70's widebody Aspen/Volare

[Steve Chryssos]

http://www.race-cardrivers.com/Chrysler%20Petty%20Kit%20Car%20IMSA%20Volare%20Roa d%20Runner%20SCCA%20Trans%20Am.htm

The link is really that long. Might need to copy paste for it to work right. Here's the pic. These cars were sold as kits by Chrysler. Scan the whole page for the old school "kit" ads. Here's a coupla pic. Who woulds thunk that a Volare would make a killer, cheap starter car for a pro-touring project?

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/rt20fr20qtr-1.jpg

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/rt20rear20qtr-1.jpg

[High Plains Mopars]

Widebody road racing wasn't the original intent of the Kit Car program, but a couple of them did end up there.

Originally, these were built as a sportsman style oval track racing chassis that was available through any Direct Connection dealer. They were developed in the early 70s as a joint venture with Mopar and the Pettys. The first car was bodied as a Challenger and was tested by none other than Dale Earnhardt. Once available over the counter, the available bodies were changed to Darts, Dusters, and Aspens.

The cars could be bought at almost any stage of completion from a simple cage and frame structure, to rollers, to runners sans body, to a complete turn key race car. 355 small blocks with W2 heads were the available engine as were Grand National sized brake kits, and customized torsion bars, sway bars and leaf spring rates. Packages also included a complete set of full size blueprints that provided layout and location along with dimensional info for the inevetible repairs that would be needed on a short track car. Sets of these are the Holy Grail of Kit Car lore.

Very few of these remain around anymore, although in the early 90s, an outfit in Long Island called Sparks Brothers Racing, was claiming to reproduce the chassis.

[ZuperZport]

Who woulds thunk that a Volare would make a killer, cheap starter car for a pro-touring project?



Nice find Steevo. Good info Tony.

So into ANYTHING that morphs a production car into a race/street car complete with full safety equip/cages, cells, bullet proof suspension, etc., etc. Just way too cool.

Amazing to think way back then (mid-70's) several Chrysler engineers got several more suits to approve such a program. Closest thing today perhaps would be the "body in white" offerings such as the Challenger, Mustang and Camaro drag-race only specials.

Wish Chevrolet offered the "Sunoco/Donohue" option back when Trans Am Racing was king. Would have made mine and many other PT projects a lot easier!

[shortrack]

Very Cool....you see the passenger side of the cockpit is open (except for the relocatable dry sump tank) it's not all full of exhaust like a lot of Trans Am cars are so you could fit a pass seat...a requirement in my book. Ran in GT-1 eh? fast car!

[Ron S]

Love it Steve, have a couple of old Direct Connection catalogs floating around with the add for these cars in there. That was my dream purchase when I was 16, the chassis's were kind of cheesey but were required by the rule book.

[srh3trinity]

I like it a lot. Looks kind of like a 'roided out last gen Nova.

[Steve Chryssos]

That's funny!

Here's the street version. Squint a little to fall in like. Would need lowering.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[Ron S]

Loved the windsheild tabs, the funny thing is back in 1978 we thought these things were kind of fast. A buddy tried to order one with a 4 speed, way back when , but they weren't avalible that way, automatic only. The super coupes were kinda differnet too.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/mopp080114classicmoparprojectcL-1.jpg

[High Plains Mopars]

I've got a 1978 Kit Car catalog (race version). It has every single piece of the thing broken down and assigned a part number so you could pick up anything from it at the local Dodge dealer. Including a number of super heavy duty nascar parts. I was never a fan of the Street Kit version because fo the fender flares and tail spoiler, but Super Coupes do look decent, IMO. The Road Runner and R/T varients of this body style weren't bad looking either. Yes, performance was down compared to their namesakes, but these days all it takes is a stroker kit and some heads to make them run. The last Aspen I had would run low 12s @ 105 in Denver. It outran many a more "performance" oriented big block car from the day.

One big drawback to these cars is the front suspension uses a transverse torsion bar design that is bigger, heavier, and mushier than the earlier longitudal torsion bar design it replaced. Bars for them are expensive two, $650 a pair, and are only available in three different rates. If you want to pro tour one, I'd definetly recommend going the AlterK route with coil overs so you have a choice of decent spring rates, plus knock 100# off the nose.

The Aspen/Volare twins (F body in the mopar world) are somewhat maligned by the mopar guys, but they can still be picked up in decent conditon for under a few grand. The nice thing about them is they are as wide a Charger but only as long as a Duster. This give them the ability to do big block conversion with only a change of motor mounts yet not require a football field to turn around in.

[Stg1Regal]

I would have sworn I just read about this car, or all the stuff to build one, being for sale somewhere. A whole trailer full of stuff. let me check about.

[High Plains Mopars]

If its the one in the original post's link, its been "for sale" for years. What they failed to mention on their site is they picked up a pair of these, placed the beat one for sale, which sold fairly quickly, and kept the widebody with no intent of selling. Of course, times change and they may have finally decided to let it go. They still ist the orange one being for sale on teh web link, but it is long gone. They haven't updated that site in several years.

Here is my last Aspen, before paint, with its drag race set up. Thats a 295/70 drag radial in the rear wheel housing that only required minor clearancing to fit. This car was completely rust free, only had parking lot dings for body work, and I bought it for $300.

https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2012/09/aspen4-1.jpg

[IndyDave]

I've had a long love-affair with the Chrysler Kit Cars (the race cars, not the street cars). Growing up in Ohio in the seventies I was witness to the most successful Kit Cars ever built, the cars campaigned by Jerry Lawrence out of Columbus Oh. with driver Jim Cushman. First with a Duster body (AMT made a model of this car) and later a Volare bodied car. They ran in ASA, ARTGO, and any big money late model race in the midwest. The old Queen City Speedway was my second home and watched that car come and kick ass everytime it showed up.

I recently sold my Neon SCCA Club Race car to buy a '79 Aspen R/T to turn into a PT car. The transverse T-bar cars didn't work worth a poop compared to the longetudinal bar cars. In addition to the compromised geometry, the build quality of the k-frames was bad (rest of the car wasn't built any better) and they would twist and break welds. Not good for holding alignment. My solution is going to gut the car off at the fire wall and replace the front clip with a road race clip from Howe. Since the car will be getting a full cage, clipping the car won't be an issue.

[novaderrik]

it that a young Dale Sr leaning against the chassis on "page 3" in the link in the OP?

sure looks like him..

[High Plains Mopars]

Yup, he was one of the original test drivers for the program.

If you poke around that link some, you can also see the flat 4 to 1 configuration of the headers. Real odd layout that allowed you to slam the car down low without dragging the collectors.

[jtmiller92]

Thats pretty cool. My first car was a 79 Dodge Aspen with a Slant 6. Couldn't kill that car. Paid $250.00 for it with Ice cold AC. Silver with Red Interior.

[IndyDave]

Here's some kit car pics.....

658026580365804658056580665807658086580965810

[High Plains Mopars]

I think the #8 car was restored in the last few years and has been hitting some shows here and there.

I always thought these would look good with a 2-3" chop to get ride of some of the glass in them.