Blair's Not so super coupe-Home

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Highlights of 1979

The Knack's "My Sharona" tops the Billboard Charts
First "Alien" movie in theatres
Richard Petty wins 7th Winston Cup Title (in a Dodge)
Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Accident
Chrysler Corp loses 1.1 billion dollars, builds 40000* Aspen Coupes, including 1 for me.

Historically Speaking

Although the decade of the seventies started with some memorable muscle out of Detroit, it closed out with a yawn. Most automakers, including Chrysler, had lots more to focus on than the performance market. That's not to say that they forgot about it altogether, but generally speaking, from 1975 on, you had better be impressed by fancy graphics and plastic goodies, because you weren't going to find much else. In retrospect, a lot of automotive innovations became commonplace during the seventies - things we take for granted today. Consider things like disc brakes, radial tires, electronic ignition, and yes, even emission controls. We may not have been as excited about them as a new Hemi, but we certainly wouldn't want to be without them today. It's funny how selective our memories can get. Few people would tolerate driving and maintaining cars today if they had point type ignitions and cantankerous automatic chokes. How about bias ply tires that followed every crack in the road? So what's my point? Maybe that cars from the last year of the Seventies should be considered the pinnacle of automotive technology's greatest decade ever, and that the Mopar F-Bodies were at the top of the heap! OK, that may be stretching things a bit, but after 22 years, I can truly say I like my Aspen. We've been through a lot together and had I chosen any other car, I really have my doubts that it would still be around. As far as I'm concerned the Dodge Aspen was easily a match for any car of it's time whose reputation unjustly caught a bum rap because of Chrysler Corp's financial woes during it's production.

The Facts

I have owned this car since buying it new in 1980. It was a daily driver car until I hit a deer in 1990. After a few years in storage I decided to restore it. (I'm still working on it) The car came as a stripper custom coupe with a single Holley carb, am radio, full wheel covers, day/nite mirror and not much else. I have kept it close to original, with most of the modifications being the ones I did back in the early eighties, such as a 2barrel carb, 3 piece R/T spoiler, Rallye wheels from a 73 Duster, and- oh yeah- a Sun Super Tach and pop up sunroof from Canadian Tire. I still have the piece I cut out of my roof. That's one thing I wish I had done without, but it's a part of the car's history and hard to erase. I've been able to find a few parts to repair some of the other butchery that took place. I removed and stored the original slant six to facilitate the restoration of the engine compartment.( It was worn out and had a hole in the oil pan anyway). The motor I have installed now is actually from a 1981 Dodge Ram. It was supposed to be a temporary substitute, but I just may leave it in. It does use a little oil but it works good .It has quiet hydraulic lifters, looks original, and I still may decide to upgrade to 360 power anyway, so in the mean time I'll just throw in a litre of Nugold every once in a while.Actually it's soon time to do a little more work on both this web site and the Aspen. Stay tuned for some new content regarding 8 tracks!!