3/9/2024 0 Comments 1972 dodge dart gold colorBack in the day, Chrysler was big into experimenting with ‘ram-induction’ and the manipulation of intake runners to improve performance of their V8 engines. While the original intent was simply to lower the hood line of the car, there was another, quite a bit more substantial engineering benefit. The more stout TorqueFlite is one factor.īut more important is the 30-degree cant of the slant-six. I’m not so sure it’s accurate to say that a well-cared-for Ford or GM compact will hold up as good as a Mopar. Only really egregious cases showed up during the cars’ reasonably anticipated lifespan, though-unusual things fail and wear out on unusually durable cars when they get unusually old. Still not much attention to body sealing water got in past the windshield, past the windshield wiper pivots, past those otherwise-awesome underdash vent boxes, past the backglass. Would’ve looked better to close up that gap between the top of the valence and the bottom of the bumper bar, and provide a plate mount on the bumper bar itself.īut unlike the ’70-’71s, the ’72s had front turn signals big enough to be worth using, the front seatbelts were somewhat less clumsy to use, and there were a bunch of little engineering improvements sprinkled throughout. And at least on the ’72s like this, the convergence of the front bumper bar, front valence, and licence plate mount looks a little sloppy and thrown together. I think it’s due to the fairly complicated collection of curves and angles. Much though I like the ’70, ’71, and ’72 Dart front face, there really is something about that front bumper bar that just always looks a little bit askew from certain angles, even when everything’s perfect. It was a fairly expensive option, for it necessitated some pretty extensive upgrades from these cars’ standard-equipment rather marginal charging systems: a higher-output alternator, a much heavier main feed cable, a higher-current ammeter, etc. Starting in ’74 a gridlines-type defogger became available (in large part because the state of New York began requiring it). +1 on the concave backglass, though in winter it compounded the damnuisance of the nonexistent-to-inadequate backglass defoggers of the day. I’ve managed to deviate from this Dart, but I could just have easily gotten into the Dart resale business too. A gold-brown ’68 404, known as “Goldie”, passed through several hands that way. Or they’d sell it back to me and I’d resell it to someone else. But if something did break with them, they would come back to me to fix it. I also passed along a couple of extra Peugeot 404s to co-workers that I accumulated along the way, mostly with good success too. I helped one single mom co-worker/friend buy a white sedan, which became know as the Kelvinator, and lasted for quite a few years of grueling Los Angeles driving. I recommended Darts and Valiants to anyone back in the late 70s – early 80s that was looking for relatively reliable cheap wheels. And one could see that happening already 40 years ago. There’s still one or two like that in Eugene. I won’t be surprised to see a Dart being driven for transportation 20 years from now. It’s the most likely car that old to be seen in dd use, and for plenty of good reasons. I don’t really know if this Dart sedan is a daily driver, but it sure could be. Shot and posted at the Cohort by Constantine Hannaher
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