Dodge Li'l Red Express - Could it beat a Corvette? 

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my grandpa was a MOPAR salesman from 1946-1979 & I remember a couple of them sitting on his lot when I was 14 wishing I had a license so I could get me one! They were the coolest trucks I had ever seen & to this day they still are other than the Ram SRT-10 & the Dakota R/T! They sat there for quite some time as you stated there was a gas shortage then one day they were gone! I hope whoever got them took care of them because I know I would have!

I had a 78. These were cool trucks! Very underrated. Still valued way below where it should be.

My dad has a 78, he got it from his dad. Its his pride and joy.

I still see one of them trucks running around in my hometown I think it's a nice looking truck and it's in really good shape they keep good care of it

I have one Of these I need to bring it back to life. It’s on my list

I was working at a dodge dealership at that time ,got to take one right off the car hauler to "road test" for check in!! Ran the piss out of it 🤯🤯🙏 cool ass trucks 🤯🤯🤗

My best friend in high school got one of these for our graduation in 1978...it was fast & cool looking👍

I know a guy who own a 79 it surprised me i did not know about this truck before this day best truck ever

Had a neighbor that bought one. He was a retired guy. Wish I could've bought it when he passed. Loved that vehicle.

There were a couple Lil Red Express trucks in the neighborhood. The Colour and the stacks made the truck stand out.

I saw this truck when I was looking for model cars on eBay. I thought it was some old concept truck or something and that it wasn’t legit. Then, about a month ago, I was parked at a grocery store and it pulled up right in front of me. Totally fell in love with it 😆

You know what's cool is the bed rear fenders fit from 55-86 stepsides wow!

I had the 79. Black buckets. Loved my truck. My brother snuck out with it one night for a date and wrapped it around a big oak tree. Only had 5K miles on it.

Excellent truck very beautiful I also love the warlock truck that was cool too

The Lil' Red Express truck was *quickest* in the quarter mile, the Corvette still had the title of fastest mph at top end due to the streamlining.

Nice job. My Lil Red was featured on a DRIVE video a few years ago by Michael Musto. They are super vehicles.

Gas prices soared to $1 a gallon in 79. Those were the days

My one little league coach owned one of these back in 1979. It was definitely eye catching!

I absolutely love this body style. The trucks built in that era were the best looking trucks ever. I had a 77 Dodge Adventurer pickup. It wasn't a step side but it was still a great looking truck. Plus it was powerful and nice to drive. I would love to find another one

8000 dollars was a steal for that truck. Especially considering all of the work and research that went into it.

i dont have a lil red express but i do have a 77 D100 short bed with a 225 and a 3 on the tree....in the process of restoring it now

kudos to Tom Hoover and Chrysler for finding a loophole to help keep real performance (for the time) around. Look what this little gem has morphed into these days. 40 yrs ago trucks and performance was almost unheard of. LOL "Adult Toys" has a much different connotation these days -- funny ..

Fair enough I love my Aussie Utes like HSV Maloos, Holden Commodore SS’s and the likes but I also love American pickups as well and it really doesn’t matter the brand. I’ve seen and heard about these pickups before and they are on my dream car garage list. Thanks so much for sharing. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Cool little truck my first wife's maid of honor had one . It was an awsome vehicle !

Very cool and informative; a family friend of ours owned one for a spell in the '90s and I got to ride in it. There were also two others sitting neglected on two different properties in my area! Reputedly the Li'l Red Truck was the fastest accelerating US production vehicle in '78, beating out the T/A and Corvette, though some have disputed that claim. Hope you get to the Warlock and the elusive Midnite Express someday as well. Saw a Midnite at a Mopar/AMC show some years ago. Whether genuine or a clone, it's to date the only one I can ever recall seeing in person.

It seems like Mopar is credited with the first performance trucks in full-size and midsize/compact. The Shelby Dakota was introduced before the GMC Cyclone.

Had one, and a Warlock. Swapped a 440 EHP from a patrol car and it was perfect.

I had 78 custom 100 318 2V . It still used leaded gas from the factory. Dodge somehow convinced the govt. that their trucks were rated at 6000gvw, so the exhaust was dumped out just past the cab. Good truck strong motor as it wasn't chocked with emissions garbage.

I built a model kit of this truck when I was a boy. It had pride of place on my dresser until it didn't survive a move to a new home. I wanted one of them so bad.

I love your channel. It's my favorite of any on RU-vid. I've seen every single episode. My name is Vladimir. And I approve of this comment. 😁

I am a proud owner of a 1979 LRE......

BEAUTIFUL!!

My Favorite Vehicle! Thank you

I remember these Dodge trucks growing up in the 70's.

That's not saying much, I drag raced a similar vintage Corvette with my '78 Ranchero back in the '80s and it kept up. The automotive dark ages for sure.

I so wanted one of those trucks when I was a teenager

Cool, my father Nick has a '14 dodge ram 1500 4 door great truck

My dad used to have a 1977 Dodge D 150 with a 361 4 speed was an old conservation truck that had some get up and go too

Chevrolet also did that with the Silverado Big 10 truck as well

My father promptly wrapped his 78 around a pole soon after buying it new. Wish I had that truck now.

My dad had a 79, I learned how to drive in it!

More great MOPAR history!....thank you!

This was my first car ever. Imagine a teen girl in the late 90s trying to get that thing started lol

My Dad had one of these for a while in 1979, he was always burning rubber

Hopefully here in a few years I can get my 78 Lil Red restored. She deserves it.

I thought I was going to see a drag race .

