You wouldn’t likely be hauled to the hospital in a Dart ambulance in the US, but in Spain, the Dart, built by Barreiros, was the largest domestically built car, and wagon. So this was the way to go, if you had to. And if you’ve had your coffee, you’ll note that there was no Dart wagon in the US in 1967, and that this one by Barreiros was essentially a ’66.
Aside from ambulances, Barreiros was smart to keep the 63-66 generation going. They were somewhat better cars than the next generation. Roomier and felt more solid.
A German friend of mine, now living in Spain, has found a Barreiros Dodge in a shed in central Spain. Sadly the shed’s roof is falling onto the car, and nothing is for sale. Here is a photo of the car.
Look carefully at the lower left area of the trunk lid, and you can see the Barreiros logo. In the center of the trunk lid is an emblem that at first appears to be the number 8. The early Barreiros Dodge Darts did not offer an eight cylinder car, so why the “8”? On closer examination, the “8” is actually 2 letters: E and B, joined together. They represent the owner and founder of the company: Eduardo Barreiros. As for the emblem to the right, it’s the standard “Dodge” emblem.
That “8” you see there, actually is not a eight; It means EB (Eduardo Barreiros, the founder).
It’s a 8 crossed by a líne in the middle, separating in two letters (E|B)
For something as special as an ambulance, you would have thought they would have imported a few Dodge or Ford Econoline vans.
I’m not sure it was true in Spain at the time, but many governments set import tariffs (taxes) so high they could double the price of imported vehicles (or even more- tax rates are just a math calculation and legislatures can pick any equation they want).
Look up the US “Chicken Tax” and the impact it had on imported vans and pickups.
Spain was still a very isolated country under Francisco Franco, the last Fascist dictator. Trade with them was probably difficult at best.
Up until the late 80s or early 90s Spain had an effectively closed market so everything reasonably priced was assembled locally, hence Barreiros Dodge, which also did light and medium trucks, Seat which was Fiats until they switched to VWs in the mid 80s, Santana Land Rovers, the Nissan/Ebro connection, Spanish built Ducati motorcycles and so on. The opening of the market caused a massive shakeup which killed off most of the motorcycle industry and caused a significant disruption in cars and trucks,
I would guess that Ebro vans or something from Seat took over from the Dodge wagons
The other aspect to remember is that when Spain did open up, it was a cheaper location to build than, say, Germany or Belgium, so Ford and GM both set factories there in the late 1970s/early 1980s, and this was probably a factor in VW buying into SEAT as well
When Spain joined the EU in 1986,that was when the tariffs started coming down,I remember seeing the sales figures for that year, overall new car sales jumped up by more than 20%,and sales of imports more than doubled.
That’ll be has, present tense. The Chicken Tax is still in force.
[this space reserved for tart remark about the American “free market”]
Fascinating piece of information. I never knew of these.
What, no comment by Daniel Stern? Give him time. 🙂
Nice ! .
Too bad about the Dart in the shed, hopefully it’ll get rescued before it’s ruined .
-Nate
Non-synchronized low gear? Would a domestic Dart three speed of the same vintage been the same?
Yes, as the owner of a ’65 wagon, I can say that the six-cylinder Darts had a three-speed with a non-synchro first.
Yep, as Aaron65 confirms, the 3-speed manual transmission was an A903 with no synchro on 1st gear until 1970, and then the all-synchro A230 became optional(!).
For both the driver and patients benefit, I would have specified a smooth shifting TorqueFlite for this, but it doesn’t look like it was even an option,
Though a four speed was available if my computor translated “con cuatro velocidades” correctly.
I am pretty sure Torqueflite was not available on the Spanish-built Darts until…I’m not exactly sure when—it might not have been until the subsequent series of cars, the Dodge 3700GT (Spanish adaptation of an Argentinian rebody of the ’63-’66 Dart).
That would be true,because I do recall seeing old Spanish ads for the Dodge 3700 Automatico,which came out in 1971/2.
Full story here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/transmission-history-the-last-three-speed-manuals-with-non-synchronized-first-gear-grinding-gears-until-1976/
Paul, what’s the lead pic in that linked article from?
I never thought the tail end of the wagons, which had to play either a Valiant or a Dart, were the best solution, although it looks a lot better with the Valiant tail lights of any year. But the full wheel opening (instead of the partial one of both sedans and even the Barracuda) was a good idea to reduce the additional square feet of the added station wagon greenhouse.
OMG I think I found two images that will post here today.
Ooh, I don’t agree on the taillights. I strongly prefer the round ’63 Dart (+ Canadian Valiant) taillights on the wagon. I call the ’64 Dart and Valiant wagon taillights more or less a draw. The ’65 is a tougher call for me, but I’ll still call it a draw. I don’t like the ’66 Dart or Valiant wagon taillights.
As to the wagon graft you don’t like: don’t count it out til you’ve seen the one in the attached pic (take a look at the reciprocal angles at the top and bottom of the C-pillar and glass) as well as the one here (click the left arrow to see additional pics of it).
For what the sedans look like with full wheel openings, see here (1963-’64) and here (1965).
And if the ambulancìa didn’t get you to hospital in time, well, perhaps your last ride would be in a Dodge Dart funerario such as this one (I used to have pics of a hearse of the same generation as this ambulance; can’t find them now, but boy, did I ever find myself in a strange-as-all-hell wabbit hole looking for them!)
Anyone noticed ? Ambulancia rhymes with Lancia
This is actually a photo of a picture I came across at the Sant Pau hospital complex site in Barcelona. It was built between 1902 – 1930 and features many magnificent buildings decorated in the Art Nouveau style.
Hmmm.. attachment didn’t work…
It used to work….
The admin building
I love the visuals on all these wagons ! .
My brother who’s older but not very auto savvy and I were talking about MoPar A bodies yesterday, they were far better than Ford or GM’s compacts by every measure *except* visual .
More’s the pity ~ imagine a 1963 Chevy Nova that drove and withstood abuse like a Dart/Valiant….
-Nate
You can see also, the Dodge 3700 GT (Coronet), as ambulancia. Superb car