The 1978 Dodge Aspen Super Coupe really was a pretty decent offering- for its time. As the old cliche goes, measuring most American muscle cars in terms of performance from the late seventies to their counterparts a decade earlier is like comparing apples to oranges. Times changed, and the more I look at this Super Coupe the more I’m appreciating it for what it is and not what it isn’t, plus it’s a rare one and an overall nicely preserved example. If you’d like to see this one in your garage, the car is located in Homewood, Chicago, and can be spotted here on Craigslist. The seller is hoping for $23,500 but says he’s negotiable.
Thanks go out to Barn Finds reader Pat L. who spotted this one and sent it our way! So the exact number of these cars manufactured seems to vary a bit, depending on the source. The number that generally seems to be accepted is just under or a few over 500, with the owner of this car mentioning 531, so they’re definitely not a common sighting these days. This combined with the fact that it was a one-year-only offering sweetens the pot a little more, and parking this one next to a more base Aspen really shows that the design team did a pretty good job in the appearance department with what they had to work with. Sable Sunfire Metallic is the only color you could get, and the seller’s car is claimed to still be wearing 98% of its original factory paint. The owner realizes the finish isn’t perfect, but in trying to keep things as original as possible he has elected not to perform a respray and says that the patina is pleasant to look at, and is still in nice presentable condition for a driver.
When the one motor you could get only made 175 horsepower, I guess appearance is pretty important to get a buyer’s mind off performance, but at least the Super Coupe came standard with the 360 4-Barrel instead of the Slant Six or the 318. The car here still has its factory engine, which is said to have received a complete rebuild back in 2006, with the air pump assembly removed and the cast-iron manifolds replaced with headers, which the seller claims resulted in a substantial increase in performance. The 727 TorqueFlite is also the original component, which is stated to shift great.
We only get to see a couple of photos from the inside, but they’re enough to see that just about everything in there presents nicely and seems to have been well cared for. Thankfully, we do get a trio of pictures from the underside, including this one, and things down below appear to be solid and in good shape. I’m liking this one, but just not sure if I’m digging it enough to get past the $23.5k asking price. How about you?
Cool car but it needs a Chev small block in it.
The best place for any Shivvy engine is a dumpster.
Kinda rough isn’t it? Let’s see Chevy 327- 370 horsepower
Mopar 440 -6 pak 380 horsepower….. . Lol
why would you ruin this car now that it’s been “tuned” properly?
“Times changed, and the more I look at this Super Coupe the more I’m appreciating it for what it is and not what it isn’t, ”
That’s well said, we all want a 440 6pak or boss whatever, but at this point in time, with Chrysler on the brink, this is what you got. I like it’s uniqueness.
There was a not so distant past when early 70s Darts and Dusters were considered ugly too. Not so much today. I think these cars have nice lines and creative thought went into the paint. I grew up in the 70s and 80s though so what do I know.
Darn. Chrysler had the hold on Ugly in the mid 70’s
Ahem…….this is now considered a widebody
These and The Kit Car we’re both really cool. Probably the only thing that comes close would be a ’78-’79 Firebird Formula 400/ Trans Am W72, a ’78 Dodge Magnum XE E68 400, a Lil Red Express Truck, Midnight Express Truck 440 or Macho Power Wagon.
Hendo you left out the Warlock trucks.
Ohhhh
Lipstick on a PIG comes to mind
These cars were fugly , no amount of cladding is going to make it look cool …
Well true if anyone on here would know about lipstick it would be you.
I’ll take the pig if it can get up and go, as this car probably can since it’s been de-smogged.
2 door coupe , + bonus parts from the Dodge/Chrysler police 🚔 car parts bin. 👍 😎
Brown paint with bold, bright stripes? Window louvers? Spoilers and spats?Suddenly, I’m feeling the urge to get a perm and wear a leisure suit with a white belt and shoes.
There is no Dodge Aspen on the face of this earth, worth $23k.
A dual quad 426 Hemi with 4 speed would come close though.
I almost sold my Cuda to buy one. Its so odd I love it. 8” wide wheels and really weird paint scheme from the factory. Would have been cool with a 4 speed. I saw one with a 4 speed at a prototype shop in Troy Mi early ‘77. Wonder how it would fare in a race against a 78 Vette? Id guess the price is low for todays market and rarity.
Cool, but I just can’t see spending $23,500 on this.
One year was plenty ! 23k is the best joke of the day so far.
Fair price for this still-under-the-radar rare Classic to be. Plus, it’s a fun driver.
I’m a Chevy guy but like all performance cars. There’s a lot that could be done with this car if the transmission and rear end are solid new cam, some decent aluminum heads, a throttle body injection system, and some tuning this would be a mid 13 sec. car at least, nothing wrong with that
I would probably grab an extra 360 or 340 block, and build it as a 426-440ci stroker, then do head, cam, single plane intake, headers, shoot for 600hp and howl around like a malaise era NASCAR.
Looks like the owner did what the factory couldn’t, they de-smogged the engine so it could actually run. No malaise here! This car should get up and go!
But it’s still an Ass-pin.
The asking price is way high, but as for a performance car, and compared to what was available in 1978 , this was about the best you’d get.. Hey, he could have bought an Omni !
Should of left it in the barn.
I’m a Dodge guy, but not of that thing.
I Would change it. Fuel injection throttle body and a bolt on super charger with
elect fan. and if it doesn’t have them headers.
I owned it’s brother, the Volare Super Coupe. Pretty special car regardless of how you guys try to put it down. Motor is an E58 police version of the 360. Windage tray, double roller timing chain, big honking Thermoquad, 8 inch rims with Gr 60’s. All that was needed was headers and change the 2.71 gears to 3.55 or 3.90.
I’ve been reading, and wondering if someone knew about the 360 under the hood. Local police would follow a my friend that owned one, everywhere he went, looking for a chance to ticket him. He could outrun them all, except their radios.