One of the few bright spots of the late-70’s malaise era, the Dodge Li’l Red Express kept things interesting when most of Detroit’s lineup was just plain awful. Produced in small numbers (just over 7,300 units total) and for two years only, they combined as much horsepower as Detroit could muster with an exterior appealing to the late 70’s customization craze. This survivor is located in El Paso, Texas and is for sale here on eBay with a current bid of $2,551 and reserve not met.
The story of the Li’l Red Express (LRE) is well-known, but as a quick refresher: In 1978, legendary Chrysler engineer Tom Hoover (the father of the Hemi) discovered that pickup trucks did not need a catalytic converter if their GVW rating was above 3 tons. He also realized modifications could be made on an already-certified engine without undergoing EPA recertification. So by stuffing a warmed-up 360 small-block into the ½-ton D150 pickup, and dressing it up with lots of chrome and other late-70’s styling touches, Hoover built Dodge a pickup that could smoke a new Corvette or Trans-Am at the time. Alas, the second oil embargo, high prices, and slow sales killed the model after just two years. This example is from the second year of production and can be easily identified as such by the square headlights. From this front view, we also see something not usually found on an LRE (and likely a dealer-installed option) – a Ramsey winch.
Opening the hood, the engine bay appears clean and largely original. The seller indicates they changed out many smaller maintenance items after awakening the truck from a 12-year sleep. The (now expensive and hard to find) LRE-specific parts and some original factory assembly tags still remain.
The bed wood has been replaced with this attractive red oak, and the seller states that the rest of the exterior wood trim is original. With regards to the rest of the body, only a few small spots of rust are visible.
Inside, the door panel trim appears worn, but otherwise the buddy-seat equipped interior looks great. The black buckets are reminiscent of Dodge’s earlier sports truck package, the Custom Sports Special (CSS) lineup from the 1960’s. Prospective buyers should take a close look at the ammeter in this (or any pre-1980) Dodge truck; the old full-flow design was woefully obsolete by this time and can cause all sorts of gremlins. That and the potential for frame cracks around the steering box are really the two main areas any LRE buyer should take a look at. Fortunately, the bolt-in brace that remedies the second problem is readily available again.
LRE’s have a very active collector community, and the National Association of Li’l Red Express Truck Owners (NALRETO) provides technical support, parts sources, events, and more. While not perfect, this example looks as though it could easily be turned into an attention weekend cruiser with very little work, or provide a solid entry point for a full resto. Are those dual stack exhausts playing your tune?
I never get sick of looking at these trucks, and I know someone who has a mint condition one. The ’78 Dodge Warlock was a cool package also, and I loved seeing them as a kid.
seems like there’s a heck of a lot of these popping up for only 7300 being made🤔
Great truck, but I’m starting to think that every Buick GN owner also had a L’il Red Express and a ’78 Vette Pace Car in their collection… they’re going all in at this point and hoping for big money, no Whammy.
Sure they could smoke a Corvette in a straight line, but around a curve? I also have problems with Chrysler twisting the rules for this. Trucks were supposed to be work vehicles and yet they abused the system to make a performance one. As much as I hate Uncle Sam sticking his nose into some place it doesn’t belong, he should have here. I also lament the poor performance the pollution controls did to cars in this era, but are any of you old enough to remember the smog from the late 60s and early 70s in this country? It was a good trade off in my humble opinion. Maybe you country bumpkins don’t care about smog, but I lived in Minneapolis at the time, and children, let me tell ya, it got rough some days. People can cry and moan about the malaise era all they want, but it was a sacrifice that had to be made. Just be thankful things are better today in both automotive performance AND air quality.
That twisting of the rules for smog, safety and fuel economy all led to the popularity of Pickups and SUVs as cars, as well as oddities like car-based minivans that lacked common safety gear, PT Cruisers and Cute Utes. The Big 3 negotiated exemptions in for work vehicles with one hand, while the other hand turned out non-work vehicles that fit those exemptions. Chrysler was hardly alone in this. My father’s ’78 Suburban Silverado half-ton, 2wd with a 454 was another early example. It was a full-sized wagon with a big block (with loose smog controls) that didn’t impact the CAFE like the no-longer-available big block Buick Estate Wagon that it replaced would have.
