I was getting gas at my usual station this weekend, when I saw an unusual olive green sight: a pristine 1969 Dodge Dart 2-door hardtop. This particular specimen was a “Custom,” one of the new model designations that arrived for 1969, along with the notorious “Swinger” nameplate. So what exactly was this Dart: solid citizen or wild child?
First, let’s start with the Custom. It carried the familiar Dart lines that had first appeared for 1967, albeit freshened with some new trim.
The grille and parking lamps were reworked.
Rear trim and tail lights were slightly tweaked.
But the 2-door hardtop profile was very familiar.
Including the very attractive curved rear glass backlight.
This particular car was in very good shape, other than for some very minor rust spots along the roof drip moldings and at the forward edge of the hood.
The rockers and quarter panels were rust free. And the period Mopar details are plain to see, from the leaf springs in the rear to the sliver of the body-colored wheel rim visible under the full wheel covers. Not likely an Illinois car from birth, despite the current home….
The presence of optional air condition–a $361 ($2,560 adjusted) option and therefore likely rather rare on a Dart in 1969–indicates that this may well have originally been a Southern or Western car.
No matter the original point of sale, the green interior and Medium Green Metallic exterior were probably common sights for Darts of this era. Safe and sedate colors for a safe and sedate car.
The rear shows the two-tone green-on-green vinyl in all its glory, plus gives a hint at the potential owner: a yellowing copy of The Wall Tree Journal, an ice-scraper and some anti-freeze label this car as perfect for a pragmatic type. Sorta like an accountant named Stanley. Just seems to fit the car and the color.
Dodge, however, was still trying hard to add some pizzaz to its compact car line. In addition to the performance-oriented GTS and GT models, there was a new name for the lower-priced 2-door hardtop offering: Swinger.
The name was a bit odd, especially for the Dart. The dictionary defines a “swinger” in one of two ways:
- a lively and fashionable person who goes to a lot of social events
- a person who engages in group sex or the swapping of sexual partners
At best, the name was a bit like an Austin Powers–a goofy nerd trying to be sexy. At worst, it would be as if today’s Dodge came out with a trim package for the Journey called the Tindr.
Never mind the name, how was the car? Road Test Magazine took a Dart Swinger for a spin in ’69.
This particular “Swinger” was safe for daily duties, offering innocuous transportation in the best American compact car tradition.
All the typical Mopar virtues and vices were present and accounted for: robust 318 V8, (barely) adequate brakes and handling that was relatively benign under the most undemanding daily driving conditions, though capabilities were subpar when put to the test in more challenging situations. No thrills, no chills (if you were lucky).
Quality of the brand new Road Test car was decent enough, though somehow the testers managed to rip-off a door armrest (?!?!). Pricing was decent enough too, with an as-tested price of $3,099 ($21,975 adjusted). Dependable, fair value and a smidge dull. Certainly no match for Chevrolet’s swoopy Nova or Ford’s iconic Mustang from a style standpoint. Hardly the first choice for a “swinger.”
But a good choice for Mopar economy buyers. Dodge did not break-out complete production numbers by body style for 1969, so its hard to determine exactly how many Swinger and Custom hardtops roamed the roads, But we do know that total Dart sales for the year came to 197,700 units, and represented about 1/3 of Dodge’s total sales volume. And no doubt most of these cars went to pragmatic souls–and a few even made it to survivor status like my gas station find. Just leave the “swinging” to someone else….
Growing up in the 70s and 80s, there were at least a half dozen of those and Valiants in every grocery store parking lot. They used to be throw away cars (or cheap race cars) until about 20 years ago when we realized that they were actually great looking classic cars. Now, even nice, original, base model Darts sell for serious money and the 340 and big block cars can sell for $40K and up.
Cool car. I don’t see a V8 emblem on the fender so Im assuming its a /6 and it has air. The factory A-body 9″ drum brakes are frighteningly inadequate though. However, a 340 Swinger with disc brakes was probably the best balanced factory musclecar of the 60s and cleaned up a lot of big blocks back in the day.
