Hi Guys great thread. I figured I would throw in what I know about a Dart that seems to be a little bit of a mystery, I will preface this buy saying I got all my info from the original owner but when it was relayed to me it was 25 year old info and we all know how memories can be. I'm sorry if you all already know this info this thread is over 300 pages long and while i have spent a few hours over the course of a couple of weeks digging through this thread I didnt see the info I am going to give.
The car I am referring to is on the list as #61 owned by Rick Kent. The story as I know it the car was bought as a 21st birthday present for Rick (Some dad huh
) I have heard 2 stories of its arrival on the train to Salt Lake City where it was picked up. The one from Rick is that they get to the train yard and there are a pair of black streaks 50 yards long from the ramp of the train to where the car sat in a puddle of oil with a rod hanging out of the side of the block. The story I got from Ricks dad Gilbert was that during the shipping the car had leaked all the oil out of the pan and when it was unloaded off the train the dry engine quickly ate itself alive. 2 slightly different stories same out come. Either way soon a new long block was delivered and installed but this also means the original engine for this car was junked and never ran.
A few interesting details I know about the car. According to Rick its an early car and came with the side mirrors deleted and welded over it did not have the little delete plates you see.
I have seen with my own 2 eyes that the original crossram had at 1964 cast date. Not sure if this was common but was an interesting fact.
In 68 it was raced in SS/B as "Instant Action" in red white and blue scheme but wore that paint only brifely. Was replaced after just a few months with the name "Rick Kent" on the doors for the 69 season.
Its funny to note that one of the places in this thread that this car appears is a small magazine article saying "No more broken engines for Rick Kent" By Ricks own admission he was hard on engines. Breaking 9 crankshafts in the first year alone (the story was believable as there was a literal pile of broken hemi cranks under his work bench)
When Pro Stock came out the car was prepped and raced in that class for 1970 and 1971 after 71 the car was still ran very frequently but in modified production. During this time the car was repainted a dark maroon color and sported a snorkel scoop and tunnel ram still with the original superstock leaf springs and ladder bars. The trans tunnel was cut out to fit a Liberty transmission it even had a D-5 Hemi at one point (But the engine never ran well) It never returned to superstock trim. In about 80 or 81 Rick built a new car (A Dodge Mirada
) and the Dart was stored at Ricks shop and very occasionally bracket raced.
In the early 90's as things tend to happen some cash flow is needed and the car is sold to a Idaho mopar collector named Cal Percy (His son Jon currently runs a Barracuda in SS/AH and a 64 lightweight in SS/A) who in turn sold the car to his brother Jim Percy. Jim had it repainted and had a automatic trans fitted to it. (For that matter the original slick shift 4 speed transmission for this car is stored under my bench having purchased it from Rick 20 years or so ago
) It sported a 470 inch Hemi with a early Ray Barton Cast cross ram. During this time the car RARELY saw the light of day. Maybe maybe once a year it would go to the track and make a pass. In the early 2000's Jim sold the car. All i know is the car went to SoCal beyond that I know nothing.
When it left Idaho it was still in fairly original condition. It had never been fully tubbed or 4 linked. The streering had been replaced with a pinto rack and pinion but other than the trans tunnel no major surgery had ever been performed on it. It still wore its orginal leaf springs with only ladder bars being added.
I'm going to compile all the pics of this car into one place so people can link them together. The first pic will be the way the car looked when it left Idaho.
This is how the car originally looked
How the car looks now.
Ricks shop used to be a literal library of history and information. There were piles of hemi intakes under the bench (I still own a particular hemi tunnel ram that was cut up and ported by Mike Chapman then re-welded together) literal stacks of camshafts, I remember seeing Crane R294 cams piled up all on different lobe separation from 102 degrees to 112 degrees.
Sorry for the long post I know a lot of the info I provided isnt particularly useful but it does give some of the back story on this particular car.
Thanks
Travis