The big change was that leaded fuels in the 60’s were the smog makers. So in order to get rid of the lead the automakers had to cool down the combustion temperatures. The high compression smogers needed the lead as a coolant and lubarcatant during combustion. The short term cure was to lower compression ratios add EGR valves which put exhuast gas back into combustion all there to cool the burn to eliminate the lead. Then we added catilytic converters to change co2 into sulfer dioxide this help get rid of the brown cloud but contributed to acid rain. The 70’s were transition years where the automakers were scrambling to meet the changing government standards. Another trick was to pump air into the exhuast system there by diluting the the emissions at the tail pipe these pumps don’t effect performance they were there purely to help make things look ok at the tail pipe. Technology has changed the engine, we have the performance back and have improved emissions.
Seems like a decent truck, in better conidition for the other erecently listed here and for sale in Oklahoma, but seriously…Who puts a winch on the front of a LRET?
“Trucks as work vehicle’s”…?!?! Chrysler was somewhat ahead of it’s time releasing this. Since then, along came the 454SS, Lightning, Raptor, and ALL of the other’s that I’m missing. WIth the sticker price of a current truck bottoming out around 30K (ish) and rapidly climbing into the stratosphere more than a few aren’t doing any work now, save for the weekend big box home improvement stores.
And if rules were rules, they used them to their favor, while still being compliant. Good for them!
You missed my point. Breathable air was the need, hence the law. Skirting regs at that time was immoral.
I think your point was that it was wrong that these trucks kicked Vette in the butt at straight line performance…By the way, wasnt there Jeep Comanche that with 4.0HO beat Vette in the track also? Early 80s, stock vehicles.
Dodge broke NO rules making this truck, so I guess only problem is that it was faster than Corvette?
Fla Finn, there are plenty of things that are technically legal but are outside the spirit of the law. The environment is one of those things that we all need to agree upon and take seriously, kind of like how some of us feel about economic fairness, but I digress. Whether or not a Corvette was bested by a truck is ill material, this set of regulations was to clean our air so asthmatic children and vulnerable elderly adults could be healthier, and to me, that is more important then silly bragging rights or corporate profits. Of course I work in health care, and maybe I saw too many kids in ERs gasping to breath, so my opinion is for sure biased.
In relation to cars there were few of these made so exempting them had little to no impact differance. It’s all about the numbers. This time in history will come and go as did every time before, you have one super volcano go off and all the catilytic converters and ev car in the world won’t mean a thing. The earth has been ttrough worse than us humans and will regenerate time after time. Should we try to do better yes is it the end of the world if we don’t. No besides there are no guarantees that we won’t go extinct at some point anyway.
I like the truck. However, I have long femurs and can not drive a standard cab Dodge truck made before 1993. I have tried. I was about to purchase a 1992 4wd with a Cummins and manual transmission and I could not move my legs to drive it with the seat all the way back.
On a happier note, my former neighbor was instrumental in bringing these trucks to market. He worked for Dodge Truck when they still made medium and heavy duty trucks. I do not recall exactly what he did nor how he was involved.
Is it not great to loose your memories?
Why are we arguing about this ? I think it is a cool truck and if I could I would buy this in a heart beat. If it or another is aroung next May I will be a buyer, Have a great weekend to all my BF friends!
I love these LREs and second what Mike said about never getting tired of looking at them. I hope that one day I will have the opportunity to own one.
Regarding emissions and all this clean air discussion, I live in Chattanooga, TN in Hamilton County. Chattanooga was once a big industrial/railroad town, but now it mainly thrives on tourism plus we have the fastest “available” internet in the country (see EPB.com Gig City). We have junctions for Interstates I-75 and I-24 here. Every year at tag renewal time, we as residents of Hamilton County are required to take our vehicles through emissions testing at a cost of $9.00 per vehicle. The surrounding counties do not require it. I understand the logic behind clean air and reducing pollution. However, the fact that untold numbers of big rigs, vehicles from out of state and surrounding counties pass through or are in this city every day polluting the air, I see our emissions program as nothing more than a money grab.
Maybe electric cars are in order for certain people from what I’m reading here on this particular vehicle.