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External resistence is that little (usually ceramic) gizmo that drops the ignition voltage going to the coil. On a Dodge, Chrysler or Plymouth of the 60's, 70's and 80's there was usually a 2- or 4-terminal ceramic block attached to the firewall, through which the ignition voltage went. Almost every other car maker did this as well. Haven't got a clue as to why they did. In any case, using a coil that was intended to have external resistence, and not giving that coil the resistence will result in a greater spark and a much-more quickly burned-out coil. The greater spark at greater voltage is a neat trick. You can get away with using that property for very short periods of time. The reason Dodge used a 4-terminal resistor was it used half the resistor (lower resistence) on starting, and the other half (higher resistence) on running. When the key was turned, the spark was boosted to help start the car. I found this out the hard way, when I had a Dodge that tried to start, but died when you let go of the key. The running side of the resistor block was blown, but the start half worked OK. Ford had a similar kind of thing, using the "I" terminal on the starter solinoid to bypass the resistor and feed 12v to the coil on starting.
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