1966 Dodge D/Dart ~ 'Mystery, Myth and Misconception'

Alan,
Two of the previous owners of your car are being inducted into the Drag Times Hall of Fame this month ( in another week or so, basically). Your car owner's shop had some pretty unique vehicles parked in front of his shop. Many times Ted had the full support of the near by Chrysler Engineering team, and had specially parts delivered to the back door for either street testing, and /or strip testing. Not only was strip testing important but the selling of these cars on Mondays at the dealer. As car number one, your car especially had some unique features. Aluminum bolts and aluminum engine mounts, (maybe not currently), but at one time. These guys did not like to lose, so the Woodward Avenue D-Dart was unique.

It may not have been the fastest of the class at the time, had the best power to weight distribution, etc. but these guys had quite a bit of factory support, and it may have been a distraction from the failed street Hemi in 66. Obviously, Ted's former employee, Jimmie Addison had the fastest street racer around. The engineers sold him the car for a dollar. Ted did some amazing things with both the small and the big blocks at that time. I think it was the success of the drag Hemi that prevented further development of the small block at that time, but who's to say. Obviously the small block was within range of pulling Hemi sales. Strip success was great, but the Hemi option was rather expensive for many.

Within 2-4 years of the DDart you had Hemi Darts and M Codes.
And maybe because of the shortcomings of the 66 they were already by-passing further development, in favor of something else.