Fellow Barn Finds writer Scotty G. alerted me to the fact that there was a fairly epic Dodge Dakota up for grabs on eBay. Why, you might ask? Well, because I recently bought my first-ever domestic pickup with the purchase of a 1998 Dodge Dakota R/T. I haven’t spent a ton of time on it yet, but I have a feeling this supercharged 1998 Dodge Dakota with just 7,000 miles could give it a serious run for its money – plus, it has the rare 5-speed manual option. Find this fascinating Dakota here on eBay with bids to $9,700 with no reserve.

This era of the Dakota (and the Ram, for that matter) was absolutely my favorite among the different generations. In fact, I loved pretty much everything Dodge was cranking out in the late 90s. The ACR Neons, the Viper GTS, the Stratus ES sedan – the list goes on. While the build quality was pretty bad, Dodge was at least building cars you wanted to own, even if you knew they’d be a rattletrap within two years. My Dakota R/T is certainly that, as the build quality borders on laughable, but I still love the looks – especially from the front, with the tires poking out from the sides of the wheel wells. This Dakota wears aftermarket wheels on larger tires along with a blue flame job on the sides.

One of the upgrades I’m planning is to ditch the original bucket seats for a set of Corbeaus or some other aftermarket provider. The buckets are completely flat with zero bolstering, and whatever support was in the cushions when it left the factory is long gone. The seller’s truck remains bone stock on the inside, even down to the factory steering wheel, with none of the alterations under-hood obvious from the cockpit. It is a strange thing to find a generic, workhorse pickup truck with such low miles, a stick shift, and a Kenne Bell supercharger under the hood. I’d venture to say we’ll never see another truck again with this exact assortment of features and equipment.

What’s funny is that looking at the truck from the outside, I wouldn’t be all that impressed by it. The minty “Amythest Pearl Paint”, sure – that’s nice to look at – but the wheels aren’t exactly a sexy choice and the flame job looks a bit out of place on a modern truck like this. If the flames were deleted and the wheels swapped out for something a bit more one-off, from the likes of a company such as Fifteen52, I bet this Dakota would attract even more attention. At the current bid, it’s a bargain, and I’ll be curious to see where this one ends up. Would you drive a supercharged Dakota with just 7,000 miles like you stole it, or return it to stock and try to cash in on it as a timewarp survivor?