Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I remember a black original hemi dart that got wrecked in some street race around that time. There was an article somewhere on the guy who built a clone car from parts off his original. The article included a bunch of pictures of the crashed car. From what I remember it was really twisted up bad. Guy was lucky to survive it.

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...oSSBA_0008.jpg

York US 30 Super Stock Nationals 1969
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...oSSBA_0006.jpg

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...oSSBA_0005.jpg

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Found this. Supposed to be a real one.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...SSSDRPhoto.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Nope...this one was talked about on another thread.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Always roamin' looking for a clue. Lookin' for an answer. Just lookin'.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

There was a thread called Potters Pride and it talked about some '68-'69 Darts as well as this one, it was a home built 426 Hemi stuffed into a '68 Dart GT, you can see the Dodge triangle emblem on the C pillar, and chrome side trim running along the body.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

The car was all black, no lettering. Had Super Tricks,small tubs & full bar inside if I recollect correctly

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I believe there was a story featured in Mopar Collector's Guide about 5 years ago documenting the black Hurst HEMI Dart that was rolled and destroyed during an Alabama street race back in the late 70s / early 80s. I seem to recall that not much more than the doors and seats being the only components salvagable for a donor clone. I'll look for that issue this weekend and hopefully post my results then.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

This is the car from the Mopar Collector's Guide article. It was built with some of the remains from Max Hurley's second LO23 Dart.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I've got that issue here somewhere in case you don't find your copy.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

"Tim, who lives in Canandaigua, New York, is the fourth owner of the Dart pictured here, and he is the first to street-license the car. The original owner, Charlie Castaldo, raced the Dart and in 1968 won a York, Pennsylvania event sponsored by Super Stock magazine. With the help of friends Al Vespucci, Norm Delooza, Lester Manche, Mike Wirt and Mike Guenther, Tim painstakingly restored the Dodge Red Dart inside and out over a 3 1/2-year period. 'I wanted all areas of the car to be of equal quality,' he said."--MOPAR MUSCLE October/November 1991

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/6287/sdart.jpg

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

When I got this car, I thought, "hey great!!!!! this one I don't have to do any searching or, documenting. It's all done."
WOW!!!!!! was I ever wrong . 10 years & still nothing.
There were alot of magazine articles done of this car in the late 80's early 90's shortly after Tim finished it. All with the same background stories of it.This thing saw ALOT of print. Unfortunately tho, alot of that information was incorrect.
The good thing tho, is that it is a great original car that survived fates others didn't. I am just it's current caretaker trying to find it's true history for future generations.

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

What was the first thing about the car that caused you to suspect it wasn't Castaldo's old car?

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I wanted to get more info & pictures for my new ride (2001). I started searching for Charlie Castaldo, only to find he had passed a few years previous.
At a car show in Carlisle, I met a guy who knew one of Castaldo's crew members, Charlie Licata. So, I contacted Licata & he started telling me about some of the mods they did to Castaldo's auto car including cutting out the trans tunnel & installing a 4 speed. They modified the rear wheel well openings by flaring them, cut out the trunk floor for a different fuel tank, & installed fiberglass,titanium & nylon bolts onto everything that wasn't structure related to run A/MP.
My car hasn't had any of these mods done to it. Never had a stick in it. The biggest mod on my car is the mini tubs.
So, basically, a 1/2 hour telephone conversation crushed many years of hear say & rumours.

liteweight
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...pt03JPG595.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Liteweight, have you tried that fellow who writes those Super Stock authenticity books, (Darrel Davis) because he used to work for Chrysler apparently and has a ton of documentation from them...he also has access to the IBM cards that verifies all of the factory race cars they built...maybe give him a shot, it can't hurt.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Haven't tried that yet, Great idea. Will get back with results. Thanx HM
Hey, any idea where Paul C. is hiding???

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

my name is Noah Lutman, my father-in-law was friends/worked with Doug Warren and originally painted "checkmate"! His name is Barry Pell, they worked together at Bill Binko Chrysler. Barry has pictures of the car before paint but not after, and would like to see if anyone has pictures of the car. Thank You!

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Here's a couple of the '68 Hemi Barracuda called 'Checkmate'...

http://img9.uploadhouse.com/fileuplo...e4199f52e0.jpg

http://img7.uploadhouse.com/fileuplo...b72a231ff4.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

how do i see these pictures, they won't open?

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Noah, the old Checkmate B029 Hemi Barracuda was for sale last year at Mecum auction...

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_de...=FL0111-103147

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Daryl,
I was told it went to MI in the mid 70's. No word of it since.
Dave

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...8/P1110535.jpg

I heard that the Don Carlton B029 '68 Hemi Barracuda is up for sale...originally painted baby blue and called the 'Lil Thumper' then it was painted & raced in the the Sox & Martin colors when Don joined the team.


.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

i really appreciate it Darryl, and so is my father-in-law! i will be posting the pictures of Checkmate before lettering.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Time for an update I suppose.
contacted Darrel Davis, Jim Schild, & David Hakim in the past couple weeks. Unfortunately, no new information available. I am currently awaiting a response from Bob Frey again now that the NHRA season is coming to a close. He is checking on info to the 1977 Bracket Nationals that were held in York that year.
I am currently trying to find a Tony DeVito who apparently looked at my car while in Vignonia's ownership. I believe he was on Castaldo's crew for a time.

