FS: Preston Honea's 66' Dodge Dart "The Executioner"

-
Status
Not open for further replies.
slavzero

slavzero

New Member
Joined
Aug 6, 2012
Messages
3
Reaction score
0
Location
Granite City, IL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Contact seller
Up for sale is the late Preston Honea's 1966 fully fiberglass, altered wheelbase, DodgeDart funny car that he campaigned in early 1966 known as "The Executioner". My father acquired this vehicle from Preston in mid 66' and campaigned it himself until late 67' as "The Bad Apple" in the St Louis, MO region. Preston sold the vehicle to my father minus the original 426 hemi motor. The transmission, frame, and rearend are also the very same that Mr. Honea utilized in his famous "Hemi Marlin" funny car. Vehicle has sat in my father's garage collecting dust since 1968. If you are looking for a true ORIGINAL funny car, this is it! Acid dipped, steel bodied 66' Dodge Darts with fiberglass body panels were the norm for the era, but I do not know of many, if any other fully fiberglass, altered wheelbase 66' Darts that exist. SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY! Taking 6 digit offers. Interested parties may contact my father, Jim Riskovsky Via PM HERE for additional details and pics. Vehicle will be sold minus motor. Thanks.
IMG_9166.jpg

Preston_Honea_Executioner20.jpg
 
Very nice car and cool pedigree. Someone with deep pockets and a big garage will probably snatch this up. Good luck!
 
I see where the one picture states "the World's First 383" Funny Car" and that is not correct. Jeff Solliday, Jack Convy and I bought the Ramchargers 67 Dart in November of 67 and put our 383 Cu In Hemi in it. We raced with Hal Hammer that summer and ended the season 2nd in points (points equalled dollars) to Al Fontaninni in the UDRA injected funny car circuit. This circuit was based out of Chicago. We ran a best that summer of 8.10 seconds at about 189 or 192 I really don't remember the speed but the et was in Canada and is correct.

Thanks for allowing me to set the record straight.
Danny Miller
 
WELCOME DANNY MILLER.Maybe you can help get some of the computer only guys straighted out with info that has not been put on the computers. Mark
 
Danny Miller said:
I see where the one picture states "the World's First 383" Funny Car" and that is not correct. Jeff Solliday, Jack Convy and I bought the Ramchargers 67 Dart in November of 67 and put our 383 Cu In Hemi in it. We raced with Hal Hammer that summer and ended the season 2nd in points (points equalled dollars) to Al Fontaninni in the UDRA injected funny car circuit. This circuit was based out of Chicago. We ran a best that summer of 8.10 seconds at about 189 or 192 I really don't remember the speed but the et was in Canada and is correct.

Thanks for allowing me to set the record straight.
Danny Miller
Click to expand...

Hello Dan, your Dart ran some impressive times! Are you claiming that your 383 Hemi powered 67' Dart came before this one? My father put a 383 "Wedge" in this vehicle in mid 66', which would pre-date your 67' Dart, but his contention was more along the lines of the vehicle being the 1st FULLY FIBERGLASS 383 "Wedge" than anything else.

Thank you everyone for the kind comments and Dartswinger, I appreciate you forwarding this link to Don Garlett's Museum. My father has owned the vehicle for going on 50 years and it is simply time to see someone else own it that can hopefully appreciate it for another 50 years to come.
 
Is this you Danny Miller?? [ame="http://youtu.be/FWVcv5KorNw"]302 Found[/ame]

http://rear-gears.com/

If so your on the wrong team....J/K cool car even if it is a Ford...I would rather go to a nostalgia drag race ANYDAY than the current Force/ Schumaker show...
 
wasnt fred cutler running a factory sponsered 65 bfx car 383 hemi in 65 before any of this called the roadrunner & i think his hemi wagon in 64 may have had a 383 hemi in it also!!!!
 
Very cool car! It doesn't look like it even needs a full blown restoration. Although I would assume the quality of the work from back in 66 would be pretty scary by today's standards. Perfect museum car!
 
chooch said:
wasnt fred cutler running a factory sponsered 65 bfx car 383 hemi in 65 before any of this called the roadrunner & i think his hemi wagon in 64 may have had a 383 hemi in it also!!!!
Click to expand...

Again this is a 383 "WEDGE" and NOT a "HEMI", there was NO claim that the car was a 383 Hemi. The vehicle did have a hemi in it, but that was when Preston Honea owned the vehile and he ran a 426 Hemi in it. Additionally this is a FULLY FIBERGLASS F/C, NOT a steel bodied vehicle like Cutler's "The Roadrunner".

For those who have contacted me about additional photographs and condition of the vehicle, I plan on digging the vehicle out of the back corner of my autorepair shop and cleaning it up and taking outside detailed pictures of the vehicle. This is truly a museum quality piece as it sits. I hope to have additional pictures of the car posted by the early part of this upcoming week.
 
Hi and thanks again,
The car I was involved with was originally the "Ramchargers Steel (Acid dipped Steel) Bodied Car" which we bought from the Ramchargers in November of 1967. The car came without an engine and we put Jack Convy's engine from his factory 426 Hemi in the car. That car was originally a factory SS/B steel front end car. The engine had spun a bearing and the crank was sent to Jewel Engineering in Detroit to be de-stroked. That was where Ted Detar's (The Kansas Badman) car from Kansas had it done, I believe. That was where Jack and the original group got the idea to de-stroke to 383 a Hemi. I was not part of the original group but came on board when they were going to rent my 37 Willy's to race using Jack's engine and with Fred Henze driving. That didn't work out but meanwhile I reworked my Willy's to run NHRA "B" Gass to accept the Hemi engine which J did and so I got to drive when it was completed. This was summer and winter of 1965 raced as a Gasser in 1966, I believe, I am not quite sure of dates anymore. Anyway that is how I became involved.

Jack, Jeff Solliday and I bought the 67 Dart from the Ramchargers and raced the UDRA circuit (based out of Chicago) that summer and the engine was a 426 Hemi that we de-stroked to 383 cu. in. The car was fairly successful as we finished the season second in points (each point was a dollar) for the year. We raced about 25 or 30 dates that year as a booked in injected, nitro burning, fuel funny car circuit. UDRA also had a blown circuit that year.

I remember Hale's car as a Hemi also, was I wrong? I remember Hale well and often wondered what ever became of him as by about the middle of summer I don't remember seeing him at the races anymore.

Thanks for the memories and tell your uncle I said "Hi". If you have any other pictures please post them. We (all us old racers) are dying and need a little help remembering how it was. I sure had a great time back then. We were truly blessed to of lived and raced in those times.

Danny Miller
rear-gears@sbcglobal.net
 
To Hal's son,
Sorry I said "Uncle" when with closer reading it is your "Dad", my mistake.

Preston at one time had a shop in Maplewood as I remember. Is that true and is that shop still his or maybe it's now your shop?

I also remember a auto body panel company that carried Preston's name on it or so I thought. I guess I am geting to personal but just wondered.

Again say "HI" to your Dad I would like to talk to him but that isn't possible now as I have throat cancer and can no longer talk or even make noises with my mouth.

First picture from US 30 Gary, IN. with Jack Ditmar's car in background and our second paint scheme on car. The first was not well accepted back then because it had a "Bad Attitude" on the side of the car and that was too strong at that time. Anything goes now it seems.

Second picture left to right, Steve Smythe, Bob Mills. Me, Jeff Solliday and Jack Convy. With the "Bad Attitude" scheme on the side as it was in the beginning.

Third and beyond are newspaper clippings sent to me by friends.

Danny
 

Attachments

  • MCS Dart Gary,IN:JPEG.jpg
    119.6 KB · Views: 1,158
  • Alton crew LauraBruederle-pffb.jpg
    110.6 KB · Views: 1,063
  • MillerD68Dart_CamaroSt.Louis4_19_68DW_TonyManzo.JPG
    54.8 KB · Views: 1,013
  • MillerD69Dart4_5_69DN.jpg
    21.8 KB · Views: 994
  • MillerD69DartForSale1_11_69DN.jpg
    16.3 KB · Views: 1,008
Status
Not open for further replies.
-

Back
Top