After the Demon arrived in 1971 didn’t all 111″wb hardtop coupe Darts become Swingers?
It’s interesting to see the Road Test article’s take on the car’s appearance; the text claims it has “all the outward glamor” of the ponycars but the captions speak of there being “nothing spectacular” about its’ styling. With the same body below the greenhouse as the four-door Dart and a true hardtop roof the Nova and Falcon no longer offered did it have a unique niche or did it fall between two posts?
“After the Demon arrived in 1971 didn’t all 111″wb hardtop coupe Darts become Swingers?”
I believe they did. By the time I started paying attention to these in the 70s they were either Swingers or Scamps.
Hard to believe that Dodge was still using a hang-on type of factory A/C in the Dart in 1969. This may have even continued for the rest of the run to 1976. Recall a co-worker had an early ’70’s Dart with the same under dash A/C as shown above. 225 six, Torqueflight and power steering. She was not a car person and just wanted a dependable, sensible, mid-size transportation appliance. Her Dart filled the bill perfectly.
Under dash AC was factory mandate through 1976.
I will say this – having had a Duster with A/C, you could get a hurricane inside the car at highway speeds with the door windows shut (even with the fan off) by setting the A/C to “vent” and opening the rear side flipper windows.
The a/c on Darts and Valiants may have appeared to be a hang-on type, but the controls were integrated with the other ventilation controls. I think it was just a matter of not wanting to spend the money to design a dashboard that allowed for optional individual vents in widespread locations, as would be seen on pricier cars of the era.
And the AC had the same fresh air vent and reheat capabilities as a fully integrated unit.
Ah yes, those armrests were a problem. I don’t remember too many failures on new cars, but they really didn’t hold up. The force of closing the door went through the armrests in such a way that it tried to peel the foam away from the steel structure that it was glued to. I think ’72 may have been the last year for them. In any case, virtually all of the armrests in the junkyards had failed by the time I went looking for one around 1990. Overall, though, these were good basic cars. They held the road well at highway does and were relatively maneuverable in town. I still miss my ’72, in spite of the scary brakes.
Yes, that foam padding was less than long term durable.
More than a few of these Darts/Valiants had aftermarket (J. C. Whitney, Western Auto, OTASCO, Sears), elongated door pulls owner mounted onto the sturdy metal door frame above these troublesome arm rests.
With the addition of the upgraded suspension, faster geared power steering, power front disc brakes and the 3.23 final drive (rear end) ratio; this car would had received more accolades.
I have driven several Darts/Valiants on this era with the 318 engine and slow geared manual steering (was it 6 turns of the wheel, lock to lock?) and the “wheel winding” was irritating to me. The non-power steering wheel cranking effort needed just would not be acceptable today!
Did a Nova or Falcon have power front disc brakes, even as an option, available for this model year?
Compared to the same year Powerglide Chevy Nova or sloppy shifting Cruise-A-Matic Ford Falcon, IMO this Dart was the clear winner for style, comfort and performance.
A 318 Swinger was a mighty peppy little car. In my experience most of the more basic versions were /6 and auto, especially if they were manual steering cars.
I still swoon over the styling on these cars. As a 5 year owner of a 71 Plymouth Scamp I got plenty of chances to look at the quiet sophistication of its lines. I also got to experience those awful 9 inch drum brakes. I am a big apologist for drum brakes in general but not these.
This Dart is the same color as the stripper 69 Valiant 100 2 door my piano teacher bought new. I like it a lot better now than I did then.
I owned the Plymouth “sister’ model to this, a 69 Signet 2 door SEDAN, as Plymouth didn’t offer hardtops from 67 through 69. Mine was this same olive green, but the (oddly) more upscale looking interior in my car was white with simulated bucket seats in the front.
