68 Dart first time out

Get the chassis to work. It should run low 12's easy and definitely in the 11's with some chassis tuning.

Standard mopar style spring set up? If yes, clamp the crap out of the front segments. unstrap all but one on the rear segment. This is critical, make sure the shocks are long enough to not restrict full travel.

Get some ET street radials, hoosier QT pros or some other decent tire on it.

Fresh bushings for the column shift linkage are cheap. Unless you have a seizure, there's no reason on the 1-2 or 2-3 shift to bang N or reverse.

If it does have 500hp, it should be capable of 11.00's at 119-121ish