Muscle cars, old school, straight-line, go-fast muscle cars made up until the early-1970s have been gone for five decades now – since the last time we landed on the moon. That’s hard to wrap your mind around, isn’t it? Then there are cars like this 1978 Plymouth Volare Street Kit Car. The seller has it posted here on eBay in Highland, Indiana and the current bid is $4,155, but the reserve isn’t met yet.
Sure, many new vehicles are faster, safer, and get better mpg than most classic muscle cars did back in the glory years, but still, it’s weird to think that it’s been that long now. Heck, some new minivans are even faster than some muscle cars were, which is even weirder to wrap your head around. We’ve seen many Plymouth Volares here on Barn Finds, as well as the sister car, the Dodge Aspen.
We’ve seen both versions of the late-70s Volare Street Kit Car and Aspen Super Coupe here. I think they’re interesting to see and I’ve personally only seen one in person, the Volare version as seen here. The Volare Street Kit Car A43 was meant as a tribute to “The King”. No, not Elvis, Richard Petty. There was also a Road Runner and Super Coupe, but for extra points, try to snag a Street Kit Car.
You can buy this one, of course, but you have to be prepared to do some restoration. Maybe a lot of it, especially welding. This car has a fair amount of rust and what appears to be former bodywork on it, sadly. Kudos to the seller for not hiding anything, though. Some of the work that will be involved isn’t exactly flat panel welding, but depending on the seller’s reserve, and how much a person wanted this exact model, it’s not an impossible task to bring this one back.
The engines in all 247 Volare Petty tribute cars had a 360-cu.in. OHV V8 with 175 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque. That’s not exactly muscle car territory, and after Petty dropped the news that he would be sneaking over to Chevrolet after eons with Chrysler, the dream was over. This one was in storage since 1991 before the seller bought it and got it running well again. Have any of you seen one of these unique cars in person or owned one?
These cars were made when Detroit was running scared from Uncle Sam. The same way they’re running scared, right now. Thus, you got crap like these wheezy things with a graphics package and wider wheels. See also, Cobra II, the Turbo T/A’s and the emasculated Z-28’s.
A faux muscle car….Volare. lol Who sang it….dean martin or bobby vinton.
Horrible song too !
Bobby Darin. And I think you just don’t appreciate the song. Here are the lyrics….
Volare! Oh no!
Junk car yea! No no no no!
When new you were up in the clouds
Surrounded by admiring crowds
You basked in the glow of the bright auto show
And buyers all eager to sign
But you left them confused and all disillusioned as Chrysler fell further and further behind
With Corinthian Leather its only big seller
A bailout it had to find!
Volare! Oh no!
Junk car yea! No no no no!
Your memory makes my heart sting
Your engine’s perplexing sharp pings
And your rusty rear quarters
Bad front control arms
And hood latch that rendered me blind!
Bick, you missed your calling. You could give Weird Al a run for his money.
But this version is the best
A mechanic at a Chrysler dealership made up a song and I cant remember it all but here is some——Volare Chrysler is sorry Recalls come and recalls go, rusted out fenders dont you know, they keep on fixing it and it will not last I will be happy when its in the past I got paid for fixing up this crap trying to keep customers happy but they did not last never seen them again I guess it was not a win
It was first recorded by Domenico Modugno, and later by Bobby Rydel, Dean Martin, and then others.
These things were crap from the factory. Rust on the way home from the dealer. Kind of seems like insult to the King making a tribute car out of one of these, Brings to mind the sage words: You cant make chicken salad out of chicken Feathers. Or similar substances, Some thought these would be as good as the Dart and Valiant—–Bzzzzzzzttt…..Wrong. Bad front end design, couldnt keep an alignment. Busted fron flex hoses. Much warrantee work.
Good luck.
Cheers
GPC
What’s the old adage? You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.