Unlike the test car in the magazine article my 7-8 year old Valiant was still pretty well screwed together, with only a bit of wear to the driver’s armrest.
A solid running car, but it didn’t bother me when a co-worker offered to buy it for nearly what I had paid for it. It was the last car that I would own with 4 wheel drum brakes and yet, power steering and non-functional under dash A/C.
My grandfather owned a slant-six Swinger of this era, in the same green. So definitely a senior citizen’s car. However, I spent a summer with him when I was 15, and he was happy to let me take the wheel on quiet back roads in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia where he had a summer home. It was my first time driving a car beyond pulling my parents’ Volvo to the end of our driveway, so the Swinger holds a permanent happy place in my memories.
My father in law also owned a six cyl Swinger. He was a very conservative educated Italian Catholic man, who never knew the meaning of the term “Swinger”. He would have been horrified had he known.
His car was the most basic model, with metal dash and rubber flooring instead of carpet. No radio. The only option was an automatic transmission, an odd luxury indulgence for a thrifty person who had driven standard all his life.
My sixth grade teacher drove a Swinger, and even though young she was incredibly joyless (no Halloween party). Darts and Valiants always struck me as dour transportation. My class was the last in her short career. I’d like to think she picked up something much more fun in her next job – maybe a 914 or a Scirocco.
That Mopar roofline… nice.
I kinda forgot I had one of these. A blue ’69 four door. a Custom with the 225 Slant Six. Service records back to ’73 or so. Maybe I should have kept it.
Dodge wishes they sold a car as popular and reliable as the Dart today. I don’t even consider them when I car shop.
I was 12 when this was a new car. And looking back, the success of these in the marketplace had to have been helped by masterful marketing.
Late 60’s ChryCo had a habit of appropriating recent Pop hits – Dionne Warwick’s “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” in this case – and turning up the sex appeal, at least compared to other car companies, to get their message across. Of course the cars’ solid reputation was a major plus.
Major halo effect goin’ on here IMO, maybe you couldn’t swing a Swinger 340 convertible but a 318 or even a Slant-6 hardtop was close enough to still pick up a little “cool” factor, at least in your mind.
Although the family car was a ’73 LTD on which I learned to drive, the driver’s education school I attended had a fleet of these in ’76 when I was taking lessons at 16; all of them this exact color green. I loved driving this car. The one on which I learned was a ’72. It either had the venerable 225 Slant Six or the equally venerable 318 V8. I can’t recall now; heck I may’ve had stick time in BOTH versions. It handled very well, although anything would’ve been better than the LTD.
Later, after getting my license, we took a family trip to Minnesota and rented an Aspen with the 225, and I loved that car too… it was a blast on the rural dirt roads near Frazee, MN.
Cool cars these little Dodges. That profile picture (the fifth one down) looks like a mini Charger, which is my all time favorite MOPAR of 1969.
So much for the myth that these cars were somehow good handlers. This car was lambasted for its crappy handling, never mind the atrociously slow steering. I think GN overlooked that some when he summed it up as “benign handling”, yet the article says that it’s “sloppy to the point of being a problem” and “the car heels over and makes a desperate attempt to swap ends”. “Benign”?
I was very familiar with the handling of my Dad’s ’68 Dart 2-door with the 170 /6 and three-speed manual. The steering was absurdly slow, and with much less weight on the front end, it could have been quicker. But that lack of front end weight also gave it a neutral attitude in corners.
Stuffing V8s and automatics in these compacts invariably was a trade-off in terms of handling and such.
All in all, it’s easy to see why someone wanting a somewhat sporty compact would turn to a Datsun 510 or such instead of one of these.
Well, Paul, perhaps we could say “good handlers for the time period”?
You and I are about the same age and similarly car-obsessed; often agree on our car opinions.
I spent lots of “driver time” in the cars of various friends of the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. ( “Can I drive your car? I just wanna see what it feels like!” ) Some friends would just automatically hand me their car keys.