Here's something, I found kind of neat. A guy asked if he could do a scale model of my car, so I said sure why not. Well it turns out this thing wins some big modeling show & gets put into print. Below is a link where you can open the magazine & page through the article.
He showed me the car. Absolutely amazing the detail he has gone through to recreate my car.

http://www.scaleautomag.com/en/The%2...0Magazine.aspx

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I started getting autographs inside the trunk lid a few years back. Collected a couple over a time. I call it my wall of fame. Now when it comes to sell the car I gotta decide if I'm gonna put a different lid on, & this one gets hung in my garage or leave it with the car. There's names on here that can't be duplicated. Should stay with the car tho. Guess I'll have to decide when it's time

http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...l/HPIM0354.jpg

Bill Stiles
Judy Lilly
Lee Smith
"Akron" Arlen Vanke
Arnie "The Farmer" Beswick
Don Grothier
Tom "Mr. 426 Hemi" Hoover
Ronnie Sox
Buddy Martin
Tom "The Ghost" Coddington
Ted "Motown Missle" Spehar
Jim Hale
Jack Thomas
Larry Griffith
Mr. Norm
Linda "Miss Hurst" Vaughn
Butch Leal
Bud Faubel
Chuck McJury
Ed Miller
Herb McCandless
Dick Oldfield
Dave Koffel
"Dandy" Dick Landy
Dave Christie




liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I would be painting another red deck lid.

There is a LOT of Mopar history right there

Just sayin'.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I tend to agree, there's alot of impresive names on there...maybe one day you could use it to build a Hemi Dart clone out of it...imagine a car with a wild paint job incorporating the colors from the names of those drivers on each panel of the car!

Another thing I noticed, did all of the '68 Super Stock Hemi Darts & Barracuda's get those jacking instruction decals inside the trunk lid.

.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Not sure on the clone part. To have all those colors on the same car, me's thinkin' that's just a lil too far "out there", even for me.

Honestly, I don't think any of these cars came with the decals in the trunk, or the antifreeze decal on the rad cradle, but Hennessey put them on after he restored it back in 86-87 & I've just left them. They may have been put on by Ma Mopar, but I don't think so.
Anyone??.


http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...rShow20044.jpg

I have been very fortunate to been given the opportunities to actually sit down over meals & have a few "cold ones" with quite a few of those people that signed my trunk. GREAT memories, that will never be duplicated.

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

At first I thought this was the same car. Photo is from Indy 1972. Any idea who this is?

http://imageshack.us/a/img27/4417/people016.jpg

Here's one of Herb McCandless.

http://imageshack.us/a/img600/5702/h...ccandlessc.jpg

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Leave it on and with the car, it adds more history and value to it. Taking the deck lid off and hanging it up on the wall in your garage is your perogative; however, putting it on another Dodge Dart is just not genuine.

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/4694/mredstormking.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img62/4300/mredj.jpg

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

http://image.hotrod.com/f/featuredve..._side_view.jpg

From a Hot Rod magazine article.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Charlie,
Both of those white L023 '68 Hemi Darts were Steve Atwell's...sure would like to know whose cars they were originally...does anyone here know for sure.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Here's a couple earlier photos of Chuck Comella's '68 Hemi Dart...

http://inlinethumb43.webshots.com/43...600x600Q85.jpg

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...lla68again.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I realize "taste" is subjective but those modern graphix-style paint jobs that have inundated the "sport" for the past three decades irk me, with Comella's being a perfect example (not to single him out). They most certainly don't look cooler or make any 'sense' in many instances (again, just look at Chuck's car's graphix and poor color combo) than the 1960s-thru-1970s custom paint and lettering era.

I once heard that yuppies have a pathological hatred of anything "old." Same thing with, in my opinion, younger painters and lettering guys that have come on the scene especially since the 1990s. Sorry guys, you can't reinvent the wheel nor redefine what looks "cool." No way, Jose. Same way Lady Gaga (or whatever female celebrity today is supposed to be "hot") on her best day can't compare to Linda Vaughn (in her prime) on her worst.

IMO, many of these paint schemes are just plain STUPID-looking on a car going against its body lines, etc. but then again, it's all a "matter of taste," like the dog said, as he proceeded to lick his (you fill in the blank). :)

There, I've said it, got it out my system. Ah, I feel better now....

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1...staldo69fx.jpg

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Not that it matters but I agree. They don't really irk me, they just don't look right IMO.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I can see where some of you might not like some of the newer paint jobs on some of these '68 Super Stockers or some of the other race cars in other classes...sometimes I have to take a double take myself because some of them look virtually the same until you read the name on the door because alot are hard to tell apart with their similar paint schemes, and some of them are just plain weird looking...As in the case of Chuck Comella's '68 Hemi Dart earlier paint job, sure they could have added a few more stripes & colors incorporated into the darker paint scheme, but I guess they chose to do a complete color change and to be honest it doesn't look that bad...they have also updated and tweaked their current paint scheme a little by adding a few more colors into the mix on the Hemi Dart, lets see if you can notice them...maybe Chuck can chime in here with a few stories about the car.


.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Here's a few more of Chuck Comalla's original '68 Hemi Dart after repainting the car with a newer paint scheme, it has also been updated once more since then...

http://www.dragracingonline.com/pmac...uckComella.jpg

http://hemishootout.net/images/morfe...rand=855921801

http://hemishootout.net/images/morfe...rand=739946181

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Charlie Castaldo's first '68 Hemi Dart...

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5...eflo1_1280.jpg