'66 Dodge D-Dart at Mecum auction

[Paul Ceasrine]

Alan,
On the Hurst shifter. Still tracking info. Stuck on part #3916790, But that comes up for a 66'-69' B-Body. I wonder if that was also used for the
D-Dart. It came through with a long-handle shifter (16", I think). Now the
65' Darts (273/235HP Commando's) came through with the Hurst shifter
as standard equipment. Wondering, if they utilized that shifter with the
D-Dart?? As I said earlier, the Inland shifter (for 66', 67' and early 68')
Mopars had to be installed in the cars for safety reasons (positive
reverse lock-out mechanism). After they got to the dealers, than the options were installed (ie; Doug Headers).
As for the intake, I'm wondering if there were (2) different versions. The
66' 273 marine engines and early "LA" 318 marine engines had a modified intake with the center shut-out area removed. I know that for a fact, because at my fathers engine shop we had several 273/318 marine engines come in with factory installed Holley carbs on the intake, not sure of cfm size, maybe 600's or 650's. The adapters were aluminum, and had 4-tapered holes (funnel-type), mounted on the open-throat intake.
paul

[bill dedman]

Originally Posted by ddartdude

It stands for "with clean air package". I think it was for California.

Thanks, Alan.

[d1hitter]

That is one ugly car !

[Paul Ceasrine]

d 1 hitter,
As a Mopar fan, I have to agree. Not the prettiest thing to look at it.
But I did witness a 66' 273/235 HP 4-speed (K/S in 1970) put away a
beautiful blue 65' Corvette coupe 327/250 HP all summer long at Dover Drag Strip. Must have been frustrating for the Vette owner to look at that rear-end all summer long. Now I know how Bill Clinton feels
PC

[ddartdude]

Was going to respond to the comment but decided not ot waste my time.

Paul,
Sent you a PM. Got a photo of the Porach Dodge 2 days after they rec'd it. I think you'll like it.
Alan

[Paul Ceasrine]

Alan,
I'll open my e-mail, and forward you info.
Have to check into more stuff, which I will post. Have to follow up on some tips. In 1966, you could purchase a 273/235HP Commando
Barracuda/Dart, with a 4-speed (with or with-out) the console. Of course, with the infamous "Inland" shifter. If you wanted a dealer installed option
"Hurst" shifter, you could order that from the dealer. If it had the console, the dealer would remove the console, and install the "Hurst" shifter.
The console (not usable with the shifter) was either given back to the owner, or made it's way back to the parts department (back shelf!!)
That is the part #, I'm trying to research.
It was just like the rear-end gears. Standard was 3.23, but you could order 3.55's or 3.91's from the factory. Or, have dealer installed
4.10's or 4.33's. Not sure if the 4.56's were available for dealer installation on the basic 235HP Commando's.
Back to the Corvette;. I still wonder, if late Sunday's, the owner while washing the crossed of shoe-polished "T" (indicating trophy run) on his Corvette, explained to his friends that he just got his doors blown-off
by that tan-colored, black steel-wheeled Dodge Dart "Granny-Car",
which now has the Trophy in the passenger seat, being held by the
Blonde, that used to be his girlfriend. "Second Place is First Loser".
PC

[Alex Denysenko]

I have been reading this thread with great interest on and off over the last few month's and thought that I may share some information that may be relevant.
Many years ago I owned a total of seven 273 powered early A body cars.
5 Barracudas, 1 Valient Signet, and 1 Dart GT.
Those of you that know me well and know where I worked in the early 70's might understand why a died in the wool FoMoCo guy may have had 7 of these little Mopars.

1 64 Barracuda 273 2V 180 HP 4 speed
2 65 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 4 speed
1 66 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 automatic
1 66 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 4 speed
1 66 Valient Signet 2 door hdt 273 235 4 speed
1 65 Dart GT 2 door hdt 273 235 4 speed

Everyone was a trade in on a new or used car and purchased wholesale by me from the used car manager. At the time they were basically worthless in the normal used car market place.
At one time or another I had the oppertunity to work on dozens of early A body cars at the dealership and I recall very well what equipment they came with. Especially since I wound up buying so many to screw around with, fix up, and eventually re-sell.