In my opinion: A similar sized American car of this time period (Chevy Nova, Ford Falcon/Maverick, Rambler American) wasn’t any better at stopping or cornering that the Mopar Dart/Valiant; if even as good as the Mopars.
I also recall the numb, slow geared, “wheel winding” steering of the Mopars. The Nova and Falcon had only slightly quicker geared manual steering, but still numb, heavy effort “bicep builders”.
The quicker ratio power steering option lessened the “wheel winding”; at the expense of some of the “road feel”. (Did Ford even offer a power steering option on the Falcons of this time period?) The Nova, with it’s always excellent GM-Saginaw developments, had the best power steering “road feel” of all the compact cars.
I had several ’68 thru ’76 Mopar compact cars, all but one had power front disc brakes, all but one had power steering. (Yes, I did like my cars “loaded” with accessories.) The one Dart with the manual drum brakes was a constant reminder to “look ahead and plan in advance”. But, in all fairness, my drum braked Rancheros and Falcons of this time period were little better at stopping in a straight line.
One had to “work the option list” carefully with Detroit cars of this time period in order to get a pleasant driving car and not a numb, “penalty box” stripper (Like your Dad’s Dart).
Twenty and thirty something of today have no idea of what cars of the 1960’s were like; and the compromises and total attention the drivers had to excercise wayyyyyy back then!
I can attest to the handling problems when I had my ’75 Duster 360. At low speeds, thinks were OK though understeer was present, Take it above 80 mph, though, and things got scary as the car became loose and flighty-feeling.
On twisting roads and under demanding conditions, the Dart was atrocious (like most American cars of the day). For going to the supermarket or a straight shot from L.A. to San Francisco, as Road Test summed up, the Dart was adequate. So for average drivers under average conditions, the car was “benign”–as desired by its target buyers who favored “ride” over “handling.” That said, I agree the Dart was still far behind the capabilities of certain imports at the time. Unless equipped with the handling package, power disc brakes and power steering, the car would have felt dreadful to an enthusiast driver (an attribute that likely did not apply to most Dart buyers).
For going to the supermarket or driving on a perfectly straight freeway, “handling” is essentially irrelevant. The whole point of testing cars is to asses them under a variety of circumstances, as that may be a relevant issue under some conditions, and some buyers really did care.
I don’t want to drag this out, as it’s a fairly minor point, but the reason I bring it up is that Mopars of this vintage are generally held up among many of our commenters as being better handlers than average, and I’ve tried to question/dispute that with period reviews a number of times. The myth of the superiority of the magic torsion bar suspension is rather outsized, when in reality it all comes down to their relative firmness and other settings, which Chrysler very clearly changed in the mid-60s to favor a soft, quiet ride over relatively better handling (compared to direct competitors)
My takeaway from reading this review was that this Dart’s handling was a something a bit less than a simple summation of “benign”. It reflects a very compromised handling envelope due to Chrysler’s decision a few years earlier to soften their suspensions. That might have been worth noting, in my opinion.
I see your point. So I’ve amended the text to say “All the typical Mopar virtues and vices were present and accounted for: robust 318 V8, (barely) adequate brakes and handling that was relatively benign under the most undemanding daily driving conditions, though capabilities were subpar when put to the test in more challenging situations. No thrills, no chills (if you were lucky).” I think this should more accurately represent the article and the reality of the Dart’s abilities.
If one had spent any amount of “driver’s seat time” in the same year Chevy Nova, Ford Falcon/Maverick or Rambler American, the handling differences and driving qualities between these cars and the Mopar models would be quite evident and noticeable.
The Falcon and the American, yes,
But I recall the 1968 and later Novas being praised for their handling abilities – at least compared to their domestic competitors.
