In 1974, Richard Nixon was forced to resign as President after the Watergate scandal and a series of tornadoes left more than 300 people dead and over 5,000 injured. Inflation spiraled out of control due to the global recession, and a new 55-mph speed limit was introduced to help save fuel. The U.S. automotive market wasn’t doing great either. New fuel consumption and emission regulations sent high-power big-block V8 engines into the history books and put an end to high-performance cars. Once a beloved muscle car with more than 300 horsepower, the Ford Mustang morphed into a fancied-up Pinto that wasn’t available with a V8 in its first year on the market.
But it wasn’t all gloom and doom. While muscle cars were no longer a thing, compact automobiles were selling like hotcakes. Mopar-made A-Body cars, for instance, moved more than 550,000 units in 1974. With the Plymouth compacts far more popular, Dodge was looking for ways to increase Dart sales and introduced a series of limited-edition models and special packages in the mid-1970s… read more >
