Midway through the 1974 model year, Dodge introduced the ‘Hang 10,’ a trim and interior package based on the Dart Sport. The Hang 10 was advertised by Chrysler of Canada as part of ‘Dodge’s New Wave’ of 1974 1/2. The Dart SE and Charger Spring Special also got carried away in that swell, but let’s concentrate on the Hang 10, as it’s the ad’s star.
The surfer-themed Hang 10 made its world debut a few months prior, at the February 1973 Chicago Auto Show. How could it not call attention then? Sun and fun in the middle of winter? Who can resist?
The package carried much of the Dart Sport’s versatility and features; with fold-down rear seats, and optional sun roof and white vinyl top. Red, white and blue ‘wave’ stripes decorated the exterior, with bright orange accents. The interior was colorful; with orange shag carpeting, orange vinyl on the console, and bright colored stripes on seats and paneling.
No clue on how many real surfers bought Hang 10s, but production totaled about 700 units for ’74-’75. And no idea if the 1974 1/2 nomination exists anywhere but ‘Dodge New Wave’ ads, but such is the world of advertising (’75 US ad above).
Too bad the spear on the hood wasn’t painted like a board, and if it were available back then, a ‘fin’ antenna would have completed the look.
I can’t recall the last time I saw a Dart with a sun roof .
-Nate
I remember the ad, I I think I can remember one or two for sale over the years in hobby publications, but I am not sure I ever saw one. No niche was too small for Chrysler in the middle of 1974 when every single unit sale mattered.
I believe the Valiant and Dart sold very well for Chrysler in 1974. (Plymouth regained third place for the 1974 model year on the strength of Valiant and Duster sales.)
The problem was that the all-new C-bodies debuted for the 1974 model year…just in time for the Arab Oil Embargo. Sales of the full-size Dodge Monaco and Plymouth Fury never recovered. They weren’t even selling at AMC Ambassador levels by 1976.
Remember seeing a few at the Dodge dealer, on Mcknight Rd/ north suburban Pgh.
When comparing the Hang 10 interior, with the ’75 RoadRunner interior, and the ’78 RoadRunner interior, none of them have aged well.
The Hang 10 interior, has a late ’60s look. Compounded by the dated dash, and console design. The sunroof and folding rear seat, being the highlights of this package. As a little kid, the old school dash and console would not fool me for a moment, this is a cool, modern car. Today, the carpet looks like several ‘skinned’ Elmo’s.
The ’75 Roadrunner interior has a mature, baroque feel, due to that very ’70s fabric. Doesn’t lend a youthful vibe at all! Imagining Louis Jourdan in polyester pants, promoting this car. It does have than Chrysler interior look commonality from that era. Whether, it was a Volare, Dodge Van, or a Monaco.
The ’78 Roadrunner interior is KISS, disco, and the ArmorAll NASCAR team. At least, the ’78 had the nice-looking ‘Tuff’ steering wheel.
In spite, of the dreadful fabric choices, the two Roadrunner interiors, at least seemed mid-70s modern otherwise. In their dash designs, and detailing.
What made the Valiant Brougham and Dart SE interiors unique, was the seats were velour-faced and had the visual fullness, now common in ’70s interiors. Seats appeared well-filled with foam, and comfy looking. While the dash and steering wheel, remained late ’60s, in design. A visual clash.
The Hang 10 seats in the pics, lack that fullness seen in mid ’70s seats. They still have a thin, spartan late ’60s look. Another reason why as a kid, I probably wouldn’t have felt it was a modern package.
I actually really like the first interior with the red carpet. Whether that is because that is me or because I am so sick and tired of today’s interiors, and would jump on anything different, is hard to say. Probably a combination of both. I bet if manufacturers started offering interior and exterior colors we would see an explosion of colors on the roads.
Now the Hang 10 Dart interior looks like a thinner fabric insert variation of this in 73.
Here is a close-up, of the Hang 10 seating material. It does look quite attractive, with a nautical theme. The full surface has a sheen, so it appears the seating is white vinyl, with a stitched stripped vinyl insert(?). Unlike the fabric ’73 interior, you have shown.
The Hang 10 seating does look reasonably rugged.
You can click on the image at this link, to see this full high resolution image:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1974_Dodge_Dart_Hang_10_%2818357295542%29.jpg
Here’s another shot of the seating surface.
Or have they aged well? It seems that things that were noticeably 5-8 years out of date when they were new, wouldn’t seem so out of place when viewed from a lens 50 years removed from when these cars were contemporary. The effect seems fairly 1970’s shag-a-delic to my eyes, and I’m pretty keen on the Elmo pelt carpet, though it looks like it would be difficult to fish a dropped roach out of.
True. I was a harsh critic then, as a 6-year old. But I knew, Dart/Valiant interiors were old-fashioned. And this was just dress-up, to make them more appealing.
