Original hemi dart information

[mopar68]

Originally Posted by Liteweight

nope sorry. I haven't had much time lately to commit to it. I have a sizable list of contacts to try still. Still looking for pictures tho, but I have only come up with the ones I've posted so far of the Manhatten Speed Parts Dart. I've found a good supply of others tho through my internet travels

Have you tried contacting Cliff Gromer*, Martyn L. Schorr or Joe Oldham, formerly of Hi-Performance Cars magazine? One of those guys might know who owners of the Manhattan Speed Parts Dart were in that photo of it coming off the line against the Baldwin Motion 1968 Camaro. Quite possibly, it was one of those guys that took the picture for that magazine article. They just didn't pull the Manhattan Speed Parts name out of a hat to use in that caption.

Or, longtime NYC area Mopar heads like Al Kirschenbaum* and Richard Ehrenberg*? Kirschenbaum worked for Rockville Center Dodge on L.I. in the parts dept. back in the late-1960s -1970s. He was the high performance manager at that dealership, the guy to see when it came to your hi-po Mopar needs. If anyone would know, I'd bet that he would.

Originally Posted by Liteweight

Here's a few more rare shots of Chuck Comella's Dart in it's early years. Thankyou Chuck!!!!!

liteweight

Cool shots!

I'll take this era of Super Stockers over the lowered, coil sprung, over-tired, etc. versions any day.

JOE OLDHAM: Former road test editor for New York-based Magnum-Royal Publications, publishers of Hi-Performance CARS, Speed and Supercar, Super Stock and FX, Rodder & Super Stock magazines. Joe recently retired after nearly 20 years as Editor In Chief at Popular Mechanics Magazine.

HRM: During your time as a magazine road tester you tested plenty of Street Hemis. What was that like?

In those days, you tried to get out of road testing a car like the Street Hemi because, really, they were just not that much fun on the street. You have to put it into perspective."

Ha! I should have a job like that!

I had a relatively stock 426 Hemi-powered 1968 4-speed Plymouth GTX (original 440 car) that I used as daily driver back in 1987-88 era. The only non-stock items were: Hooker 2 1/8" headers, Sig Erson 278 deg. (244 deg. @.050") .515"/.505"/110 LC mechanical cam, Direct Connection aluminum water pump housing, flex fan, and Chrysler electronic ignition w/Orange control box, ACCEL Super Coil and Moroso Blue Max 8mm solid core spark plug wires. Prior to this, I had an Accel mechanical dual point ignition distributor in its place with chrome ACCEL coil and ACCEL "Fat Stuff" (remember those?) 8mm solid core spark plug wires. No problems with plug fouling with either set-up.

When you used to go and get a showroom stock Hemi powered car in those days, they just didn't run very well on the street. They used to spit and choke and you know, not give you a very good driving experience and it is quite easy to see why.

That's horse crap out of a Chevy guy's mouth. I experienced no driveability 'problems' or other nonsense he (and other magazine writers back in the day) were spouting. Even with a (unbeknownst to me at the time) lean carburetor condition problem (worn primary throttle shaft bore in rear carb) and retarded ignition timing (2 deg. initial, 34 deg. total @ 2000 rpm) because I installed a NOS 1972 electronic ignition distributor with emissions advance curve with virtually all the ignition advance coming in via the breaker plate, just so I could run on 93 octane fuel without the engine knocking and pinging, my "X" performed great, was a blast to listen to idle (rumpety-rumpety-rumpety), and especially every time I put it in gear, let the clutch out, a blast to drive!

The one time I raced it at Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ on a Friday night back in mid-June 1988, through the mufflers, best run in that high humidity, 90+ degree evening was a 13.78 @ 105.50 mph. Not bad considering the less than ideal weather conditions, a 250 lb. driver (at the time) behind the wheel, hard compound Pro-Trac L60-15 tires and a 3.54 gear set in the Dana 60 housing, and with more than a little tire spin coming off the line at a modest 2500 rpm, shifting at 6000 rpm, and right about where the first mph timers are located (diagonal stripes painted on the track), I shifted into 4th gear.

The only 'problem' if you want to call it that, was having to lash the valves every so often as a result of "getting on it." Small price to pay for big Hemi fun.


(Raceway Park tech line and pit shot, June 17th, 1988)

Anyway, back to Joe Oldham...

To get those cars to really run well on the street, we used to go to Al Kirschenbaum at Rockville Centre Dodge. In fact we got to know Al after he called us to complain that our published Street Hemi performance test numbers were too low and he offered the super-tuning services of Rockville Centre Dodge to remedy the situation. Anyway, Al was the chief high performance technician there and he used to re-curve the distributor and re-jet the carburetors and then they used to run fine.

http://www.hotrod.com/web/113_0508_hemi/index8.html

Sorry for rant.

M68

* http://www.moparaction.com/links/contact.html