Ed I never get tired of that story. It funny how this thread popped up again because Ron was at my shop the other day and we were talking about that car. jake

ED Yes,right behind the donut castle. Lenny is still around. Im 52 now and still do motors and trans the way he taught me Im the same bad influence, I give parts to certain kids just like Lenny did for me Mark

Well, this is about the best recollection of the events that I have heard and pretty accurate too as i remember them. I was the one who almost bought the Rover back from Marty. At the time I had the yellow car. I don't remember why I didn't but I had thought of buying Ron's car and selling mine since mine had no race heritage to speak of.

I still have the original shifter out of the Red car and the wheels that Ron had on it for a short time. The intake manifolds were all done by Diamond at the time. That car at the tail end of 1970 could have qualified for Pro-Stock at a few races, it was running as fast as the bottom 16 cars at some of the Pro-Stock races.

It was a different Lenny. the one that bought the Dart had 65

I remember the event with the hood being broken on the Irish Rover quite differently. I was actually there! We were at a party on 14 Mile Rd. at a girls(that will remain unnamed) house I went to school with. Darrell pulled in the driveway with the Dart and turned it off. When he went to leave it wouldn't start so he asked for a jump start. As Darrell when to the back of the car to open the trunk. Some fool went to the hood and started taking out the pins thinking the battery was in the engine compartment. The hood never got took off and they got the car started. Darrell backed out of the driveway onto 14 Mile Rd. and pulled a hole shot the hood did go about 30 feet in the air and landed in the left turn lane right side up but the corner that had the pin in it had broke off. When we would show the car we always took the corner of the green blanket that we always sat the hood on and pulled it up over that corner to conceal it.
I guess that the fool who took the pins out thought the battery was in the engine bay because they had saw me take the 67 Shelby hood off of my 427 68 Mustang GT fastback that was at the party that night also. I had a charger with me and had topped the battery off at the party before going out for some late night runs that night on Gratiot. I had hoped to square off against the Rover that night but didn't have my slicks on the car. After Darrell broke the hood he want straight home though. I had only turned mid to low 10's with the Mustang but had beat much faster cars on the street with it. I had the fastest car in high school Nice to have a wheel stander at 16.
Marty wanted me to buy the 57 Chevy gasser because at 16 he saw how successful I was at street racing in the Mustang at the time. He was always interested in the work I was doing to my car and i just wanted to here about his. I remember him saying of the 57 "It would do 11.57 with a hundred mile an hour tail wind."
It was a great time back then and the Hot Rods Sale section of the news paper had hundreds to choose form. I should have bough John Rivers LO23 Dart when I had the chance to way back. Saw it years latter and Jackson owned it from the auction. Chris Campbell's from Bob Seager's band fame LO23 Dart was for sale recently in the Waterford, Mi area.

Ed, When did you have a Super Bee? I remember you driving your Grandmas old green 318 Coronet with 50's on the back in high school. HaHa how time flies. It seems like yesterday I was pulling wheelies outside Mr Solomen's class at Warren High in the gold Mustang.

Do you remember the piss green 68 Charger I had for a week or so. Great engine shitty car Lenny may still have parts of that car. I am working on another 427 Ford engine. Collecting parts it will have the cobra Jet crank also(adds 30 cubes) My secret weapon then and now. Marty knew by the sound and always said "Sounds like more inches in the there your shaking the squares in the street loose. I was a bad influence to many!

Here's another Gratiot Auto Supply Dart. I can't make out who the driver is on the window but I remember seeing two of them before the red one and this one with the snorkel hood, a Modified Class car. At one time I remember a red one and a black one. Anyone have a picture of John Rivers LO23 Dart from back then. Brent has it down in Florida last I heard it was for sale again. I know John got his from Van Dyke Dodge. Don't know if he picked it up from Hurst in Madison Hts. or right from Van Dyke Dodge. Funny how so many of these cars were in such a small area of MI. I still have some of the Gratiot Auto Supply graphics in black and in white, a fringe benefit of being a preferred customer.

1972 body in white crashed at Indy in 1976.

