpers, and new body gaskets and seals were used for its reassembly. The optional factory Rallye wheels have been shod in wide BF Goodrich raised white-letter tires, matching the cool Twister Duster graphics at the end of each factory body stripe. The Duster likely cut into sales of Plymouth’s other performance machines as a budget muscle car. This refreshed example with light upgrades shows exactly why they made that choice.
