The 405 Aired April 27th, 2026
Wanna again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, new week feels good out there. A little bit chilly, but the wind isn't blowing. Keep it on the down low. Get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, or bottled water. Let's see what's happening out there.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.04 a bushel. A 550lb steer calf, a few are moving down there in Billings, $5.05 a pound. They sold on the April 22 not long ago. A 100 pound fat lemon billings, two dollars and ninety two cents a pound, but guys, there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Bible verse right up front. Habakkuk. You don't hear that one very often. Habakkuk, Old Testament 1:8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle swift to devour. Again, that was Habakkuk one verse eight.
OK Solberg:Yes, sir. Horses swifter than leopards and they fly like an eagle. Seems to me a good bible verse for horsepower. Yes, sir. It's Monday, and that means it's Jay and Joe's Motor Monday. The day we look at horsepower one Monday at a time.
OK Solberg:Today, well, it's not a car. It's not a scandal about an automobile. Today, a pickup. And like my friend Mike Lowney said, it's a muscle car pickup. Oh, by the way, do you call them a pickup or a truck?
OK Solberg:On the farm out there in Harb, a truck had duals and a box with a hoist. We fed the cows with a pickup. Now down in Fort Benton, while I drove semi truck, I hauled grain into Montana flour and grain. And I had this exact discussion with Dave down there. And in walked big Joe.
OK Solberg:I said, hey, big Joe. Should we call them a pickup or a truck? He didn't even hesitate guys. His words came as smooth as silk on ivory. He smiled and said Ford and Chevy made a pickup. Dodge builds a truck.
OK Solberg:Well, no. Right or wrong, good or bad, that's a perfect lead in for our story today because it's a pickup made by Dodge. Did you realize that Dodge made a super pickup way back in 1964? Yes, sir.
OK Solberg:The year I was in second grade and the same year I met Todd Smith. Every now and then an automaker breaks all the rules, and that's what happened. Back in 1964, they broke the rules and stuffed a race engine where it didn't belong. That's exactly what Dodge did with this pickup truck. A machine so rare and unexpected that it became the stuff a legend among Mopar fans.
OK Solberg:This wasn't about practicality. It was about bragging rights. You might think the NASCAR bred 427 Hemi was only reserved for chargers, roadrunners, and super bees. Uh-uh. But in 1964, Dodge did something that even Mopar Purists still argue about.
OK Solberg:Chrysler quietly dropped the infamous elephant engine elephant engine, the 426 Hemi, into a Dodge pickup truck. No fanfare. No press release. Just raw street legal theory wrapped in steel. The 427 Street Hemi made 425 horsepower and 490 foot pounds of torque breathing through dual 4 barrel Carter AFB carburetors and backed by either a 727 torque flight automatic transmission or a 4 speed manual.
OK Solberg:One story is told that this farmer ordered one of these beasts. Of course, he loved to street race his buddies on the rural back roads kinda like Tim and I used to do. Problem was the dealer or the factory messed up the order and instead sent him an identical looking Dodge pickup with a measly 230 horsepower 318 instead of the 426. Well, the dealer, he apologized and allowed him to drive the 318 while the 426 was reordered. Well, guys, he never mentioned this to his buddies.
OK Solberg:He told them it was the 426 that he ordered, which, of course, allowed them to beat him easily in the race. But when the real thing arrived, he said, hey, guys. I've been tinkering with the carburetor, and would you wanna run them one more time? Give me one more shot. This time, of course, it was no contest.
OK Solberg:The 1964 Dodge pickup blew their doors off, and it's fun to have fun in a fast sort of way. Another owner of the same pickup recalls, my folks had this exact pickup in town at a stoplight might be a GTO or a Fairlane with a 390 or even a Corvette pull alongside. They'd nod at my dad. He'd nod back in the when the light turned green, let's just say many people went home with their tail between their leg trying not to admit that they were beaten by a Dodge pickup. In fact, I might add, a highway patrol aircraft in Florida clocked a 1964 Dodge pickup doing a 130 miles an hour.
OK Solberg:Now when the patrolman came down, he refused to write a ticket, claimed his radar must have been on the fritz. Knowing deep down that that plain Jane pickup could never go that fast, but it did.
OK Solberg:So until next time. As you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.