Leaving aside the standards and expectations of those days versus these: the suspension, steering, and brake system configuration that was adequate-to-good on the new 1960 Valiant was not substantially upgraded—and in a couple of particulars was downgraded—as the A-body cars grew larger and heavier. A ’69 Swinger with A/C and a V8 engine weighs about 3,200 pounds and has a 111″ wheelbase; the ’60 Valiant weighed about 2,450 pounds and had a 106.5″ wheelbase. OK, 10″ drum brakes were available as an option in ’69, but the 9″ drums, same as on the ’60, were still standard equipment. And the wheels and tires were still pennypincher specials, too small and narrow. The A-body cars of ’69 could be specified with equipment for much better and safer handling and stopping, but most weren’t.
I wholeheartedly agree with Paul on this point about the handling. I believe the myth of the torsion bar suspensions prowess seems to have grown with time. A coil spring and torsion bar operate under the same principles, and a coil spring is essentially wound up torsion bar. Both get the springing action from the twisting action of the spring steel. And both have rates that are determined by a mathematical formula, which only factors in the diameter of the spring wire (or torsion bar), the length of the spring or torsion bar and the material used. And like all other American cars of the era, the Chryslers used SLA front suspension, so there really was nothing fundamentally different in the suspension’s basic operation. The main difference was in Chrysler suspension tuning, favouring a stiffer setup over its competitors, moreso in the early part of the decade. It’s amazing how much spring rates alone can alter the handling ability of the same car without any other significant changes.
The other thing that needs to be considered is that while Chrysler’s didn’t significant change or improve their suspensions/handling through the 1960’s, other’s did significantly. In particular, look at Chevrolet, who went from the 1960 cruciform chassis with ultra-soft springs, to a 1969 Impala with F41 suspension that was relatively competent, and arguably the best handling standard of the day.
I would mostly agree with you. My one point is that the geometry of the Chrysler setup seemed inherantly superior to others like the Ford systems with the high shock towers. They were probably comparable out of the box on base models but the Mopars responded better to minor mods.
And yes, from about 1966-70 GM made great advances in suspension design while Chrysler stood still.
I didn’t mention the geometry of the suspension, but you do raise a good point. However, the fact that the Ford setup had the spring load on the upper arm doesn’t actually affect the suspension geometry. All this does is changes the load from the lower to the upper arm. The way the control arms move through their range of motion is not affected by which arm carries the load.
That said, Mopar suspension geometry was different than Ford and GM. Fords and GM suspensions of this era tended to have a positive-camber curves, while the Mopars tended to have a negative curve. The negative camber curve is more ideal for handing. While Fords and GM’s had roll centers that were too low, which can cause more body roll, Mopar’s were too high which can cause suspension jacking forces. An argument can be made that the Mopar suspension did have better geometry, but the flimsy OEM parts, and soft bushings didn’t keep any of these suspensions much in their intended arcs of motion anyway. I think the combination of the higher roll centers (which reduced body roll), and the on average stiffer spring rates on the Mopars gave the perception of better handling in many cases. Bottom line is, none of the suspension from this era had good geometry and not until Detroit actually took some time to properly tune the suspensions did the handling start to get better.
Let’s see. How would I build mine…
Dark Green over black, buckets, 340 and 4 speed, maybe tweak it a little by painting the grill black after adding some flamethrowers, might as well shave the trim and black out the rear, add a spoiler, and make it a convertible. Skip the hard-wired rotary car phone, though, and no real need to cut holes in the hood or paint the engine compartment red…
Now THAT’s a 69 Dart I could swing…Yeah, Baby!
Looks like the one Mike Connors drove in the first season or two of the “Mannix” tv show!
Jazzy car, jazzy opening theme for this show:
Ring dat bell!
The engine bay was red because that’s what color the car was originally, before Barris got a hold of it. There is an early episode with a nice underhood shot as Mannix looks under there, suspecting a bomb, or something.
A website about these cars noted that they were not street legal, since they had no front turn signals.