More like you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t.
busted front flex hoses ? what kind of BS is that ? Like they just snapped. I owned several of these , 78 , 79 and 1980 and never had alignment issues or any brake issues of any kind , and all were still running when they were retired after 200,000 miles. The 76 and 77s had rust issues ,but not as you say, on the way home from the dealer ,and they did have a lot of warranty issues , but the 78 and up ones were very dependable
I had a Dodge Aspen R/T. Optioned out the same mechanically.
Very fast & handled great.
Out ran all T/As & Z28s.
Best of all there wasn’t a copy around.
“There’s never a copy around when you need one”
I’m off topic but I seen the picture of the 60 suburban long wheelbase mine was12 foot. Beautiful truck my friend. Mine was an Apache 30.we put a75-78 Chevy suburban 4wheel drive chassis motor was a 350 LT1 I miss that rig.is yours a Apache or GMC.either way she a beauty.
Very fast? You must have done a lot of work to the car because they were not fast at all.
There were no muscle cars made with a 360 in it.
Donnie, my Dakota R/T was pretty muscly.
I guess you didn’t live near my town.
I vaguely remember these at the time.
I actually think this would be an interesting restoration that won’t break the bank.
You wouldn’t be worried about matching numbers or non correct bolts and paint marks.
You could very easily make this into a very good performer that would draw some interest at car shows.
Nice V8 cruisers. I believe Many HD police parts were used, and are available 🚔
We had a kid in the area who street raced a 360 kit car like this one. Only modification I knew of was 4.11 gears and dirt soft roundy-round tires. The car was pretty quick. Seems like his car had the big ’43s’ on the doors.
I flew down the drove back an identicle Volare from New Orleans to Toronto, ON. in the 90’s. It hadn’t been maintained and needed a new battery. It drove it slow on the interstates to make sure I got home.The truckers were not too pleased and hurled insults!
That sounds like an average day where I live!
Where is it now and is it for sale?? I’m near Peterborough. Thanks.
Kit Car? Does that kit come with Rockers, lower quarters and fender heels? It looked good until they opened the door and got close. All American and Japanese cars rusted here in the Northeast back then. That this lasted until now is amazing. Good for a kid to try his hand at welding. What’s the worst that can happen, besides learning to weld more? Do the bodywork, then see what’s available for the engine to make it breathe a little better. The only thing that will be scary is the Chrysler electrical demons, but then that’s the last class you”ll need. Ron’s wiring should have a harness if needed, but only after you make sure it is worth the $$$. By then, maybe a real motor will fall in your lap and it can be a sleeper..
Everything still rusts badly in the Northeast
I had two 1976 Dodge aspens, a station wagon with /6 and OD, and a sedan with /6 and automatic. When an Aspen/Volare topic comes up I just anticipate the negative comments that inevitably start and usually are echoed by someone who read C. Reports magazine or saw them on some other forum. I told someone one time that they could wear white gloves and inspect my cars, and if they found any rust anywhere on the body I would give them the car. If they didn’t find any rust they had to pay me the value of the car. I never had a taker. I never had front end problems with either one and I put over 200K miles on the wagon, and NEVER had the frontend aligned. I bought the sedan used so don’t know what all had been done to it. It had a new a/c compressor but the compressor on my wagon was never changed. Those two vehicles were so trouble free and easy to own I’ve never understood the negative comments that always pour in on a forum like this one.
that rust…is sad!
I had one if these back about ten years ago. It was one of the 250 that had the center console with console shift. It came with the 360, lean burn computer, aramid tires, and adjustable front suspension. The plastic rear spoiler also had an adjustable metal blade on the top of it. I sold it to a guy in southern Colorado. The big “43” stickers came in a roll in the trunk. You could have them installed by the dealer if wanted. Mine didn’t have the numbers.
In all, it is an awesome rare car and gets more attention at a car show than alot of other Mopars.
I Like the sellers comments I would not try to drive it home
Not a kit car per se, all that stuff was on from the factory. I saw one in the wild on a regular basis where I lived when they came out.