“Dad was a Mopar guy,” Cedar Springs, Michigan’s Rich Straub says about his late father, Carl. “He bought a ’64 Polara new, a 383 car, then he bought a new ’65 Dodge Coronet 500. He didn’t like the ’66 and ‘67s, but when the Dart GTS came out, he really liked it.”
Dodge’s compact A-body Dart had a GT package since its 1963 launch, but this was little more than bucket seats and some trim. For 1968, the new top-of-the-line Dart GTS (or GT Sport, as it’s sometimes known) was also treated to stiffer Rallye suspension, a low-restriction air cleaner, chromed exhaust tips, a bumblebee stripe on the tail, a power-bulge hood, plus all of the other spiffs that came with the GT, including bucket seats, styled wheel covers, and full-width trunk trim brightwork.
![Color closeup of the engine bay in a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS.]()
While the original 340 is in the garage for safe keeping, this replacement 340 has been prepped for the Pure Stock drags, including 11.25:1 compression, Ross pistons, a stock-lift cam with faster ramp speed, and more.Photo by Matthew Litwin
The heart of the GTS was the new-for-1968 340-cubic-inch V-8. Well, new-ish: While the displacement was new, its bones dated back to Chrysler’s “A” engine family of the mid-’50s. Its replacement, the LA engine, launched in 1964, and weighed 55 pounds less thanks to new thin-wall casting techniques, despite having the same external dimensions and bore centers. The LA 273 and the A-series 318 “Poly” shared a crankshaft (and thus stroke — 3.31 inches). Poly heads went away, and the wedge-head 273 gave way to the 318 for the 1968 model year, retaining the 3.31-inch stroke but enlarging the bore to 3.91.
For the hot 340-cube version, Chrysler used a still-larger 4.04 bore in order to encourage deep breathing at high rpm. A suite of upgrades followed, including high-flowing heads with 2.02/1.60-inch valves, a forged steel crank, a specific carburetor on a high-rise dual-plane intake, dual-row timing chain, and a windage tray. Its light weight helped handling, and in an A-body it provided 383-B-body-sized time slips at the track. The 340 was rated at 275 horsepower, but word on the street was that it was good for 50 more than that. For the third year, a version of the B-series 383 V-8 was also available in the Dart GTS, rated at 300 hp for ‘69. Carl’s car was a 1969 383/automatic example and came with some documentation that showed that it had actually been used at the Chrysler proving grounds. “It had some miles when he bought it,” Rich recalls. “He didn’t like the whitewall tires it had on it at the dealership, so they swapped on the redline tires (and wheels) from a new Barracuda they had on the lot.” That car didn’t last long, though, and Rich was young enough that he didn’t remember it coming and going — he only knew of the Dart anecdotally. “I know that he was discouraged with it — it had some spark issues and he ended up selling it.
![Color image of a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS drag racing, front 3/4 position.]()
Photo by Matthew Litwin
He always complained about having to put plugs in it.” Decades later, “my brother and I decided we’d find him one.” Rich finally found one in Hemmings Motor News, located not far from him in southern Michigan. “It was a great candidate; someone else brought it from Southern California. We got it for $4,000. It was running poorly when we got it; the intake manifold gasket had popped into the valley. We also rebuilt the carb and four-wheel-drum brakes, and changed the cam. The interior was pretty baked from being in California, so we found a dashpad, replaced the headliner, and installed a Legendary interior. We repainted it the original B2 Blue. It didn’t have any rust. It came with bumper guards, and Dad didn’t like those, so when we got the bumpers re-chromed, they removed the guards and welded up the holes before plating. We located some NOS parts for it back when they were easier to find. It was easy to make the car presentable and to put it together.” It arrived with power steering and air conditioning, both of which were shelved thanks to their excess weight. Full wheelcovers were swapped out for a set of red-ring Dodge “dog-dish” caps on body-colored steelies.
