Back in 1978, the arguably quickest new vehicle in the US was a pickup. Sad but true. The Lil’ Red Express was a specially-optioned Dodge truck with a 360 cubic inch V8, with only 2,188 made in 1978. Understand, “fast” in 1978 was a relative term, but 0-60 in 6.6 seconds wasn’t bad at all back then. This one, however, has suffered a little over time. Although the block is original, the heads are not, the rear end has been changed, the body is rusty, and the trademark vertical stacks are long gone. This particular truck is available here on eBay for a buy-it-now of only $1,978 with open bidding considerably lower. It’s currently located in Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. I remember these being so cool when I was in junior high school! The seller tells us that this one has been sitting for many years and doesn’t run. If you want to see what it looked like when it was new, check out this site devoted to Lil’ Red Express trucks. Would you like to return this hot truck to its former glory? Or just get it running and drive it? I’d have to at least get a set of stacks installed!
Yes in 1978 pickups were king of the road, I had a new 78 Ford F-150 4X4 with a 400 v8. I worked the graveyard shift at a factory 2 towns away and had to take a desolate 4 lane highway to work at 10pm. Well on Friday nights I would meet a Camaro / Mustang at the last traffic light leaving town and that truck would blow the doors off both, the only modification I had was headers and dual exhaust. I never got a chance to match up to a Red Express because there was very few around my area.
I just met a gent with a ’79 little red express truck a week ago. Absolutely gorgeous. Never rained on, 23,000 miles. He is going to list it for around 20k. The market’s still good for these!
Well, you couldn’t fix this one for 20,000 so it makes his a buy.
I don’t think so.
LRE (and Midnight Express) were an interesting automotive footnote but this particular example is not interesting at all.
I like these, but being from nw pa I cant imagine this one is gonna be any kind of easy job. I remember these dodge trucks rotting away bad in my area. Not tio mention the missing stacks and original wheels.