My Best Friend's 440 Long Ram Dart

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yellowdartdave

yellowdartdave

RIP 1-5-12
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Jax, Fl.
My best friend that passed away last year built this 70 Dart to be different.
He had just swapped in the tubular k-frame and coil-overs when he suddenly passed. His wife asked me to finally finish the job.
It will be a daunting task because the car has been untouched for 17 months and it did suffer some storage damage.
This car was shown on My Classic Car at Garlits show in 2002 or 2003.

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sorry to hear about you friend, looks like the car has a ton of potential. and how many darts do you see with a long ram manifold....
 
sorry about your buddy. that dart is lookin pretty sick though, thats definetly something different
 
The car definitley ran good before he swapped in the coil-over suspension.
440 with .509 cam and the Long Rams meant instant power and tire smoke.
The DOT legal slicks really helped but they still got overpowered at times.
When Don Garlits and Dennis Gage were walking thru the show field they glanced at the car and then about fell over themselves when they realized it had the long rams.
On the way back from 1 cruise-in, a guy driving a warmed up 5.0 Mustang wanted to race him.
His wife told him no and the guy in the Mustang said a few unplesant things about the Dart. She told him to take the Mustang out!
My buddy told the Mustang to take off and he would give him a sporting chance. About 3 seconds after the Mustang took of from a 20 mph roll, the Dart came alive. When the shift light glowed for 3rd gear, he was just passing the Mustang with a huge screech from the slicks.
The 5.0 turned around and slinked away.
It is a huge torque monster.
 
yellowdartdave said:
The car definitley ran good before he swapped in the coil-over suspension.
440 with .509 cam and the Long Rams meant instant power and tire smoke.
The DOT legal slicks really helped but they still got overpowered at times.
When Don Garlits and Dennis Gage were walking thru the show field they glanced at the car and then about fell over themselves when they realized it had the long rams.
On the way back from 1 cruise-in, a guy driving a warmed up 5.0 Mustang wanted to race him.
His wife told him no and the guy in the Mustang said a few unplesant things about the Dart. She told him to take the Mustang out!
My buddy told the Mustang to take off and he would give him a sporting chance. About 3 seconds after the Mustang took of from a 20 mph roll, the Dart came alive. When the shift light glowed for 3rd gear, he was just passing the Mustang with a huge screech from the slicks.
The 5.0 turned around and slinked away.
It is a huge torque monster.
Click to expand...
HaHa thats the way to do it, Them mustangs are only good for hauling a couple of bottles of nitrous, you should of told to take his car home and shove a bottle of N2o up his ***.
 
yellowdartdave said:
The car definitley ran good before he swapped in the coil-over suspension.
440 with .509 cam and the Long Rams meant instant power and tire smoke.
The DOT legal slicks really helped but they still got overpowered at times.
When Don Garlits and Dennis Gage were walking thru the show field they glanced at the car and then about fell over themselves when they realized it had the long rams.
On the way back from 1 cruise-in, a guy driving a warmed up 5.0 Mustang wanted to race him.
His wife told him no and the guy in the Mustang said a few unplesant things about the Dart. She told him to take the Mustang out!
My buddy told the Mustang to take off and he would give him a sporting chance. About 3 seconds after the Mustang took of from a 20 mph roll, the Dart came alive. When the shift light glowed for 3rd gear, he was just passing the Mustang with a huge screech from the slicks.
The 5.0 turned around and slinked away.
It is a huge torque monster.
Click to expand...


Great story! I love it!

Your friend will be happy for what you are going to accomplish for his car. Everyone needs a friend like that.
 
Sorry about your friend but that's a very cool thing for you to do. You're a real friend.

The car is very cool too. I wish you luck.
 