This ad reminds me of a couple things:
1. Chrysler styling dealt with the bumper requirements much more pleasingly than GM and especially Ford. They are flush with the sides of the car, not sticking out laterally. I think it’s the extra width that especially makes the larger bumpers look ungainly.
2. The 73/74 Charger is a really nice looking car from most angles. I’ve long preferred the revised rear quarter windows for those years, and Chrysler got away with keeping the loop bumper and just putting bumperettes below. They complied with the letter of the law only. Contrast that with the Ford Torino, which looked great in 72, but Ford complied not just with the letter of the law but fully embraced the spirit of the law by bolting on wide girders in 73 that a bureaucrat would absolutely love.
At the time, I generally liked AMC’s handling of their mandated larger bumpers best, among the domestic carmakers. AMC was the only domestic, to use full black plastic bumper protectors, which I found looked most modern. They also generally had less contouring of their bumpers themselves, which made them look cleaner IMO.
On the downside for some, AMC didn’t use body-coloured soft plastic filler panels to mask their bumper mounts. Or to better integrate their bumpers with bodywork. I personally, liked the lack of these filler panels. Again, felt it was a cleaner look.
I’m one of the few who really liked the Matador coupe! Used to see a red one “rolling along Rt 8”, south of “Butler county line”.
It was still going in the mid “80’s”. Had a white stripe along the side.
The bumpers also protruded out a good bit, with rubber fillers in the gap, many people who’ve restored/restomodded 73-74 Chargers and Challengers move them to the aesthetically pleasing 70-72 positions.
I’ve also heard there was an exemption that allowed for this execution due to being at the tail end of their production cycles
The biggest irony of the Dart Hang 10 is how much it harkened back to the old A-body Barracuda with the folding rear seat and trunk access panel.
A far cry from full size early DART. Not a fan of small cars, notice a comment on Valiant Brougham which eventually graduated to 80s RWD Fifth Avenues. One of the best efforts at transformation from previous full size Chrysler to a slightly smaller upscale luxury vehicle. Had 83 and 85 Fifth Avenues. Beautiful, comfortable OTT luxury.
“Not a fan of small cars”.. oh really? we never would have guessed.
And fyi mid ’80s 5th Aves were not exactly big either, ’81 was the last “real” one.
We had 3 R Bodies, the later ones were just fancy Aspens.
If it has 6 or more cylinders and is over 14 feet long – it ain’t a small car!
But it “ain’t” big either. In this country 8 cylinders and a 117″ wheelbase is still an “intermediate”, at least until the ’77 B bodies came along.
When the Aspen/Volare came out, I was very disappointed to see the styling was so similar to the Dart/Valiant, but the cars were bigger and heavier — just in time for the 2nd oil crisis. We ordered a bespoke Aspen in silver with black window surrounds, folding rear seat, maroon carpet, which did not extend to the rear seat back and trunk (they were black) and white vinyl buckets. We went for the Slant 6 with 4-speed stick, only to find the combination truly sucked. With 80-something HP, the car was the worst dog we ever had. In retrospect, the ancient Dart and Valiant look better to me.
Spring Specials in the ’70’s were less cringe-worthy than earlier times. In the ’50’s, cars like the Rambler added gratuitous chrome spears and color areas that, though funky today, were ridiculous then.
My dad bought a ’78 Aspen wagon new, with the Super Six and Torqueflite, pushing out 110hp. It was slow as heck, but did have decent torque. And was fine at freeway speeds.
We regularly went up and down this hill, with a load of kids and groceries, no problem. Wasn’t pretty, as we neared the top.
https://www.google.com/maps/@44.6835628,-76.3950404,3a,75y,328.17h,93.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sn1pJSSnTqG7euYRz9lXpqQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?authuser=0&entry=ttu
This is one of those special packages I had no idea existed until a few years ago when a relative bought me a book on Mopar Muscle History. The book had a rather nice photo shoot with a Hang10, I had never even heard of it before that.
The 74-1/2 Charger Spring Special is the one that catches my eye. The product planners decide to drop Voyager cloth and parchment shag “floor covering” (not carpet?) for 1975, and the production supply planners say, “Oops, we have too much material on hand.” So someone comes up with a Spring blowout sale, and for want of a better name, it becomes the Spring Special. As for the New Wave slogan, the Hang 10 Dart is certainly cool, but doesn’t really evoke either François Truffaut or foreshadow the Eurythmics.
COLOR!!! Love it, sure beats the WGB (WhiteGrayBlack) inside n out of today’s blaaaahh non color choices. It astounds me that customers fall in line like good lil robots and buy today’s boring “palette” of mu$h. DFO
I have to wonder do we really want grayscale or do we buy it because there are such limited choices? The dealers near me stock very few colors.
