A Couple of Corrections From an Old Guy

I recently got into a discussion of A-bodies on this board when it became apparent to me that some of the posters didn't know a couple of things about the really early A-bodies. Since I grew up with these cars, and drove a '60 Valiant for about 10 years, believe me I am not making this stuff up.

First, a '62 Dodge Dart was an intermediate-sized car, not a compact. The Dodge compact car in '62 was the Lancer. In '63 Dodge renamed the Lancer compact as the Dart.

The '60-'62 Valiant and Lancer were quite a bit smaller and lighter than the later versions, mostly because they were narrower.

Therefore trying to compare the performance of a '60-'62 A-body with that of a later model is like comparing apples and oranges. If you put a 450 horsepower small block V8 into a '60-'62 A-body, try calculating the power-to-weight ratio. (The V8 is approx. 60 lbs. heavier than the slant 6.) It is about the same power/weight ratio that you would have with a 13-second car.