Dodge Magnum XE

In naming the Dodge Magnum XE as the focus of today's Poseur Muscle Cars of the Afternoon theme, I feel I need to clarify which Magnum I'm talking about. This is not the contemporary Hemi-fortified Dodge Magnum wagon--that vehicle, certainly a future Car Lust, is a bona fide muscle car without the need to pose as such.

In the grand tradition of the very first Ford Explorer (a trim level on the full-size van) and Ford Ranger (a trim level on the full-size pickup), the Magnum name lived briefly before it found its current, more widely known home. In the late 1970s, to freshen its line of completely deflated muscle cars, Dodge introduced the Magnum as a businessman's express, a muscular cruiser that promised the punch of a muscle car with the elegance of a Grand Tourer. Envision a Mafia hit man in a hand-tailored suit--that's the idea.

The execution fell a bit short of the mark. The ads featured a grownup muscle car fanatic with a Hemi 'Cuda in the garage, happily waxing and washing his Magnum XE in the driveway. In truth, any owner of a Hemi 'Cuda would have been horribly disappointed with the Magnum XE. The Magnum had all of the weaknesses of a muscle car--poor suspension, tacky interior, awful fuel mileage--without any of the shirt-popping strength. The 0-60 sprint took nearly 10 seconds in the Magnum, large gas-guzzling V-8 notwithstanding. The 400-cubic-inch V-8 made only 190 horsepower; the 318 made only 140.

Still, as with all of these Poseur Muscle Cars, I'm a sucker for the Magnum's style. It's an awfully good-looking car. Its square-shouldered styling is muscular yet rather understated, and with a modern crate engine under the hood and some work on the suspension, you could have a car that fulfilled its original promise as a grownup's muscle car. Of course, it also would mean sinking thousands upon thousands of dollars into a car that would still be essentially worthless today and still be far less of a grownup's muscle car than its modern-day namesake.

This lovely '78 Magnum is driven by a true acolyte of the Magnum XE church, featured at www.mydailydriver.com.

I've attached a 1978 commercial for the Magnum, dubbing it a "magic means of transportation ... a splendid combination of touring car and luxury car." Uh uh. It's perhaps telling that the lead feature for discussion is the "update of the classic Cord grille."

--Chris H.