I call mine “Settle-For Silver”. It and a darker gray were the only colors available with a manual transmission (as in, the only ones the build-and-price let you pick), and I didn’t want to waste what’s probably my last gas engine on a CVT.
I think it’s a combination of things.
In the early 2000’s, I was finally going to buy my first new vehicle, and if I was gonna be spending ~$30k, I was going to get exactly what I wanted… This led me on a goose chase that ended over a year later with me taking delivery of a 15 year old truck that I purchased online.
I found that dealers were fairly intent on selling what they had on the lot, and what they had on the lot was stuff that would be easy to unload on 85% of buyers. Another 10% would settle, because one of the vehicles would inevitably be pretty close to what they wanted, and another 4% could be swayed by putting some cash on the hood to sweeten the deal. I was looking for a highly optioned regular cab 4×4 pickup in a non-bland color… at this time, there still were some colors, but all trucks (save for a few fleet trucks) in stock were extended cab. So special order it would be.
In the end, I couldn’t find a color combination that had enough “pop” for my liking under all lighting conditions. All of the metallic colors had a dull, earthy cast… burgundy, blue, green, gold, silver, looked brown and dirty in fading sunlight. All interior colors were dour, and you couldn’t get leather in a regular cab, and you couldn’t get the bigger engine and heavy duty transmission in a 1500, and no rear window defrost without leather… you get the picture.
People are keeping their vehicles longer, so they don’t want something that is going to look dated.
Many of those colors from the past had a short shelf life, which made vehicles in those colors a tough sale as a used vehicle. (I remember that some of the vivid greens offered by the domestics during late 1970s were definitely out-of-date by 1985.)
When loan terms were limited to three years, and vehicles were viewed as “used up” at 100,000 miles, buyers weren’t terribly worried about the vehicle looking dated 8-10 years down the road.
What else were they going to do? The only car they had to meet the booming subcompact market were stripper A bodies. So, they put packages together to goose another thousand or more sales. By 1973, we already see the popularity of hatchback designs, but the A body didn’t have that. So – the rear seat drops forward. The cosmetics don’t cost much, and we see lots of models donning appearance packages.
What no one foresaw was how well the A body worked as a compact broughmobile. That old 1967 4-door body just worked for the brougham look. With just a touch of velour, vinyl and a hood ornament, the A body became an affordable brougham sedan for the Oil Crisis. Chrysler had those awful fuselage intermediates that couldn’t become formal rides, but they still had the old A body.
Plymouth sold the Hang 10 as the “Convertriple” Duster. There were many Duster/Dart packages before the brougham epoch wave caught the A body. Shame Chrysler had that awful A body replacement, Volare/Aspen – if they refreshed the A body, they would have saved millions and sold better.
I was just starting to really get into car styling around ’73-’74, and always appreciated the most modern design. Like the Colonnades, the Rabbit and Scirocco, and the ’73 Chevrolet C/K pickups.
I absolutely loathed the Valiant and Dart, because them screamed ‘grandma’, and dated, leftover late ’60s styling. As I grew older, I appreciated them more. But Chrysler would have had their work cutout for themselves, freshening them into modern designs. Though, I agree, that was the better route to go. Than starting over with the Volare and Aspen. I do think, the next gen Chrysler compact needed to be much lighter, and closer in concept to the Fairmont. The F Bodies were not advanced enough, following the A Bodies. Mopar needed to push the envelope farther for 1976. The much more advanced Horizon/Omni, only came out two years later. The A Body replacement should have been more advanced.
Not a bad looking specialty model. I prefer the pre-1973 models with the better looking bumpers, but for 1974, this is a pretty good looking car.
I don’t believe I ever saw a nag Ten here in Southern Ontario, but I loved my 74 Dart Sport.
Chrysler typically flip-flopped front end styling between Dodge and Plymouth, and the last A-bodies were no different. The ’73-’74 Valiants had a better grille, but then the last ’75-’76 Darts got the good grilles.
Around that time, they just gave up and the only difference between a Dodge and Plymouth were the nameplates, with the Neon being a great example. It’s no wonder Plymouth ended up dying.
Canadian alternative artist “Edwin’ had a pretty big hit here in 1999, with ‘Hang 10’. Cool song.
I remember the Hang 10 ads well. The cars themselves? Not so much.
They did all that for 700-odd sales???
Kind of strange Chrysler didn’t offer the folding rearseat as a standalone RPO. Might have gotten more takers.
Too bad Hang 10 clothing didn’t do a matching shirt. I wore a lot of Hang 10 in the mid 70s
The Charger is offered frankly as a spring special with no other name. The Dart SE (and its’ Valiant Brougham twin) were permanent additions to the line. The question is which of those things was the Hang 10 intended to be?