Look at this beautiful piece of crap!

Kinja'd!!! "Frank Grimes" (FrankGrimes)
10/27/2014 at 15:58 • Filed to: None

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It's a Dodge Mirada and I just learned of their existence. RWD V8!

I would love a silver one and de ugly parts of it and make it a cruiser highway machine.

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DISCUSSION (33)


Kinja'd!!! ttyymmnn > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:00

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Welcome to the '80s. So. Much. Plastic. Does look pretty futuristic, though, for its time. The bottom one stole the roof from the '79 Thunderbird, though.

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Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:00

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They were kinda cool, but they were massive steaming piles of worthless shit. Much like my grandpa's old 'Doba, which as he put it, was "the shiniest of turds".


Kinja'd!!! Frank Grimes > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 16:01

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explain.


Kinja'd!!! JGrabowMSt > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:02

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Needs more 70's.


Kinja'd!!! SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:02

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Wow, that really looks like a special kind of crap.


Kinja'd!!! Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:03

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Kinda looks like the Dodge Magnum. Yes....Like the condom, not the gun.

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Kinja'd!!! DuckDraper > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:05

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I love Miradas


Kinja'd!!! KnowsAboutCars > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:05

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I've wanted a black Mirada CMX for a while.


Kinja'd!!! Mr. Ontop, No Strokes, No Smokes...Goes Fast. > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:06

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Here, put your bid in while it's still cheap! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dodge-Othe…


Kinja'd!!! T5Killer > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:06

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Just checked the stats they weigh less than I thought. high 3300 lbs I was figuring 3800 or 3900. Could be a neat sleeper.


Kinja'd!!! RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn
10/27/2014 at 16:10

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Also the gill slits.


Kinja'd!!! thismightbemylastburner > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:10

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I love the body style. If you could find a decently clean example, it might be worth the effort of beefing up the chassis a bit with plates, welds and gussets and then dropping a carburated crate engine into. Getting rid of all era electronics that are critical to operation would probably be best bet.


Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:10

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Well, with the Cordoba (which he bought new in '79), it broke down anytime you looked at in funny, and trim was constantly falling off. Not what you wanted in a brand new top-trim luxury coupe of the day. But on the upside, it had a 400ci V8, and looked like this:

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Kinja'd!!! ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/27/2014 at 16:12

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Yup. I noticed that after I made my post. I always kind of liked the '79 T-bird back in the day. Must have been pretty awful riding in the back seat, though.


Kinja'd!!! RazoE > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 16:14

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T-tops = redemption.


Kinja'd!!! jariten1781 > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:19

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I have foggy memories of my uncle having one that would diesel for like 15 minutes (that's what it felt like) after he shut it off. If he adjusted it to not do so it couldn't hold idle. I just remember him being sequestered in the garage screwing with it every time we'd visit in the 3 or so years he had it. It was a hilarious POS.


Kinja'd!!! RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn
10/27/2014 at 16:27

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This doesn't have a back seat, so no problem. I must admit, I have no idea why the T-birdchero has no gill slits, nor why the B-pillar design loose absolutely nothing like the T-bird. It's almost as if they were trying to hide the platform change, which seems foolish. If they'd capitalized on that, and it had ridden the Thunderbird platforms into the eighth and ninth generations, it might have been a credible alternative to the El Camino and survived into the 90s.

Why, for the love of all that is luxury, would you switch a deluxe coupe utility to a deluxe coupe platform and only then abandon it? Whoever succeeded Iacocca I guess dropped the ball.


Kinja'd!!! ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
10/27/2014 at 16:32

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There were a lot of questionable decisions being made in that era.


Kinja'd!!! Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 16:34

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I love these cars and I don't know why.


Kinja'd!!! ranwhenparked > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 17:57

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The Mirada was pretty slick, but it kind of gets lost in the sea of Chrysler's personal luxury nameplates - Cordoba, Charger, Magnum, Sapporo, Challenger, Mirada, 300, Imperial.

They were way late on recognizing the personal luxury coupe fad and were the last of the Big Three to enter the market, but once they did, they more than made up for it.


Kinja'd!!! Nedus > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 18:20

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So he bought it in '79, and it had a 400 in it. I'm just plugging these numbers into my helpful formula here....just a sec...and....by my calculations, it likely made about 62 hp!


Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Nedus
10/27/2014 at 18:22

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More like 162, but yeah.


Kinja'd!!! MultiplaOrgasms > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 18:50

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Bet he didn't check the fine corinthian leather option then.


Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > MultiplaOrgasms
10/27/2014 at 18:51

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I believe he did. It was either red leather or red velvet.


Kinja'd!!! MultiplaOrgasms > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 18:55

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Should've went for purple velvet.


Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > MultiplaOrgasms
10/27/2014 at 18:57

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That would give him pimp credentials he didn't quite deserve.


Kinja'd!!! MultiplaOrgasms > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 19:01

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Doesn't matter, appear to have had sex at some point.


Kinja'd!!! sdwarf36 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
10/27/2014 at 20:03

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Thats because you didn't have to work on them/deal with the kind of person that bought them/ride in them or have to avoid those same persons sailing them down the road.


Kinja'd!!! Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > sdwarf36
10/27/2014 at 20:21

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What made them so hard to work on?


Kinja'd!!! sdwarf36 > Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies
10/27/2014 at 22:21

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They were trying a funky deal for emissions called "lean burn." I was entered in the "Plymouth Trouble shooting contest" in 1979 in high school. One of the things we had to set the idle. You had to do it by hooking the carb to a bottle of propane!

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Kinja'd!!! Jordan and the Slowrunner, Boomer Intensifies > sdwarf36
10/27/2014 at 22:33

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So remedied with a 440 swap?


Kinja'd!!! Frank Grimes > sm70- why not Duesenberg?
10/27/2014 at 22:38

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Oh I was expecting you to say they rust the crap out right quick.


Kinja'd!!! sm70- why not Duesenberg? > Frank Grimes
10/27/2014 at 23:27

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I don't recall that being a problem, but he only had the car about four years before he traded it in on a surprisingly much less shitty Fifth Avenue.