Here’s a closer look at the 1967 Dodge Dart, the newly redesigned Chrysler Compact now coming into its own.
As we’ve recorded before here at Mac’s Motor City Garage, the Dodge Dart was introduced to the public in 1960 as a low-priced but full-sized car on a borrowed Plymouth platform. (See our feature here.) Then in 1963 the Dart was relaunched as a plus-sized compact to replace the Lancer, and that’s when it began to come into its own. For 1967 the Dart received crisp new exterior sheet metal under the direction of Dodge studio manager Carl Cameron, creating a look that’s considered a classic by Mopar collectors today. Still on a 111-inch wheelbase Unibody chassis but carefully packaged for greater interior room, this new senior compact was “Dodge-sized,” the ad writers made known.
As briefly noted in the clip below, powertrain choices included the trusted Slant 6 in two sizes, 170 and 225 cubic inches, and two 273 cubic-inch V8s. One sported a two-barrel carburetor and 180 hp, while the four-barrel version with a 10.5 compression ratio offered 235 hp but demanded premium fuel. The two V8s were available with a four-speed transmission, while the sixes got by with a three-speed manual or Torqueflite automatic. While it’s not mentioned here, late in the year the Dart GTS arrived, sporting a 383 CID big-block V8 with 280 hp. They’re fairly rare—only 457 produced in ’67. Video below.
my dad’s one and only new car bought by my aunt and grandfather, 3 days after getting it one of his girlfriends shot it full of holes in a drunken rage. I always liked the looks of these, they are cleanly styled
Darts & Dusters were ubiquitous among my group when I was a teen. Very occasionally there was a Nova sprinkled in. Don’t remember a single Falcon or Maverick.
1967 was the first year for hydraulic lifters in the Mopar smallblock V-8, and this body style was used for Darts until the bitter end in ’76. No room for catalytic converters between the torsion bars killed it.
All anyone needed to make a well tuned big block 383 GTS run 12’s in the quarter mile was a set of fenderwell headers, a pair of slicks and a cutting torch to install both…