![Color closeup of the dash, steering wheel, seats and interior in a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS.]()
A blue Legendary interior replaced the tatty, sunbaked original in the early 1990s and remains presentable today. Floor-shifted automatic encourages consistency.Photo by Matthew Litwin
“And Dad drove it like that for years,” Rich says, though he doesn’t mean that his father was soft-pedaling it down to the local car show. “When he raced it at the Pure Stock drags, it had the original 100,000-plus-mile 340 in it. Oh, and we put 3.55 gears in it. And he was running 14.30s at 98 mph — the transmission was soft, the engine wasn’t rebuilt, and the Pure Stock rules were stricter back then, too.” Carl was having fun, but Rich admits, “He wasn’t lighting the world on fire.” You’d think that after life with a 383 Dart, a 340 would seem somehow less, but… “Dad didn’t have an issue with the smaller engine — the plugs were easier to change! Plus, I’d built and run enough 340s that it was a well-running engine.”
After a decade or more of fun, though, including entrancing his granddaughter Adriana with rides in that very Dart, Carl found himself in a position where he needed to sell. It went to a buyer half an hour’s distance away, but save for once at a local car show, the Straubs never saw the Dart again.
Time marched on, and Carl passed away. Rich’s daughters were teenagers and rapidly approaching driving age — not to mention their growing interest in their dad’s activities at the track. It was Adriana’s idea to try and find her grandpa’s Dart to bring it back into the fold. A search, launched in 2017, was far more easily accomplished with modern technology; the Straubs discovered that the Dart was more or less where they had left it. “As it turns out, the guy who bought it from us got cancer shortly after he bought the Dart and couldn’t drive it anymore, then he passed. He’d only driven it 400 miles, and all those years later the Dart was still sitting there at his house.”
![Color closeup of the shifter in a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS.]()
Photo by Matthew Litwin
So, in 2017, Rich made a deal and brought it home to Cedar Springs. He found himself going through a car that he’d already gone through more than a quarter-century earlier. “We ended up doing the fuel tank — it sat around long enough that the fuel system got all gummed up and we had to change things to get it running.” The four-wheel-drum brakes were also re-serviced at this time. “I wanted to assess the engine and transmission; after I drove it, I didn’t think that much had changed.”
By now, enough time had passed that a Dart GTS, particularly one with its numbers-matching driveline intact, was a valuable commodity. If Rich intended to prep it for track duty, he’d need to build an engine that took advantage of a revised Pure Stock rulebook. Out went the original 340 to be stashed; in went a prepped mill with attention paid to what Rich initially mentions in passing as “details.” When pressed, he reveals: “The new rules allow an additional 3⁄4 of a point of compression, so we got rid of the cast pistons and have a set of 11.25:1 Ross pistons; high-quality pistons are where it’s at in the swing assembly. That’s a lot of what makes it snappy. We’re also using thinner wrist pins, as well as file-fit piston rings instead of just slapping on a set of rings and hoping the end gaps aren’t too big.”
The heads were also addressed. “We did some port work and cleaned up the bowls a little. But we’re using Chevy valves instead of Chrysler valves; they’re still stainless 2.02-inch valves in the heads, but the stems on a Chevy valve are thin, plus you can open up a catalog and find 50 sets of Chevy valves to choose from. Choices for Chrysler valves are a lot more limited. And so, we also have different guides in the heads. We’re not violating the rules with any of this,” Rich says, “we’re only violating our pocketbooks.
![Color closeup of the exhaust pipes, trunk and tail lamps of a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS.]()
Photo by Matthew Litwin
”Tickling those valves is a Bob Karakashian “Mr. Six Pack” camshaft. “It’s got the same profile as stock, but with a faster ramp speed. The engine responded really well to that cam.” The rear end now runs strip-friendly 4.30 gearing. For safety’s sake, the front drums have been swapped out for a set of factory-spec disc brakes.
