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1979 Dodge Li'l Red Express in Generation Gap showdown with 1933 Ford Pickup

Auto enthusiasts love a good debate, whether it's Mustang versus Camaro or Ferrari against Lamborghini. But how about a battle between two very different vintages of classic pickup trucks? In this case, the fight is between a 1979 Dodge Li'l Red Express and a 1933 Ford Model 46 truck with a flathead V8.
The shootout comes courtesy of the internet series Generation Gap, and its concept is super-simple. One guy prefers classics, and the other likes newer rides. They choose a category, pick two vehicles and put them head to head. In this case, neither is exactly modern, though. The Ford is more than old enough to receive Social Security checks, and the Dodge is hardly a young whippersnapper.
Other than both being pickups, these two models were made to serve very different functions. The Li'l Red Express was basically the progenitor of today's muscle trucks, with a big V8 that made it one of the quickest new models in its day (admittedly, 1979 was a rough time for automotive performance). On the other hand, the '33 Ford was just meant to work, with little pretense for anything else. One of the hosts describes it as "the simplest, most difficult" vehicle he's driven because of the tricky double clutchwork necessary to shift gears. Scroll down to watch the video and try to decide which of these two American classics you would rather have in your garage.

Junkyard 1983 Dodge Rampage has Franco-American roots

Lee Iacocca and the K-Cars get most of the credit for saving Chrysler after the company's 1979 bailout by the US government, but the success of the Simca-derived Omnirizon platform was a large, if overlooked, component of Chrysler's early-1980s resurgence. The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon were sold in the United States for the 1978 through 1990 model years, and variants included the 1983-1987 Dodge Charger and the Rampage, this well-worn example of which I spotted in a Denver self-service wrecking yard last week. The early Omnirizons came with a Volkswagen-sourced 1.7-liter engine, but all of the Rampage pickups (and their near-identical Plymouth Scamp siblings) came from the factory with a 2.2-liter K-Car engine making 96 horses. This truck has a 4-speed manual transmission, which would have made it reasonably quick by Malaise Era standards. This one had plenty of body filler and rust, even before the crash that sent it on that final tow-truck ride to this place, so it wouldn't have been worth restoring. Still, we can hope that some of its parts will live on in other L-body trucks. Related Video: Featured Gallery Junked 1983 Dodge Rampage in Denver View 16 Photos Chrysler Dodge Automotive History Truck Classics dodge rampage

2 men die in Dodge Challenger Hellcat crash at Colorado airport

Two friends died in the crash of a Dodge Challenger Hellcat over the weekend after they shot off the end of an airport runway, authorities said. That someone died in a 707-horsepower Hellcat is, sadly, not unexpected. But two aspects of the story are remarkable. First, the men's ages: The Denver Post reports the crash victims were Lynd Fitzgerald, 71, of Colorado Springs, and his passenger, Roger Lichtenberger, 76, of San Marcos, Calif. Second, their speed: The car was likely moving at over 100 miles per hour, authorities said. The men had permission to use the 8,300-foot runway at Central Colorado Regional Airport in Buena Vista. That's more than a mile and a half long. But when the car left the runway, it went 300 feet before flying over a ravine, hitting the ground, becoming airborne again, flipping end over end across a second ravine, and ultimately landing on its wheels 650 feet past the end of the pavement. Responding police officers tried to provide first aid, but the men were declared dead at the scene. "They were just test-driving this car. They went a little too fast. I don't want to surmise. ... They probably got to the end of the runway and, at that speed, didn't realize they were there so fast. And they lost control. It was just too high a speed and they got to the end of the runway," said Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze. There were skid marks near the end of the runway, but the sheriff didn't know the length. "I've never seen anything like it," Spezze told the newspaper. "They had permission to be there. There were no laws broken." Related Video: