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bobby_starquest
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Wasn't the swinger the version with the slant 6 cylinder? I know they came with that, and didn't think they came with any other engine?

I don't think I know of one that year, but I'll keep my ears open.

 

I have relatives in Glen Burnie that I haven't seen for about 20 years!

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The Swinger was a model akin to the Road Runner in '69, meaning it was essentially a stripper. The Swinger 340 is legendary for being a lightweight screamer; sadly it lasted only two years ('69-'70) after which Swingers were tilt-6 or 318 only. In '72, the Swinger actually became an upgrade option rather than the rubber-floor-mat version.

 

The 383 and 440 were only available in the GT-S model Dart in 1969, neither available with power steering and the 440 being automatic-only. '69 was the only year the 440 was factory-available in the Dart (and A-body Barracuda), and they're both rare and pricey.

 

They're also way too fast for the speared-badger handling that comes with a 660-pound engine centered over the front wheels of a 3,200-pound car with a tiny front swaybar and none out back. :D

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70 dodge dart swingers had 340s in them too..... double scoop hood, real nice looking. The 340 had 275 HP and ran 14.8 sec at 96 mph in the quarter. one of my favorite mopars of all time.... but that 67 GTX is my number 1!! The plymouth sport satellite was great too!

 

John86TSi

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Yeah, I mentioned the '70 in my post. I almost bought a Panther Pink '70 Swinger a couple years back: white tail stripe, top and interior with a 340/4-gear. It was a basket case with the 340 in the trunk, the trans in the rear footwell (in pieces), 3.91 gears in the 8¾" rear, and the 4-piston calipers. I used the money to buy a house instead.

 

I had a Turbine Bronze '67 GTX 440/console auto; it was too far gone to save so it was parted and now lies in a friend's back yard a few miles down the road. I still have the data tag from that one somewhere, as well as some heartbreaking pics of it stripped and being moved out of my storage shed. I still wish I could have saved that one. :(

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Thanks for the lesson! All I knew was we used to see these blue Darts that said Swinger in a big goofy looking sticker on the side. All of them were slant 6's that I saw, and were a joke. Like why would there be performance looking badges on a slant 6 model with no guts? It just never made sense to me. Now I know there were some that had the bigger engine.

 

A local lady has a very, very rare '66 Baracuda with the 426 Hemi. It has a metal plate on the inside passenger fender that says "For Advertisement Only" on it. They say it is worth over $200,000, but I don't know? They look ugly to me that year, and I wouldn't even want it! I guess a guy could always sell it to get what he wants! I loved helping my friends build their 340 Dusters and Challengers though. Very exciting and fast, fast! We got daily drivers into the 12's at high altitude. Kind of tempermental, but hard to beat for the buck.

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i am restoring a 340 dart

 

you can find them all over... but be prepared to pay if you want a 340 car

 

318's and 273 2 barrel (up to 67) cars in good shape can be found for 3,000-5,000

 

original 340 cars and 273 4 barrel (65-66)in bad rusted shape usually start where the others top out.

 

Even restored drivers are hitting 20 and above right now.

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i think taz has a dart for sale.....well i know she had one for sell at carisle at least....not suire if she still has it thou..have to contact her thru email or pm

 

Yeah but mine is a 72 and it has a /6, as mean as it may be.. lol..

 

keep an eye on the classifieds at moparstyle.com there's a lil bit of everything over there. Our huge mopar show here is this month I'll continue asking around the club to see what I can find

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A local lady has a very, very rare '66 Baracuda with the 426 Hemi. It has a metal plate on the inside passenger fender that says "For Advertisement Only" on it.

No offense, but it sounds to me like someone's trying to boost the value of their Slant Six car to me... I've never seen any example where Chrysler used such a plate, even on "dream cars" for show only or examples like the wildly-modified '70-'71 Rapid Transit cars. Even if they did build it, it would be a 2nd data tag under the hood on the driver's side similar to the "PILOT", "SPECIAL HANDLING" or "1ST JOB FRAMED" tags used in first-assembly factory hand-built cars. It would never have been affixed anywhere else, and it would be a plain-steel data tag--no brass or chrome. It would be body color with at least one body-color screw and possibly one plain metal. One of the screws would have been shared with the actual data tag (body code plate) showing the options on the car as originally assembled. Lots of show cars were built with swapped-in engines; the original data tag would have almost certainly shown a 273.

 

A friend of my Dad's did had a metal plate that said "This Jeep Grand Wagoneer built especially for Jack Wittock"... he ordered it out of J.C. Whitney. :mrgreen:

 

Seriously, the only pre-'68 Hemi A-cars that I know for a fact Chrysler had anything to do with were Richard Petty's 1965 NHRA A/FX Barracuda known as "43jr" which he raced in protest of NASCAR's banning of the Hemi for the 1965 season, and Bob Riggle's 1965 Barracuda known to the world as "Hemi Under Glass" because the Hemi was where the rear seat once held domain. That car was reskinned as a '66 to coincide with the new model year; there was another based on the '67-'69 fastback Fish. Neither car was built by Chrysler--but they had a lot to do with R&D and providing parts. Neither car had any such plate.

 

Unless that plate is is as described above and that lady has an absolute ton of unquestionable documentation from Chrysler Corporate/DCX and/or Galen Govier, I would doubt it's anything more than a publicity stunt. Mind you, I'm not saying it's impossible, but I've never seen or heard of anything like that in 20+ years of studying '58-'83 Mopars.

 

I would love to see pics of this car, because if it's real it's enormously important and if it's a fake, it needs to be exposed as that before someone blows a ton of cash on a 273 car with a swapped engine.

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dont underestimate the value of a 273 4 barrel car..

 

i drove a restored 66 dart gt convertible 273 4 barrel 4 speed car to high school.

 

i sold it when i went in the marine corps, i had not seen it since until the mopar madness show this spring

 

here it is YY1 bronze metallic of all the 517 total 4 barrel convertibles made in 66 this is believed by most to be the last one left in this color.

 

Out of all the cars that attend carlisle every year there has never been a 66 convertible car there

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10123/DSCF0587.JPG

 

http://www.26liter.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10123/DSCF0586.JPG

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I'm not doubting, I'm just saying that there ain't no value in a swapped-in motor; most likely it would have been into a 273-2v car anyhow.

 

BTW, I sold a far-more-rare black-on-black, manual-disc, fast-ratio manual steering '66 Valiant Signet 273/235HP 2DHT 4-speed (one of 181 Signets of any body style--coupe, convertible, 4-door and wagon--with the 273-4v/A833) two years ago as a running, driving car for $850. It was a nearly-rust-free GA car needing patches only where the floor pan angled up to the toe plate--and only at the outer corners--as well as inner fenderwells because it'd had fenderwell headers at one point. I included a rust-free GA forward half of a Barracuda with it for both the fenderwells and the floor patches. Had I parted it, I could have likely got over a grand for the essentially 1-year-only 8¾" axle beneath it--especially with the factory 3.91s and clutch-type Sure Grip unit. Yes, there were '65 8¾" axles... but only 50 were built to homologate it for NHRA use.

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