Best of luck to you on his project! BTW looks great and sorry to hear about your friend.
Matt
 
ABODYJOE,
He bought it from an elderly gentleman west of Ocala, Fl.
It was a white with black vinyl top /6 PS AC car with the houndstooth interior.
Low miles and 1 rust thru hole about 1/2 inch in the trunk.
You could lift up the carpet and find nothing but white paint and carpet dust!
He had the side mouldings removed and then had it slathered in Lexus diamond white pearl.
He installed frame connectors, inboard mounted S/S springs, he mini tubbed it and had Stockton make up some 15x12 rims for the back. He did not narrow the rear-end but had them add a lot of back spacing.
The motor is a 10.5 440 with a .509 cam with a lot of head work and Turbo Action built the tranny and converter.
The gears are 3.55 with Sure-Grip and the DOT slicks are 12 inches wide if I am not mistaken.
If you look at the picture of the inside of the rear tire, you will notice the inside bead of the tire is in the middle of where the spring used to go!
 
Very cool. Sorry about your friend. Are you doing this so that the wife can enjoy it? I would hope that if something happened to me that my wife would try to get our (her) GTS convertible done so that she get out and enjoy it without me. I know one of my sons would finish my Barracuda, so that's not really an issue.
 
She simply stated that she wanted to get it completed and going again and there were only 2 people that know how it goes back together, her late husband and me.

I have known them since 1978 and he was my assistant fire chief back in the days.
She would probably enjoy it more if I put a mild cam in it. The .509 is a bit much for her.
 
Nice Dart Crazy Dave..........sorry about your friend.
 
Sorry about your best friend......I hope you finish up the car as a tribute to him!!

That is BAD *** how the springs are on the other side of the exhaust pipes. Looks like the exhaust goes all the way out to the tips at the rear bumper.

I like it a WHOLE BUNCH!! SENDING PM TO YOU.
 
Dave, Ask her if she would like to be able to drive as a tribute to him, seriously. If so, throw a hemi grind in the 440 (but you probably already knew that).

My wife would have no trouble driving our GTS again as it was her daily driver back in 1983 and through most of the rest of the 80s. I also want her to able to drive my Barracuda when it's done. That's one reason it is getting an automatic (cost is another). The 440 going in will be very mild, but it'll still feel a LOT faster than the stock 340 in the GTS.

Here she is behind the wheel at the ripe old age of 21...........(just as a little encouragement).

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aww man... this car is THE reason im gonna run a Sonoramic Long Ram intake on my Big Block Demon. I posted a question on this board (titled "sonoramic baby!!!") asking if the Long Ram worked on a 440 and someone replied to me with that engine shot. So sorry to hear the owner of this car passed away. Good luck with finishing it, i know its gonna turn out great and also know that theres an evil twin being forged in Southern California and will now be finished as an homage to your friends car :)
 
Oh No, not another torque monster loose on the streets !!

Make sure you have plenty of rear tire.
 
oh yeah baby!!!

Plenty of tire??? I hope so, im throwing a narrowed C-Body 8.75 with a Detoit Truetrac (or spool maybe), 3.55 gears and 15"x10" worth of Slotted Mags mounted with as much tire as theyll take along with some Cal Trac bars at my Sonoramic Fo Fo Oh... well see what happens though!!!
 
It doesn't look bad from 18 mo storage, but even a garage doesn't protect things in Fla. I grew up in Jax and remember the damp carport all winter. Look how fast the alum distributor corroded. I spray all alum with clear engine paint since even in CA it grows white pits.

When I was a kid, people could drive on the beach. I'll bet those cars aren't today's "survivors". Even worse were the cars ads with a new car driving at the water's edge spraying salt water underneath. I wonder if they sold those on the lot after filming.
 
Bill,
It spent about 3 months outside under a cover while he built a new garage.

Greazerlou,
My friend used a standard width A-Body 8.75, relocated springs, mini-tubbed it and had Stockton make up some 15x12 with 7.75 inches of back spaceing which, from the side, made the wheel lock stock.

Here is my original post.

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=78465&highlight=long+rams
 
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