Depends on which Mannix Dart is being talked about. The ’68 car wasn’t street legal, butnext year’s car, a ’69 made up to match the ’68, was street legal. Barris took the horizontal ’69 turn signals, rotated them vertically, and placed them behind the grille and inboard of the Lucas driving lights.
I had a Dart Swinger as my DD for a while in my shady used car days. It was a 1973, and the previous owner had installed a 1967 Dart GT interior in it! It was a Slant Six and a Torqueflite, too. He traded it on a Cougar XR-7 of all things. A week later he was back looking for his Dart!
The steering and brakes were manual and I recall how much winding it took to make a turn in the city. The brakes were okay for slow speeds but on mountain roads they were rather lacking.
I loved that car and I sold it to a lady I was dating. She promptly said I had ripped her off and I never saw her again.
“…I sold it to a lady I was dating. She promptly said I had ripped her off and I never saw her again.”
Ah yes, another case of the (in)famous “Feminine Logic”.
(Roll Eyes)
I grew up in the back seat of a bare-bones ’68 Dart sedan that my mom drove. It had exactly zero options except for automatic trans and power steering. I hated that car because the black vinyl bench seats got so hot in the summer with no A/C, made worse by the dark green color. But now I have fond memories of it. It was exceedingly reliable for the time and it started my dad as a loyal Mopar customer until the early 80’s when he finally gave up on Chrysler after horrifically bad lemons (a ’77 Aspen and ’81 Omni).
The Polaroid Swinger camera had already been on the market for two or three years when the Dart Swinger was introduced. The Swinger was advertised at $19.95 (with a TV jingle and elsewhere) and it sold well. If not for the success of the camera, Dodge might never have adopted the name.
I had one of those when I was a kid! I best remember the infamous exposure meter activated when you squeezed the red knob and would glow “YES” in the viewfinder if set correctly. Novice photographers were distracted by the “YES” and framed their photos badly.
Vintage commercial below (featuring Ali MacGraw, with Barry Manilow singing) from Doyle Dane Bernbach, same ad agency that made the legendary Volkswagen ads at the time.
I have a Polaroid Swinger in my collection. Being the least expensive Polaroid, It sold like “hot cakes” though it was limited to using black and white roll film rather than the “Color Pack” film used in the higher end Polaroid models. A lot of Boomers were likely to have been led to the excellent SX-70 cameras in the 70s due to the popularity of the Swinger in the 60s. Originally, the viewfinder was to have a “NO” and a “YES”, But why bother with extra cost and complexity, Anything other than “YES” is roughly equivalent to “NO” anyways. So it just ended up with big honking “YES”
The early production Swingers apparently did have a “NO” in the viewfinder as shown in the link below; the Wikipedia entry on the camera (with citation) concurs with this too.
https://onetuberadio.com/2016/03/22/polaroid-swinger-camera-1965/
These were built in Brazil from late 1969 on – they were quite upmarket and considered big cars for Brazilian standards. Only a V8 was offered, the most powerful engine in the market for a number of years. The Darts enjoyed a good reputation and were very well liked – they were truly aspirational cars.
Brazil also got new Darts all the way through 1981, half a decade after the last ones were built in the US.
And,…most interesting of all, the very final ones were technically VW products.
Notice those 60’s era Dodge medium duty trucks. Those lived on a number of years after VW took over Chrysler’s Brazilian operations. Eventually VW built their own medium duty truck by basically using the Dodge chassis and a cabover style cab made of T3 Vanagon components. Some Cummins powered examples were even exported to the U.S. by PACCAR, and sold as Kenworth and Peterbilts.
I can barely keep that straight . . . a Dodge truck chassis with a VW microbus-based cab on it with a Cummins engine imported by PACCAR and sold as a Kenworth or Peterbilt. We’re talking one mutt of a truck here…
My favorite body style of the Dodge Dart’s, I’ve always liked the Plymouth Belvedere/Dodge Coronet styling taillights of these cars, what was the last year they’ve made the Dodge Dart’s with these style taillights?
