318 horsepower

The later Darts are lighter when you go thru them. You can remove the impact bumpers, the seats, and any options not needed like heater box and any AC stuff it might have. You can replace the hood with a fiberglass one. I would leave the stock fenders, and I wouldnt cut anything. Just unbolty stuff. Thats all "free" ET reduction. If you can get the weight down to 3000 lbs with driver, then all you need with decent gearing is about 375 horspower to run 109, or very low 12s. A simple recipe would be the 318 short, with decent flat top pistons (I like KB hypers, but to each thier own), stock redon rods w/ARP bolts, stock crankshaft, internally balance it all. I'd run a set of Magnum heads on it. They are a great compromize between "big port/big chamber/big valve" thinking and reusing the stock 318 heads with some upgrades. On a 318, I think they would be great, with an added benefit of 1.6 rocker ratio. A hydraulic cam will do the job, and with a bracket car, you dont want to have work under the hood like valve adjustments. Match that engine with a solid 904 built for the job, and a set of 4.30s with the tallest tire you can fit, and go racing. I bet with experience and tuning, you can touch the 11s with a car like that.