Whither 1966 D Darts for Stock

[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

[Alan Nyhus]

I happened upon the remains of an original 'D' Dart a year ago on my way to a rifle match. I stopped and talked with the person that owned the property where it was sitting. He told me that the cars owner had said "...it was some sort of race car right from Dodge." The key was in the trunk and when I opened it up there were the rusted out remains of the original Doug's Headers, the cast iron intake, an Edelbrock LD318 alum. intake, one cylinder head, valve covers and some other small stuff. There was sticker on the trunk with the name of a CPD dealership that was known for selling a lot of high perf MoPars in that area.

All of the original 'D' Darts were white with red interiors. The one I looked at had blue seats in it, but the rest of the interior looked correct. The weird thing is that the blue seats were correct '66 Dart seats..just the wrong color. How the car ended up with blue seats would be a good story, I'm sure.

I went through there about 6 mos. later and the car was gone. The property owner told me the cars owner had picked it up was starting the restoration on it. He was reluctant to give me the owners name of where he lived, though.

For what it's worth..... -Al

[formula447]

Back in 1968 I had a 67 Dart GT with the Hypo 273 and a 4 Speed.I was at a Dodge dealer in Rockville Center NY (Long Island) and they had a Clinic on a Weekday evening with Dick Landy.After Speaking with Dick he gave the Parts Manager (Al Kirchenbaum later of Hot Rod and Car Craft)some Part #s and We ordered them.I already had Hooker Fenderwell headers on the car and was told all the parts were the D Dart Package.I received a Racer Brown Cam and Springs,an Edelbrock Manifold and a Holley carb.After installing all these parts the Car picked up a full second and with 7" M&H Slicks went a 13.58(At the old Westhampton NY Dragstrip) and would spin to 7000rpm.I even had a 53 Desoto clutch in this thing.I would sidestep the Clutch at 6000 RPM and the car would scream.The following year I got involved with Pontiacs but that car made me a closet Mopar Fan for the last 40 years.By the way,I am still at it as seen in this video.
Thanks
Ray T
http://northshoremusclecars.vidiac.c...6a00fc4fc1.htm

[treessavoy]

In 1966 Chrysler decided to compete in D/S with the D/Dart, they aimed the car at the 271 Mustangs and Fairlane 500's. The car was built for "stock" and "stock" only not SS.

Many went to factory racers and some were sold to private racers. Dodge told the NHRA that they made 50...how many is still under debate but at that time you had to have built 50 of anything even to get it into SS.

Today it would make a fun car but would give up too many inches to be competitive.

BTW there is a guy down here in FL that has two of them, he drives one the street and has the other for sale...$25,000.00. It has a frozen engine, manifold and carb is gone as are the headers, every panel on the car needs replacement....it was outside in a Oklahoma hail storm...he's going to fix it up.

Jim

[bill dedman]

Jim,

It took me two weeks of phone calls, and talking to three different people at NHRA Tech, back in November, to finally get an answer on the "Stock = NO, Super Stock = YES" question.

Their answer after all of that?

'WE DON'T KNOW." (The "now, leave us the F**** ALONE" was implied....)

The main problem, I think, is time. None of those people were BORN yet when the D Darts were released.

I would imagine that if somebody who has some clout with NHRA decided to build one of these little jewels for Stock Eliminator, there's a good possibilty that they could get NHRA to come off their current position (since they can't even explain how they got there), but THAT's not gonna happen unless NHRA takes some HP off it.... like about 30-40. The 340 Dusters and Demons would eat it alive at its current factor of 275...

So, it's probably just going to slip into obscurity;a failed project that could have made some waves if the people responsiblle for the program had REALLY wanted to to succeed. But, obviously, they didn't.

And, so it goes....

Bill

[mtkawboy]

Jim Wahl, was that Dynamic Dodge in new Smyrna ? A guy I knew named George Nelson who was the service manager built the engine for the Little Damn Ram but I thought it was a 235hp car. I recall a guy who worked for NASA building the headers. I was away in the service after it was built and run once or twice. Dont know what happened to the car. George died 2 years ago in Daytona of cancer

[mtkawboy]

Jim Wahl, was that Dynamic Dodge youre talking about ? A guy I knew, George Nelson was the service manager there in 1965/66 and he built the Little Damn Ram car but I thought it was a 65 273/235. I left for the service shortly after it was done and only got to see it the first time out. He died of cancer in Daytona a few years ago. Id sure like to hear any info you have about the car. I dont know what happened to it. I recall a welder for NASA built the headers for the car at night

[Jim Wahl]

mtkawboy,
Wow! you remember? It was called New Smyrna Dodge at the time. I loved that car. The car was an original factory D/S package car. I saw the paperwork with my own 15 year old eyes! Bill Patton was the G.M. then and he drove the car before my dad bought the place in '66. We used to drive it to the air strip and the Daytona Timing Assn. races there every Saturday night. I don't remember the header deal you spoke of but I do remember George. I have pictures somewhere. We should talk! Jim