The 64 Barracuda had a 7.25 Spicer rear end (3.23 posi), 9 inch brakes with 5 on 4 inch bolt pattern, and a factory Hurst shifter.
Shifter was skinny round stock with a flat that had Hurst stamped in it.
64 car was the only one with 13 inch wheels. Widest 13 inch tire I could find was a D-70-13.
64 2V car also had a 9 inch clutch which lasted about ten holeshots.
All the 65 cars had the same factory installed Hurst shifters, 10 inch brakes with 5 on 4 inch pattern hubs, and 7.25 Spicer rear ends.
66 cars also all had 7.25 rear ends and ten inch brakes.
The 66 automatic Barracuda had optional Budd front disc brakes. Very rare as I recall.
Both the 4 speed 66 Barracuda and Valient had Inland shifters with reverse lock out.
I don't know about the "D" dart, but I have never seen a 8.75 in any "A" body prior to 1967 and back then I was under litterally hundreds of them.
Every one that I owned came with a 3.23 posi and I installed a Mopar 3.91 gear in all of them.
My cost was about $46 for the ring and pinion as I recall.
All the 65-66 cars had 14 inch wheels.
All of the 4V cars had the same large diameter single exhaust with one Hemi style muffler and a square tip resonator. I converted most to duals and used two of the resonators.
Looked very cool at the time.
All the 4V cars had black crinkle finish valve covers.
All the 4V stick cars had dual point distributors and the automatic had a single point.
All the 4V cars had worthless factory tachs (typical of Mopar)
The Dart GT and Valient had 273 FOUR BARREL emblems on the fenders.
Barracudas only had Formula S emblems and some had a single triple racing stripe down the center of the car.
Also the Plymouths all had the same simulated mag stylish wheel covers with long chrome lug nuts that protruded through holes in the wheel covers. Both 13 and 14 inch versions.
Dart had some sort of spinner full wheel cover with a Dodge tri bar emblem as I recall.
With 3.91 gears, a good chassis dyno tune, valve adjustment, wider than stock tires, 2 inch open lake pipes (dumps), air cleaner removed the sticks could run high to mid 14's on a good day.
Automatic low 15's.
The Valient was probably the most rare and coolest of the bunch. It was also the quickest and made the most money street racing.
2V car could not get out of the 17's and that was with a gear.
I bought all these cars very cheap, did a little work on them, had some fun at US 30, then sold them all when I was through for a nice profit.
On a final note, back in the parts dept. on a shelf for the longest time was a large box that had a Chrysler part number on it but was hand marked "D/S" Dart.
The parts manager had tried to sell it to me cheap several times but I always declined as I wasn't about to invest any of my Mustang race car money into one of these Mopars.
I was told that it came from Chrysler several years prior for one of the dealer team cars, but it had been sold before the kit came in. I can only assume that it they received a D Dart but never had any interest in campaining it.

What was in it you all are asking youselves?

A aluminum intake with 2 AFB's, air cleaners and linkage.

[Paul Ceasrine]

Alex,
Only an A-body masochist like myself and a few others could understand what you just said. Don't forget those pain-in-the-butt L.H. and R.H. thread patterns. Also, that vacuum-operated Performance Indicator in the center of the dashboard. Remember that little tube that ran through
the firewall, and into the runner on the intake manifold, directly behind the carburetor. As for the 8 3/4's. Your correct, not available for 65', but they were in 66'. Check out the D-Dart web site. You can see the rear-end housing for Ted Spehar's "Politician". Also, have more web.sites with
66' cars with 8 3/4's. Not to throw you a curve, but in late 65', New York
City ordered several black 4-door sedan V-200 Valiants, with 273/235HP Commando engines, 4-speed transmissions with the
3.09 first-gear (Granny-gear), and 3.55 posi-rears. They were utilized
by the Taxi commission, and city transport cars, for low and mid-level
city commissioners. If you want, i can lead to one on the internet. it will blow your mind.
Paul

[bill dedman]

Alex D. said, "Those of you that know me well and know where I worked in the early 70's might understand why a died in the wool FoMoCo guy may have had 7 of these little Mopars."

No; what puzzles ME is that you had ANY interest in Ford products, with all those cool MoPars available to you...


You were living my dream life....

Takes all kinds, I guess... LOL!

