Over the past 20 years or so I've owned several Dakotas. Most were 92-96 models with either the 3.9 V6 or the 5.2 V8. In 2009 I did buy an 04 V6 5 speed for the wife to drive. We sold that 04 this past spring. The 95 and 96 dakota sports with the 5.2 engines ran fairly strong but they could barely hold their own with a stock small block chevy truck from that same era. I've always wanted an R/T model but never was able to find one for sale in my area. That is until this past April when I bought a ratty, but complete, 2001 flame red club cab. The truck was ragged out by some kids before I bought it. However, they did replace the 5.9 engine with a very low mileage (40k) engine from a wrecked 01 Durango R/T. I'm not sure what mods they did to the engine but that truck is a lot faster than it has a right to be. It is way faster than my other R/T.
Fast forward to Aug of 2018. I took a lil trip about 2 1/2 hrs. drive to a town in the neighboring state of Missouri. There I bought one of 414 made in 1999 Club Cab R/T's with Deep Amethyst paint. This truck will be restored. As for the 01 Flame red truck, I'm thinking it just might become a drag truck. Time will tell.