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1939 Dodge D11 Can Hold Its Own Decades After It Was First Made

It may be the oldest car we’ve talked about all week, but there’s nothing about this 1939 Dodge D11 that stops it from competing against more recent four-wheeled machines in any category.
1939 Dodge D11 Luxury Line 20 photos
Photo: Hemmings
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As one of the oldest car companies in the U.S., Dodge followed in the late 1930s the trend set by the more visible rivals like Ford. It was just before the start of the war, and one of the best times to be in the car making business, a time when mass-produced vehicles were allowing carmakers to constantly earn cash.

Part of Chrysler since 1928, Dodge was pushed into having just a limited number of models available on the market in the 1930s, and that was a good thing for the brand, because it allowed it to focus more on the volumes the corporate higher-ups needed.

Caught between cars wearing the Plymouth and DeSoto logos, the Dodges of that era, although appreciated at the time, got lost along the way over the years, and there are not that many of them entering custom shops today.

That's why seeing a 1939 Dodge D11 pop up on the market in hot rod form is not something that happens everyday.

Based on the longer and differently-bodied 1939 D11s that got the Luxury Line moniker, the build here is part of an online auction as one of the rarest cars of its kind.

Not many modifications have been made to its body, but limited as they are they seem to both capture the essence of the decades-old car, and bestow it with a touch of modern styling.

The car’s original engine has been replaced somewhere down the line with a 305ci (5.0-liters) small block V8 of undisclosed power to give it an extra punch.

The auction for this car is ongoing, and the tally at the time of this writing, 11 days left before it ends, is at just $6,500.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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