The Buick GS's run pretty good with so-so heads and intake. The mopar wedge has bigger valves, too. Give one to Dave Dudek, i bet he will get it to run!

I stand corrected, always thought norm built those cars not dodge. it would seem that hurst put those vin tags on also. there was some guy claiming that the 69 cars were built on the assembly line with the 440, but this gives more claim to the hurst-campbell install. i can give a pic of my driver side mount if i can find how to post a small photo.

69 440 A bodies were built on the line

'67-'69 383 A-body left mount.

'69 440 A-body left mount

nudder view '69 440

there are to many "what about this" for them to be built on the line.1 why would Chrysler,with those key-punch cards, put a 383 fender tag on if they were going to put a 440 in it, could have made it up to start with and its own build sheet. they knew when they where going to be built why not have the correct paperwork ready? 2 why would they need the special clip to hold steering joint together,could have left it off till the body was set down on the k-frame. just a couple of things that makes me wonder. did you work there putting engines in or did you talk to someone? it would nice to get this verified and not just hearsay for the good of these cars. the years are slipping by.

This is a GTS dart, but someone put stuff from another dart onto it when we bought it ( he was a chevy guy!)
HE even had chevy truck marker lights screwed into the body over the 68's round marker lights holes!!
( anyone want some 69 chevy truck marker lights, Their FREE!)
It is not a gt.
IT is a true GTS dart.
The holes for the GTS emblems are still in the right places and he had stuff from a 69 dart and a 69 chevy, a 72 dart, and an early 63 dart put onto it as he drove it..
We are just going to restore it.
You are welcome to come see it in person if you like?
Grant Eaton
1155 6th St, Orange City, FL 32763
PH# 386-561-1181

Hello fellas,

I was looking through some of my car books last night and found a story of a 1968 440 GSS Dodge Dart in the book, Million-Dollar Muscle Cars, by Colin Comer. Chapter 11, p. 130, was as follows.

"For 1968, Norm requested a special run of 50 Dodge Darts with the 440-ci 375 hp magnum engine. As Chrysler already had a 383-ci eng. available in the Dart, a 440 would be a plug-and-play affair. A run of 50 cars would also make them NHRA legal for drag racing. Alhough this kind of corporate favor would be unheard of today, in 1968 Norm's relationship with Chrysler was enough to get this deal done."

"So Chrysler agreed to build the cars only for Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge. 50 Dart GTS 383 cars were pulled from the line and sent to Hurst-Campbell Company for the 440 conversion just as the Hemi Super Stock Darts had been. The cars were serialized with an M code in the VIN, and all were fitted with the 440 and a 727 torqueflite automatic at Hurst. Upon completion, the Hurst/440 GTS Darts were shipped to Grand Spaulding and rebadged by Norm."

"The only way to get a 440 Dart in 1968 was to buy it at Grand Spaulding and nearly all were pre-sold. Don't confuse the 1968 GSS Darts with the later 1969 M Code cars built in house at Chrysler; the 1968 cars were hand-picked and individually converted by Hurst, making these some of the lowest-production Mopar muscle cars ever."

I just thought I'd share.

Thanks, Juan.

Hello again,

Did any of the 50 1968 440 GSS Dodge Darts make it to Grand Spaulding Dodge with the "regular" non-restrictive manifold or did they have the restrictive A-body 440 manifolds too?

It's my understanding the 69 440 GSS Darts had the special manifolds...but what about the 68 440 Darts?

Thanks, Juan.

If you look at my previous post I stated that they came with 67 383 manifolds (they had 67 date codes on them) though they were probably officially 68 manifolds. Most were thrown out immediately!

Rhinodart,you're right, you did say that. my bad.

thanks, Juan.

The 68 440 darts can only run super stock in NHRA, and the 69 440 dart can run Stock class in NHRA. As to how fast or how slow they are, might want to check out Charlie smith's 69 dart (sold) and Steve Wann's 69 cuda both 440 cars built by Steve, dart held the NHRA "B" and "C" stock record at 10.18 & 10.39 et. Steve ran a 10.22 at Phoenix race a few weeks ago. I'm sure he still has some left in it !....LOL