"He's Got To Be So Macho"...

I'm not thanking you for getting that song stuck in my head.

The worst thing is, I can only remember the first few words and then the rest of the tune... still, the pictures and info about the trucks make up for it a little bit

Me too dam it !!!

I do try to be a modern man but fook it i want a macho power wagon, i want to grow a tash and wear a medalion, i want to say "hey baby" to girls in tight pants, i want to smoke cigarettes that are so strong my passengers buzz off them, i want JD on tap and beer in bottles i can carry by stuffing my finger in the kneck, i wanna wear check shirts, i want a gun in a carryer in the cab rear window and an axe strapped to the bed liner, i want dead animals in my sandwich and a bin full of petit pois that i don't have to eat BUT i aint having no mullet !

The Li'l Red Express Truck and Midnight Express was more than a decal and chrome pack edition though, it was a performance truck and if I recall right the only way you could get a big block in a Mopar by then (due to CAFE and other federal restrictions against muscle cars). The Midnight Express had the distinction of being the fastest "car" available off the dealer forecourts as well back then.

I think it was from his role as Deputy whatsit, which I guess was what he was famous for back then, rather than an extra-camp Rigsby wannabe.

Dodge started the "Muscle truck" thing back in the late 70s really, that's the spiritual birthplace of SRT10 Ram, F150 Lightning and SS454 C1500 and so on right there.

I've never heard of the Midnight express so it was probably a decal package or trim package.

The Li'l Red Express was a special high performance package. Basically automobile emissions standards didn't apply to light trucks so Dodge bolted together a hipo 360 LA (small block, not big block) without catalytic converters or lean-burn or any other emissions garbage. They even gave serious thought to equipting it with W2 race cylinder heads (the factory aftermarket race heads for oval track and drag racers) but in the end they didn't. It put out around 245hp and yes it would out-accelerate a Corvette. The LRT came out in 1978, but in 1979 the US government applied stricter emissions standards to 1/2 ton trucks, so Dodge was faced with the choice of either sticking 1 ton springs under it or installing cats and chose the latter for the 1979 model year.

There's also another ad for Dodge "Adult toys" with a semi-nekkid lady in it. Gotta love '70's ads.