Whither 1966 D Darts for Stock

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by bill dedman

Ed Fernandez said, "The D Dart site stated that 50 cars were made.That would be interesting to see a dual quad 273 in stock."

Ed, they never built them with two carbs. I thought they had an AFB, but as someone pointed out, that AFB was a Holley... my bad.

Bill

I thought the dual quads was a later addition.and the website did say there were 50 cars built,incorrectly.

Ed F.

[Jimmy R Parker]

Gents, one of the "D" Darts was sold new here in Columbus, Georgia thru Chuck Hutton Dodge. An employee of the dealership named Jackie Cadina ordered the car and ran it some at Phenix City but it was never seriously prepared. He also drove it on the street as his daily driver and eventually it disappeared intil about 1980 when I saw it in a junkyard in Phenix City, of course everything in the yard got crushed eventually.

Jimmy Parker

[Jim Wahl]

In the summer of '67 my dad bought a Dodge dealership in New Smyrna Fl. With that dealership came a "D" Dart that the sales manager used to race. I won my very first trophy with that car. I still have the trophy. I wish I still had the car. It's name was "The Lamb Charger" and on the back lid it said "Little Damn Ram". the car was a maroon '66 Dart GT with a stick. I wish I knew what happened to to that car. Jim

[Real Racer]

The few I have seen in person or in photos over the years were all sedans. No GT hardtops.
Of course one or two may have been built.
There was one that used to race regularly at Dragway 42.

[Jim Wahl]

As I remember them, all the factory cars were GT's (see http://www.seriousviewers.com/D-Dart/spec.htm). I know our car was. Many of the cars were owner "made" D Cars. Jim

[Travis Miller]

I remember seeing a D/Dart that ran at the old Bluegrass Dragstrip in Lexington KY when I was racing back in 1966. It was a yellow hardtop and it ran D/S. I can remember seeing the car with the hood open. It had a holley carb. As best I remember it won the D/S trophy a few times. The reason it ran D/S instead of Super Stock was in 1966 there was no S/S eliminator. S/S was the top class in Stock eliminator. S/S did not get its own eliminator until 1967.

The reason the D/Darts got to run Stock without enough being produced was back then the specs were sent to NHRA preproduction. Cars were put in the classguide with the understanding that enough cars would be built in the model year. Sometime in later years it must have come to light that not enough D/Darts were built for Stock class forcing them into S/S only.

Travis

[bill dedman]

Thanks, Travis. That all makes perfect sense.

Jim posted a website that told how to convert a 235hp 273 into a D Dart spec race car. It gave then-current prices for the parts, not including the Doug's headers, which can't have been cheap.

Minus the headers, the cost was $415.32 in 1966. That is the equivalent of $2,738.04 in 2008... not a cheap conversion. With that inflated 275hp rating to deal with, no wonder more weren't raced.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this discussion. I appreciate all the good info!!!

Bill