The honest reporting from Steve is one of the reasons I continue to stream the Junkyard Gold episodes from the MT+ channel over the new fangled shows they push.

I had 2 Dakota's when I worked at a Dodge dealership. The first was an 88 4 banger, what a slug. I traded that when they came out with the magnum in 92. I bought the short bed 3.9 5 speed. We used to tell our friends, unless you want it for towing, just get the 3.9. We had a road behind the dealership we used for test drives. Very little traffic with a long straight section. We pitted my truck, against a demo 5.2 short bed 5 speed. We did it several times, even switching drivers to make sure. Unless you were asleep at the line, they ran nose to nose. Both had the

I have a friend who was a long time bracket racer and his car of choice was Pontiac. He became famous for using a combination of factory parts that seemed rather run of the mill to produce mid 12 (at that particular time) quarter mile times in his 1971 Pontiac LeMans station wagon. He was so incredibly meticulous and being a bracket racer he had his E.T. perfectly dialed in to the hundredth of a second so he knew immediately what helped and what hurt. He was hired by one of the major magazines in the mid '90's to do a monthly tech article. He was pretty excited. I remember seeing him down at KCIR and he was testing a new header collector that turned a long tube header into a tri Y sort of thing. You actually cut your existing collector off the header and attached these new 4 into 2 into 1 collectors. Before his first run he was explaining it to me and how he thought they might actually work. After his first run I could see his frustration as he pulled into his pit and started changing out his slicks for his street tires (he drove to and from the track). "Well?" I asked. "I lost 4/10ths, these things are junk" he replied. And he didn't lie on his write up. I don't know if that was his last tech article but I do know he wasn't employed for long. You can't dog on the advertiser's products, they don't like that at all. The man is named Jim Hand and he eventually got his LeMans wagon solidly into the 11's and there are even a couple of videos on KZfaq but sadly, he had a stroke and no longer races. His son did take over so the wagon still tears up the track to this day.

"Run that story!

My 92 318 Dakota runs strong as hell to this day. So simple to work on

Had a ‘94 Sport Cab with a 5-speed and 5.2. Put 220,000 miles on it and replaced it with a ‘99 R/T and put 296,000 miles on it. Loved those trucks almost as much as they loved gas.

Steve, A mid-size pickup with an 8 foot bed is the exact opposite of most trucks sold today. Throw a manual into the equation and it is nearly unrecognizable from the modern perspective. 😂

Great video. I lucked into a cream puff 94 Dakota that been wrecked by the grandson of the original owner. Took the body off the frame and replaced it with a 1940 Plymouth Truck body. 318 and 5 speed really scoots with that light body atop. I kept the six lug wheels, but switched out the stock for steelies that were used for the full sized spares. Looks like an old truck, rides like a new truck!

the only vehicle I ever bought new was a 90 Dakota with a 3.9 and a 5 speed. I drove it 320,000 miles on one engine, three transmissions, three rear ends, two fuel pumps, two driver's side doors, and two long beds )thanks to accidents.) It was a great truck!

I worked at Dodge during this era and doing PDI’s on V8 Dakotas was a guilty pleasure of a buddy of mine at the time that worked there also. We were gearheads in our very early 20’s without a care in the world until a V8 Dakota rolled in the shop. They undoubtedly were the most interesting vehicles Dodge had to offer at the time so much so that my buddy ordered one. Blue, V8, regular cab, short bed with the manual transmission and the sport suspension. He loved that truck so much he wouldn’t let anyone drive it and he parked it in his basement everyday. I thought he was gonna have a panic attack when he had to get rid of it (second daughter was in the way).

I had a 92 Dakota 4x4 with the 318 I'm highschool. It was almost 20 years old when I bought it. It only has 113k miles. That thing was fast for a truck.

Back in my day the owners manual was 14 pages long and told you how to lash valves, set the timing and rotating the tires. Today's manual is 400 pages long and says things like "dont drink the battery water".

I bought my aunt's '96 Dakota SLT regular cab, short bed 3.6 V6 auto when it had about 95k miles. She kept meticulous maintenence records on it. I loved this truck, it was the perfect size. It even had the 3.55:1 limited slip with the heavy-duty towing package. I had an app-based performance gps system on my phone, and ran consistent 8.5 sec. 0-60 runs. Always averaged about 19 mpgs. Just with the transmission didn't grenade itself.

When I was a kid my uncle bought an 87 4x4 3.9 5 speed Dakota. Its the truck I learned to drive stick in around 94. Great memories with the Dakota.

My wife bought a red single cab 1999 Dakota RT with 16000 miles on it. With trac lock diff and drove it every day to work in Toledo working as a nurse. 95000 miles now on ticker is still an excellent runner! Good women drivers need to be recognized and praised!

I owned a black 1995 Dakota 6.5ft bed 2wd. It was a magnum V8 5spd manual 392 posi, gray bucket seats with center console, ac, power windows. I put the Mopar performance computer and equal length headers from the Mopar performance catalog. That truck was tire fire all the time, it would drift on demand. It was definitely a fun little truck and very unique as I've yet to see another in the same configuration

318s have always been underrated, and for good reason. but their potential can be unlocked whenever changes are made in all the right places.

Love the old Hot Rod Magazine stories...I was a subscriber for years and loved all those guys.

Long live the 87-96 dak’s! I put a 418

A guy worked with had a white RT Dakota when he put a bunch of miles on it he got a wrecked 2004 Ram with 5.7 he rebuilt and upgraded that, then installed the engine and transmission computer all into his Dakota. He spent some time working out the bugs and aftermarket programs. That is still running like a top to this day and pushing low 8 second 1/8 mile times.