The Dodge Warlock has always been confused with its more famous stablemate, the Dodge Little Red Express, but it has carved out its own identity within the vintage Mopar community.
MyStarCollectorCar spotted a 1979 Warlock at an all-Mopar show that celebrated the Little Red Express and featured the largest collection of Little Reds we have ever seen in one place.
Jim Sutherland
The Warlock was not parked in the middle of the Little Red Express herd at the show, instead it was parked near them. Both were marketed as “Adult Toys” by Mother Mopar in the late 1970s, but the sheer sales numbers of Little Red Express trucks compared to the production numbers of the Warlock pickups meant Warlock owners attract large numbers of very curious and possibly confused onlookers.
Dean de Goede was the proud owner of the 1979 Dodge Warlock at the Mopar show and he is a huge fan of them. Dean was also willing to answer many questions about his unique Mopar pickup from the Me Decade and had the right credentials because he is a retired auto tech who understands every element of his Warlock.
Dean is only the third owner of the 45-year-old truck and bought it after his brother recommended that he have a look at it about 4 years ago. Dean is a dyed-in-the-wool Mopar guy and was casually looking for one when he found his Warlock partially disassembled in a garage.
The previous owner had been through a divorce that prompted him to sell the Warlock, so Dean was in the right place at the right time. His mechanical skills meant he was the right guy to reassemble the iconic Dodge truck.
The Warlock was Citron Green before Dean repainted it with a Canyon Red paint job, both of which were color options available for the truck in 1979.
The engine is the Warlock’s factory 318 LA 4-barrel bolted up to its original TorqueFlite 3-speed automatic transmission. Dean tweaked the engine’s performance a little with a friskier cam and headers to make it breathe better, but he wanted to retain its original powertrain to maintain the Warlock’s history.
The fact the Warlock only has 90,000 original kilometers (roughly 54,000 miles) on its odometer means it was driven somewhat sparingly over the past 45 years and is an excellent example of these lesser-known Mopar pickups from a bygone era.
The wooden stock racks on the Warlock’s truck bed were custom-built by a talented wood craftsman in the northeastern US and are exact replicas of the original racks found on these limited production Mopar trucks back in the day.
Dean told MyStarCollectorCar he tends to get asked two questions more than most others about his Warlock. The first question: “Is this a Little Red Express?”, and the second question: “Is this a 1978 Dodge truck”?
The first question’s answer is obviously “No”, but Dean answers the second question by explaining the truck’s two (round) headlights were a feature that carried over only on cheaper Dodge Custom pickups in 1979, while the more expensive Adventurer pickups had four stacked, rectangular headlights in ’79.
The Warlock still has its factory seats, and they are in remarkable shape, given the 45-year time frame since it left the factory.
In fact, everything about Dean’s 1979 Dodge Warlock led us to believe he is exactly the right owner at the right time for this very cool 45-year-old pickup from Mopar’s “Adult Toys” era in the late Seventies.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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