[treessavoy]

Originally Posted by Alex Denysenko

I have been reading this thread with great interest on and off over the last few month's and thought that I may share some information that may be relevant.
Many years ago I owned a total of seven 273 powered early A body cars.
5 Barracudas, 1 Valient Signet, and 1 Dart GT.
Those of you that know me well and know where I worked in the early 70's might understand why a died in the wool FoMoCo guy may have had 7 of these little Mopars.

1 64 Barracuda 273 2V 180 HP 4 speed
2 65 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 4 speed
1 66 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 automatic
1 66 Barracuda Formula S 273 235 4 speed
1 66 Valient Signet 2 door hdt 273 235 4 speed
1 65 Dart GT 2 door hdt 273 235 4 speed

Everyone was a trade in on a new or used car and purchased wholesale by me from the used car manager. At the time they were basically worthless in the normal used car market place.
At one time or another I had the oppertunity to work on dozens of early A body cars at the dealership and I recall very well what equipment they came with. Especially since I wound up buying so many to screw around with, fix up, and eventually re-sell.

The 64 Barracuda had a 7.25 Spicer rear end (3.23 posi), 9 inch brakes with 5 on 4 inch bolt pattern, and a factory Hurst shifter.
Shifter was skinny round stock with a flat that had Hurst stamped in it.
64 car was the only one with 13 inch wheels. Widest 13 inch tire I could find was a D-70-13.
64 2V car also had a 9 inch clutch which lasted about ten holeshots.
All the 65 cars had the same factory installed Hurst shifters, 10 inch brakes with 5 on 4 inch pattern hubs, and 7.25 Spicer rear ends.
66 cars also all had 7.25 rear ends and ten inch brakes.
The 66 automatic Barracuda had optional Budd front disc brakes. Very rare as I recall.
Both the 4 speed 66 Barracuda and Valient had Inland shifters with reverse lock out.
I don't know about the "D" dart, but I have never seen a 8.75 in any "A" body prior to 1967 and back then I was under litterally hundreds of them.
Every one that I owned came with a 3.23 posi and I installed a Mopar 3.91 gear in all of them.
My cost was about $46 for the ring and pinion as I recall.
All the 65-66 cars had 14 inch wheels.
All of the 4V cars had the same large diameter single exhaust with one Hemi style muffler and a square tip resonator. I converted most to duals and used two of the resonators.
Looked very cool at the time.
All the 4V cars had black crinkle finish valve covers.
All the 4V stick cars had dual point distributors and the automatic had a single point.
All the 4V cars had worthless factory tachs (typical of Mopar)
The Dart GT and Valient had 273 FOUR BARREL emblems on the fenders.
Barracudas only had Formula S emblems and some had a single triple racing stripe down the center of the car.
Also the Plymouths all had the same simulated mag stylish wheel covers with long chrome lug nuts that protruded through holes in the wheel covers. Both 13 and 14 inch versions.
Dart had some sort of spinner full wheel cover with a Dodge tri bar emblem as I recall.
With 3.91 gears, a good chassis dyno tune, valve adjustment, wider than stock tires, 2 inch open lake pipes (dumps), air cleaner removed the sticks could run high to mid 14's on a good day.
Automatic low 15's.
The Valient was probably the most rare and coolest of the bunch. It was also the quickest and made the most money street racing.
2V car could not get out of the 17's and that was with a gear.
I bought all these cars very cheap, did a little work on them, had some fun at US 30, then sold them all when I was through for a nice profit.
On a final note, back in the parts dept. on a shelf for the longest time was a large box that had a Chrysler part number on it but was hand marked "D/S" Dart.
The parts manager had tried to sell it to me cheap several times but I always declined as I wasn't about to invest any of my Mustang race car money into one of these Mopars.
I was told that it came from Chrysler several years prior for one of the dealer team cars, but it had been sold before the kit came in. I can only assume that it they received a D Dart but never had any interest in campaining it.

What was in it you all are asking youselves?

A aluminum intake with 2 AFB's, air cleaners and linkage.

In late '65 and '66 Chrysler was pushing racers to spread out to other classes and one of the classes was modified production and FX. Koffel was paid to put a 273 in his A990 car and given the two four barrel manifold and carbs in order to run C/FX. The car ran well.

JimR