Keep up the good work man

I have a true and verified 1979 Lil Red. Got in '86 from the first owner. Mine has the A/C, heavy duty springs, black buckets w/buddy seat and no dome light. Has the Lense but no where to put a bulb in or wires. It was illegal to own in California. The vin for the Lil Reds and Warlocks are in the #'s, the 3rd digit. All 2 wheel drive dodges were D14, 4 whl, W14. Lil Reds and Warlocks are D13 and W13. Immediate way to spot an imposter. Also Warlocks were only made in 1978 and had gold colored wheels.

I got one now and it's in pretty bad shape but I'm planning to rebuild. It's the 1979 version though. But it's still a beast to me.

Right on sweet ass muscle truck

I remember those trucks back in the day they were one fast bad truck

I knew a woman that had a Warlock , It was a good looking truck to my teenage eyes and so was she :)

My dad had a friend of his who had a black Ford f 100 with the same box as on that dodge had stacks on it too had a 460 big block with a 4 speed he called it little bit that thing would smoke his Corvette he had too I love that dodge don't get me wrong it just sort of reminds of my dad's friend truck from bloget Mills NY

Had a 1978. Yes i ate corvettes and Trans ams every weekend . Mine went 15:30s.

I never knew about this, this feels like alternate history.

I loved those trucks. It's too bad they're not making anything like them anymore.

The 360 was a good motor. Dependable and a little gutsy

Okay statement I had one of those little red express trucks and they are definitely quick little modifications and you could make it a Corvette killer

I had the 78. Beast. It’s the one to get

Too many non original parts were shown on trucks that may actually not be real LRE trucks. i.e. red rims, wood grain dash, non-red oak box wood (yes, from the factory all LREs came with the beautiful oak painted red) etc.

I always lean toward the warlock. I do have a question though cuz I was a kid at the time was the drive train the same in the warlock and the little red Express?

OMG that soaring $1.00 per gallon gas, how could we ever afford that?!? lol

You didn't mention its brother the Dodge Warlock.

These things used to be all over the place! At least in my little 5yo world in 1978. A neighbor bought a his and hers for the wife.

I remember the Lil red express sitting on my local dodge dealers lot I thought they were cool especially the side stack exhaust

cool truck

I own a '79 Lil Red. Got from the original owner. It sold new for $8,934.36. And sorry to bed wood was not oak. Also it was illegal in California to own one.

Chrysler tried VERY hard to get W2 heads EPA certified for the lil red express application. It didn’t succeed, but imagine how good it would have performed had they been able to.

My best friend worked at a Dodge dealership back then, calls me up on a Saturday morning, says I HAVE to come to the dealership to see something totally cool - I get there, and he's in a Lil Red Express Truck doing burnouts in the parking lot😅

Loved the truck !

One of these is in a showroom of a Chrysler dodge jeep ram dealer near me

still waiting on buffer. i forget exact year (78 i think) lil red was the fastest american production car, so that means it would be faster than the stock vette of the same year.

The wood bed was actually painted red like the rest of the truck.

Apparently you never heard of the 1978 Porsche 911 3.3 Turbo. 13.7 1/4. That was the quickest vehicle in 1978.

I know it is fashionable to poo-poo the environmental regulations implemented in the 70s but I am old enough to remember the bad old smoggy days that impacted cities and the health of the residents. There was a darn good reason the EPA was created. Automobiles used to be horrific polluters. It took some time for the automakers to adjust but look at the amazing progress they have made with controlling emissions. So let's remember the circumstances before we lament the lack of horsepower in the mid to late 70s.

I had one in 1978. Got about 12 mpg. If you drove it hard it got about 8.

In 1991 I bought a new Ford Mustang GT black with grey leather interior. I was the sh1t in my little town of Enterprise Alabama. A few weeks after owning the car a man at a stop light signed me to pull into a gas station. Once there he admired my car and made me feel as if I was driving a Ferrari. He was driving the red dodge truck in the video. I also admired his truck as we talked for a while. He asked me if I wanted to have a gentlemen's race for $50, which at the time was a chunk of change. We lined up down a country road and I was ready to take his money because I knew there was no way in hell he was going to win. Well, this man in the red dodge made me look absolutely stupid in front of my girlfriend in the car by absolutely destroying me. It took me a while to get over it and eventually sold the GT for something more practical.

Saw somebody take the motor out to put in their duster. Dusters are very cool, but they pretty much gutted a rare truck.

2:56 thays the diecast interior.

That picture @2:54. I have the same model on my shelf. Nice try, though.

Fastest American muscle was the 'Lil' Red Truck' for two years straight so yeah, it beat the Vette. Straight line acceleration, the Corvette would eat the Mopars lunch on a road course though... 🇺🇲

Hey I saw this thing not to long ago

1978 T/A with the W72 package was the quickest in the 1/4 in 78-79.

The Aussie still beat you with our limited edition xc ford falcon cobra coupe for 78,79 it had 227 horsepower but for 9000 Aussie dollars or 12000 American dollars

OH MY GOD, a dollar for a gallon of gas!!!!! When will it end.

What I wouldn't give for $1 a gallon gas today.

I was born in 1944 so I cringe every time someone pronounces Li'l Red Express with a t.

Definitely would win. Corvette was ridiculous heavy and under powered. ABOUT the power of a Ford Pinto

MY DAD HAD 2 OF THEIS TRUCK S . ..THE WAR SOU KOOL 😄 MAN IN D. AND FAST . WEED 575 HP .

Chrysler had excellent product back then. Sad what happened to Chrysler -

0-100 in 10sec 🤯

If you could keep traction yes it would have beat the Corvette from that year.

Author: Tommy Flanagan.

They should have made many more than they did

Quickest not fastest.......the top speed is listed at 100mph while the Porsche 930 of the same year was listed a 165mph. Big difference......

My cuz had one

they didn't make a 944 in 78-79 :/

👍

you lost me this time at 0:20 by naming car that went for sale 3 years later do some researches before editing a video