So whats the story on the John Rivers 68 Hemi Dart, is that the one that was in a street race that crashed. And what happened to the Irish Rover 68 Hemi Dart, what's it's status today.

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John Rivers car was for sale in Florida serial number LO23M8B391xxx. As far as I know it was never crashed and was raced. It was owned by Craig Jackson and sold at auction to Brent and is black and restored. It has a title from Minnesota as I recall.

The car that was crashed was Chris Cambell's from the band of Bob Seager LO23M8B297xxx a four speed car. Also for sale in the last five years out in Waterford, MI.

I lost touch with Lenny in the mid 80's and haven't seen him. I have been by the house on Carrillon in Warren but it sure looked like someone else lived there when I drove by. He told me last I seen him someone out west wanted pictures of the car and one of those is the picture I posted on a earlier post when it had the tires and wheel on the back off of Lenny's big Chrysler that he drove to work. The person never had come through with a offer after a few months and he told me he was giving the car to his son Jeff. He was about four at the time. The plan was to paint the car a midnight metallic blue and the only lettering or graphic was to be midnight rambler in small letters on the trunk on one side above the rear bumper. The pearl white paint job may have had a few others under it or was so thick in layers that it was badly spider cracked but looked good from a few feet away. The hood also had a six or seven inch by two inch piece out of the passenger side rear corner also but the piece was present.

I lived close enough to Marty that when the car was fired up many would jump on their bicycle in the neighborhood and ride over to Amsterdam and steady flow would ride by to witness the behemoth Hemi in action. I was one!

Thanks to all for the info on the photo I posted. I had a inkling but it's nice to get a confirmation.

Hey Guys
I was forwarded this post from Charlie A over @ classracer.com. Great thread thanx for sharing those memories gentlemen.
I have an original LO HemiDart that I've been chasing it's history for the past 10 years. It seems it falls off the planet from 68 through to 1980??- 1982 era. The first known owner was Lou Vignonia who purchased the car in Mt. Kisco, NY. It was purchased from Lou by Tim Hennesey & restored in 1986. Tim sold it in 1990? & went through several owners till I aquired it in 2001. It was believed to have been one of Charlie Castaldo's cars, but has been proved it is not, as his 4 spd car was crashed in E town in 69 & the auto car is accounted for & resides in NY
I started a thread a couple years ago:
http://www.classracer.com/classforum/showthread.php?t=13002&page=188
It has close to 2000 replies & over 300,000 views, but, I am still no closer to knowing this cars history. There's lot's of great info & pictures if you have the time to read it all.
Mark Janaky & several others have put many hours & $$$$ into this for me, but it is still known as the unknown soldier.
I'm hoping that bringing this over to this site might unearth some new info or leads that I can follow up on. I sure would appreciate it.
Here's some pictures of it.

liteweight

No one ????
Here's a couple pictures of it when Tim Hennesey purchased it in 1985?





This decal was on the PS quarter glass. Anyone have info on which track this was held?

liteweight

Hey Daryl, most people on this site know about the classracer thread, but hopefully some new blood will come along. As always, good luck!

I found an article in Mopar Action tech Special 1995 that has two Darts. One is a car that Charlie Castaldo bought new. There's a picture of him towing it on a dolly with a 68 Dodge Station Wagon. The article doesn't say who he sold it to, but that eventually Tim Hennessey got it and restored it, and from the pictures, it looks just like your car. The other is Charlie Comella's which at the time, 1995, was a race car. You probably have this information already, just thought I'd post it. Thanks, Bob

Here's the shot in the magazine with Lou's car without a hood and tweaked bumper.

He ate my tire smoke right after this picture was taken. Gray Baskerville, the guy that wrote the article was actually sitting in the back of my dad's pickup truck with the tailgate down to get this picture. We were just driving by the old Bel Air Drive-In on 8 Mile Road.-Lou

Here's a picture of it from Autorama 2016 restored to 1970 paint.

That's Ron Mancini's old car. I think he said it had gold color wheels on it with that paint scheme when he had it.