Tire Shredding Dart. Beaver Falls, PA
1962 Dodge Dart
When the 1962 Dart hit the scene, it was initially shunned by car buyers, thanks to a corporate screw-up that shrank the "standard-size" Plymouth and Dodge cars, one year after the 1962 designs were finalized, and a year into their tooling-up process. Dodge dealers hated it, with a dozen quitting on the spot when it was revealed to them in the summer of 1961. The dealers even threatened mass action if a "big Dodge" wasn't in the 1962 line-up ASAP.
Based on that, it can be argued the 1962 B-Bodies were the first of the classic muscle cars, whose performance proved it. The 413 Max Wedge ran e.t. 's near what a modern-day Viper runs. That puts these Darts in very fast company by today's standards, but in 1962 they were the fast company!
In the early 1960s there was an expression at the drags: "Nothing beats a 'button' off the line except another 'button,'" referring to the pushbutton TorqueFlite. Until then, you needed a four-speed to win drag races, but "buttons" changed that.
Tire Shredding Dart. Beaver Falls, PA
1962 Dodge Dart
When the 1962 Dart hit the scene, it was initially shunned by car buyers, thanks to a corporate screw-up that shrank the "standard-size" Plymouth and Dodge cars, one year after the 1962 designs were finalized, and a year into their tooling-up process. Dodge dealers hated it, with a dozen quitting on the spot when it was revealed to them in the summer of 1961. The dealers even threatened mass action if a "big Dodge" wasn't in the 1962 line-up ASAP.
Based on that, it can be argued the 1962 B-Bodies were the first of the classic muscle cars, whose performance proved it. The 413 Max Wedge ran e.t. 's near what a modern-day Viper runs. That puts these Darts in very fast company by today's standards, but in 1962 they were the fast company!
In the early 1960s there was an expression at the drags: "Nothing beats a 'button' off the line except another 'button,'" referring to the pushbutton TorqueFlite. Until then, you needed a four-speed to win drag races, but "buttons" changed that.