This poor Dart....

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OK.. my first thought was it was photoshopped yesterday, so I opened it in Photoshop and started inspecting it. I looked at the lines, grass, and whether any of the items looked like they were stitched or filled using a different resolution. There was some minor speckling, but that can be normal depending on the camera used, lighting etc.

It still didn't look "correct" so today I imported it into CorelDraw and started tracing some perspective lines. It seemed that there was some discrepancy, so I enlarged it, and printed it out. Then I taped some paper down and tried some perspective lines.

For those unfamiliar, perspective is a term used to recreate how we see something in real life. When we look at something, for example a box sitting on the ground with one vertical edge facing us, if we follow the top and bottom edges of each side, the lines will intersect at some point to the left and right, and this intersection will occur at the horizon line. These are referred to as the vanishing points.

The horizon line is the point where the ground and air meet. As long as the lines we follow are from parallel lines, this is true.

In the picture above, I first extended the horizon line out to the right. Then I chose areas of the car that would be at the same height from front to back.

1) Mid fender to mid-door
2) Center body line through the round marker lights
3) Center of rim
4) Lower edge of rim

By tracing these back to the horizon line, they should either meet exactly, or be very close due to tracing errors. They are way off. That is why as some have mentioned, the picture looks wacky.

Like the Mythbusters say: This one is BUSTED.
 

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I would have been better with a shorter top I think. Also, I wonder how the 3 pane door glass arrangement works. I figure the vent is stock but the others are a puzzle. Do they roll down?
 
I wonder if it was built by a midget or a mental midget?
 
OneOfMany said:
OK.. my first thought was it was photoshopped yesterday, so I opened it in Photoshop and started inspecting it. I looked at the lines, grass, and whether any of the items looked like they were stitched or filled using a different resolution. There was some minor speckling, but that can be normal depending on the camera used, lighting etc.

It still didn't look "correct" so today I imported it into CorelDraw and started tracing some perspective lines. It seemed that there was some discrepancy, so I enlarged it, and printed it out. Then I taped some paper down and tried some perspective lines.

For those unfamiliar, perspective is a term used to recreate how we see something in real life. When we look at something, for example a box sitting on the ground with one vertical edge facing us, if we follow the top and bottom edges of each side, the lines will intersect at some point to the left and right, and this intersection will occur at the horizon line. These are referred to as the vanishing points.

The horizon line is the point where the ground and air meet. As long as the lines we follow are from parallel lines, this is true.

In the picture above, I first extended the horizon line out to the right. Then I chose areas of the car that would be at the same height from front to back.

1) Mid fender to mid-door
2) Center body line through the round marker lights
3) Center of rim
4) Lower edge of rim

By tracing these back to the horizon line, they should either meet exactly, or be very close due to tracing errors. They are way off. That is why as some have mentioned, the picture looks wacky.

Like the Mythbusters say: This one is BUSTED.
Click to expand...


I have to agree with you. Just by looking at the picture, my brain hurts from trying to focus on it to get a clearer picture...this picture is absolutley photoshopped. Nice analysis. :)
 
I don't understand what i see. i'm scared and i think i hear laughing. nice work by the draftsman though.
 
OneOfMany said:
Like the Mythbusters say: This one is BUSTED.
Click to expand...


Here's another picture of the car:

P1010505.jpg



And a link to the thread started by the guy who actually took the pictures:
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,82388.0.html

The owner found it on craigslist and bought it for $500.
 
Well, cant argue with that. The other picture from the pass side makes it so.. I'm just having trouble with the first pic. It looks like the front wheel track is at least a foot outside of the rear one.

So, due to an overabundance of emails on the subject, we decided to dig deeper into this. And we've decide..

Plausible :)

Grant
 
A car like that was on the Chattannoga craigs list late in 2009. The price running was $800.00. 318 auto.
 
Here's some more "shorties"
 

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They're not that rare.
According to Galen's white books, the total production for these cars formally known as the ''Dart Car'' are 29,385.
They all had a scheduled production date of April 1st 1968, and all of the cars were built on this day.
They were originally built for the Shriner's parades on the 4th of July, 1968.
There was a problem with delivery, and all of them were briefly marketed as a new car for people that couldn't afford a 2 door post and wanted 68 miles to the gallon.
They could not get the mileage over 65 mpg even getting a midget weighing 85 lbs driving it.
The MSRP was $1,234 which was about half the price as a 2 door post, and weighed in at 1,444.4 lbs with a full tank of gas.
They were built using the left over parts from the factory super stock darts that Hurst did not need anymore.
They were all 383 magnum 3 in the tree, with 4:89 geared Dana 60's, non sure grip.
The only color they were available in was a sort of off white color officially called Corporation Black. (coded BLK)
The interiors were all blue, with inexpensive velour from recycled pool tables to cut costs. All were radio, heater, and glovebox delete cars.
The survival rate of these cars was low because they started developing rust holes in the whole car within days of being produced due to a cutback by Chrysler Corp. to not paint anything on the car other than the exterior, and at that it was just a mist coat applied by trained monkeys borrowed for the day from Barnum&Bailey.
The only options these cars had was the hood scoop option, which this car has (only 5 produced), and the engine coolant option which was $484.00 where they filled the radiator with water to provide extra cooling for the engine.
It was a marketing failure.
Most of the cars were stripped of their valuable 3 in the tree transmissions by thieves and people refused to buy them because they wouldn't move.
Then Chrysler sold the patent to Mercedes where they used this car and reverse engineered it and developed the ''Smart Car'' we all know and love today.

This information is considered to be accurate at the time of this writing.
 
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