For 1970, Dodge restyled the front and back of the Dart. The taillights were mounted in the bumper – a style that would last until 1974.
The restyle somehow made the car look smaller, in my opinion.
For the 1970-76 Dodge Dart’s I much prefer the 1970-73 styling over the 1974-76 styling, I remember growing up I saw more 1974-76’s than 1970-73’s (I’m born in 1980), I rarely saw any 1967-69 Dodge Dart’s at all and thought they looked sportier than the 1970-76 version’s (especially the 1974-76’s).
The ’70-up trunk was much less capacious (like, about half the capacity) versus that of the ’63-’69 Darts.
It was called the VE Valiant out here slightly different grille and the steering on the other side that didnt fix the handling though, a couple of inches out of the ride height a double front sway bar and decent radial tyres on wider rims will work wonders on these cars. I like em as did most Kiwis well reguarded cars the old Valiants in this country Aussies werent quite so keen.
Had almost the exact same car.Green on green ’69 Custom, 225/904 Torq-Flite, black vinyl roof, 13″ wheels. Very dependable transportation for many years. Only gripe was the power steering was over-assisted and had a too slow a ratio.
Agree on the power steering ratio and being over-assisted.
Mopar built in a small amount of road feel and lessened the over-assistance around 1974.
But Mopar’s power steering always felt like it was one generation behind General Motors.
The power steering on the later (1974?) Ford Mavericks, was just as gawd-awful as the Mopars.
The old road test writer seemed surprised that an automatic tranny car would start in neutral. I’ve never known one that didn’t!
Is there a better car than the Valiant or the Dart at being “just a ca?” One that worked, was reliable, durable, and priced so the average or below average budget could afford it?
My first car was the Australian version of this. A Valiant Regal Hardtop 318 TorqueFlite.
Had a lot of fun with it, The acceleration could see off most standard V8s from Ford and Holden, (this was proved with lots of out of town illegal drag racing)
The handling was another matter entirely, at speed, as someone above described, the car would become “loose and flighty- feeling”
Even on moderate corners the tail would flick out without warning, I would take it out on a windy road to try to “learn” how to drive it but I could never tame it, it was frightening.
I learnt in later years that it may have been set up incorrectly by the previous owner .
He had lowered the front end and installed a fat anti roll bar, no problems there, but he had also installed a bar on the rear suspension which is unecessary on a 60s Chrysler as there is enough roll resistance already built in, due to the way the axle is mounted forward on the leaf springs, having an anti roll bar as well made it dangerous in my opinion.
Happy to be corrected by someone with more knowledge than me of course.
Anyway, apart from that I had an absolute ball with that car, and both armrests stayed firmly attached.
I reckon you’d be about right. Have a look at the footage below at 3.35 to about 4, and at 6.20 to about 6.30: the car is speeding with enough nose-up to get air, not much roll at the back, and only one wheel at the front is on the ground round corners. (For those local, the whole vid is quite interesting. For others, the program 4 Corners was and still is Australia’s premier serious current affairs show).
So yes, Valiant/Darts could handle – if you were very, very skilled. Or crazy. Or, best of all, both.
Ah, so thats how its done, with one wheel in the air !!!
Great video justy, and I thought 4 corners was just a boring show my parents watched back in the day.
Ah, the Dart Swinger! Had a nice black over red 318 powered one – think it was in Custom trim with A/C. Yeah, the handling wasn’t anything special and it wasn’t really very fast – but it sounded great and drove pretty nicely. Especially compared to the Mercury Comet that replaced it – that car was also a V8 (302), 2 door, brown over brown with lots of Brougham-y goodness. Yuck. Sold the Mercury to an acquaintance who stripped it down as a drag racer, the Dodge is on the short list of old cars I wish I still had…