It’s fair to say that Josh King’s 1972 Plymouth Duster didn’t look or perform like this when he drove to high school back in 1997. The immaculately-clean Duster has undergone a series of modifications, builds and the like before achieving its final form as a record-breaking wheel-lifting, 8-second, 1,200-horsepower murder machine capable of cruising Woodward Ave in surprising comfort.

Below the all-steel hood is a 417-cubic inch GenIII Hemi from BES topped with ThiTek cylinder heads, a Visner intake manifold and throttle body, with Ross 10.3:1 pistons spun by a Winberg crankshaft and Callies billet connecting rods, and a hydraulic roller camshaft moving T&D rocker arms. Force-feeding the stroked Hemi are twin 76/75 billet Precision turbochargers, massive ID1700 injectors and a Holley Dominator EFI setup. All of this and 23 pounds of boost on an E85 tune by Rick Trunkett at Big 3 Racing in Cleveland, Ohio, resulted in an astounding 1,200 horsepower at the rear wheels.

According to an article on Allpar.com, “The cold side turbo plumbing was done by Jeremy Howell at Fathouse Fabrication Runs and all of the finish welding, as well as much of the custom fabrication, was done by Joe Fitzpatrick of FitzFab. [With] custom exhaust manifolds that King made himself.” Backing all of that power is a Proformance Turbo 400 transmission spun by a Neal Chance torque converter, and twisting a Driveshaft Shop carbon fiber driveshaft connected to a FitzFab fabricated 9-inch rearend with 3.60:1 gears and 40-spline gun-drilled axles.

The Duster stands on Santhuff Shocks at each of the corners with Calvert leaf springs and Caltracs bars keeping the big slicks planted. Upfront is an RMS Alterkation front suspension setup. Externally, the all-steel body was coated in Hemisfear Lime Pearl paint by Jeff King (no relation) at King’s Classics and the interior lined with sound-deadening Dynomat. But none of that can outshine Josh’s incredible, record-breaking run of 8.17 at 167 miles per hour, making it one of the quickest street-driven G3 Hemi-powered classic Mopars in the world.

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