The suspension is similarly simple but clever. “You’re not supposed to run 90/10 front shocks, so they’re just completely worn. There’s a set of 50/50 shocks in back; we loosened up the anti-sway bar so there’s no resistance in the front, so it throws the weight on the rear tires; we also pop a little weight in the trunk. We use six-cylinder torsion bars too — the thinnest bar is the one to use. It’s a little wonky to drive it down the road like this,” but Adriana’s quarter-mile time slips — 12.90s in cool air — confirm that it works on the quarter-mile.
![Color closeup of a drag helmet on the passenger seat of a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS.]()
Photo by Matthew Litwin
Along with Adriana driving the Dart, the other members of Rich’s family have gotten involved with the Pure Stock drags as well — wife Carolyn runs either a ’71 Hemi Super Bee or a survivor ’69 Coronet R/T, and younger daughter Caroline runs a ’72 Demon 340. Indeed, Rich is so busy prepping the ladies’ cars in the pits that he didn’t have the bandwidth to run a car himself in 2022. “I’m changing carb jets in one car while someone’s whispering in my ear to work on another one… I was busy enough. But watching my wife and kids having fun doing something that I’ve done forever… I don’t even care that I’m not out there racing. I enjoy watching them out there more than I enjoy doing it myself.”
When the Dart isn’t out campaigning, the Straubs are positively evangelical about the joy of old cars. “We sponsor a car show here in Cedar Springs, and the Dart is out there every other weekend. We’re always trying to get kids involved.” But tougher than getting kids into it is getting adults to believe what this Dart GTS is capable of. “It’s been to MCACN a few times, in the Pure Stock display. [Whether there or at our local show] lots of people walk away not believing how fast it is.” You can almost hear Rich shrug over the phone. “The timeslips are there. People can watch the videos on YouTube. But it’s not much to look at under the hood, I guess. A turquoise engine and exhaust manifolds just aren’t that ashy.” They’re not, but they would have made Carl, a Mopar guy, proud.
SPECIFICATIONS
![Color image of Mopar drag cars and their owners at the speedway.]()
PRICE
Base price: $3,226
Options on car profiled: Air conditioning (removed), $361; power steering (removed), $33
ENGINE
Block type: Chrysler LA-series OHV V-8, cast-iron block and cylinder heads
Displacement: 340 cubic inches
Bore x stroke: 4.04 inches x 3.31 inches
Compression ratio: 10.5:1 (Currently 11.25:1)
Horsepower @ rpm: 275 @ 5,000
Torque @ rpm: 340 lb-ft @ 3,200
Camshaft: 430/.444-in lift, 268/276 degrees duration (stock)
Valvetrain: Hydraulic valve lifters
Main bearings: 5
Fuel system: Carter AVS four-barrel carburetor
Lubrication system: Pressure, gear-type pump
Electrical system: 12-volt
Exhaust system: High-flow exhaust manifolds and dual exhaust
TRANSMISSION
Type: Chrysler 727 Torqueflite three-speed automatic
Ratios: 1st/2.45:1 … 2nd/1.45:1 … 3rd/1.00:1 … Reverse/2.57:1
DIFFERENTIAL
Type: Mopar 8 3 ⁄4 housing with Sure-Grip limited-slip differential
Ratio: 3.55:1 (Currently 4.30:1)
STEERING
Type: Manual recirculating ball
Ratio: 24:1
Turning circle: 38.7 feet
BRAKES
Type: Hydraulic
Front: 10-in drum (Currently 10.79-in optional disc) Rear: 10-in drum
SUSPENSION
Front: Independent, unequal length control arms, six-cylinder torsion bars, worn telescoping shock absorbers
Rear: Semi-elliptic leaf springs; telescoping shock absorbers
WHEELS & TIRES
Wheels: Stamped steel, drop-center Front/Rear: 14 x 5.5 inches
Tires: Goodyear Wide Tread, red stripe Front/Rear: E70-14
PRODUCTION
Dodge built 6,700 Dart GTS hardtops for the 1969 model year.
PERFORMANCE
0-60 mph: n/a sec
1/4-mile ET: 12.9 sec @ 106 mph*
* Source: owner timeslips
