Where are the Dart GoGo’s?

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azaustin

azaustin

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I’ve been following Ulf’s Dart Charger posts and his old newsletter since I bought my 65 Dart GT resto project (235hp/4speed, a.k.a. the Ferrous Oxide Express) in the early 2000’s. I didn’t even know that my high school car was a GoGo until Ulf pointed that out to me when I posted a picture of it. The car was a year old when I bought it off a used car lot in Oklahoma City, so I never saw any dealer literature, or anything like that. I was actually looking for a Barracuda Formula S, so I knew what the motor was. To me the Dart was better looking, had a great engine and trans combo - and I wanted the rally stripes.

In the last 20 years I have never seen a picture posted online of a Dart GoGo, other than a article or some of the promotion brochures and videos. Where are they? Has anyone else seen one in the wild? The Dart Chargers I have seen with rally stripes have mostly had the offset stripes shown on the convertible in the Dodge GoGo brochure. If someone knows a of a real, honest-to-god original GoGo out there with some history to prove its’ provenance I’d really like to hear about it or see some pictures. From what I can see, if Dart Chargers are rare, real GoGo‘s are unicorns.
 
The only one I have is the one in my Avatar. It’s very poor quality when enlarged. I loved that car and practically lived in it my senior year of high school, but I wasn’t into taking pictures of things like that until much later in life. I’m going to post a picture of the brochure, even though it’s been been posted here before. My high school car looked exactly like the coupe in the brochure. I knew a girl from another school who had a convertible exactly like the brochure car. Sorry, I can’t upload the brochure picture I have. The file is too large.
 
I never knew of these cars and never saw one that I remember. They must be rare to see in person. I been around Mopars for a long time and that is the first time I ever seen one offered with Cragar wheels. Very cool. Thanks for showing this.
 
Oldmanmopar said:
I never knew of these cars and never saw one that I remember. They must be rare to see in person. I been around Mopars for a long time and that is the first time I ever seen one offered with Cragar wheels. Very cool. Thanks for showing this.
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The Cragars my car came with were 4x5 pattern with the aluminum finish on the spokes instead of the chrome. Keeping them polished gave me my introduction to Simichrome polish. If Ulf hadn’t told me about GoGo’s I would never have known about them. I just thought my car must have been a Dart Charger without the badges.
 
Was it on the fender tag? The only '65 four barrel Dart I know of with stripes is one that was owned by an elderly couple (it was her car) who have both passed. Their son now has it in Oregon. No idea if it was an original Go Go. They picked the car up in the mid-1980s. This pic was from 2015.

DW108144.JPG
 
As far as I know, it wasn’t on the fender tag. The GoGo was an option package if I understand the brochure correctly. The car pictured above has the correct stripes but appears to have a white interior. Both cars shown in the brochure were yellow with black interiors. Both had the 13” Cragars that my car had. Nice looking car. You can see the tuned exhaust pipe sticking out under the rear gravel pan, so I’’m assuming it’s a 235hp car, although it doesn’t look like it has the small indent in the gravel pan. The fender tag for my coupe and convertible show the colors, interior, engine and transmission, but I don’t know if they were GoGo’s. Both were original yellow cars with black interiors and tops, the 235hp engine, 4 speed in the coupe and 904 in the convertible. I’m going to look for the picture I used in my avatar and try to post it. I’m attaching a picture of my convertible. The coupe is on life support and may not survive. When I put the Cragars on my convertible I had to go with 14 inch versions because the 13’s weren’t available. The 14’s are also all chrome.

AEFEA65F-875E-49A8-AA9E-7097F43CB680.jpeg
 
Jim Lusk said:
Was it on the fender tag? The only '65 four barrel Dart I know of with stripes is one that was owned by an elderly couple (it was her car) who have both passed. Their son now has it in Oregon. No idea if it was an original Go Go. They picked the car up in the mid-1980s. This pic was from 2015.

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These were on the west coast only and I believe they were dealer upgrades. They painted the stripe and added the Cragers.
 
I’ve wondered about that given the promotional films. My coupe (the one I’m attempting to restore) is an LA car, but my convertible came from Hamtramck. From what I can tell they were only available from just after the end of the Dart Charger run to the end of the 1965 model year, or early summer. I’m sure you‘re correct about the stripe, because I was able to obtain a copy of a factory bulletin on how to paint the stripes, both the centered and offset version. All of which makes you wonder how a convertible GoGo (the one that belonged to the girl I knew) and a coupe wound up in Oklahoma City in 1966-67. Where did you get your information about GoGo’s being west coast only? I believe it to be true, but I’m really trying to gather some information and sales history about these cars. If you’re correct, I’m willing to be that there were a small number of dealers pushing them. Maybe some west coast version of Norm Spaulding, perhaps?
 
azaustin said:
I’ve wondered about that given the promotional films. My coupe (the one I’m attempting to restore) is an LA car, but my convertible came from Hamtramck. From what I can tell they were only available from just after the end of the Dart Charger run to the end of the 1965 model year, or early summer. I’m sure you‘re correct about the stripe, because I was able to obtain a copy of a factory bulletin on how to paint the stripes, both the centered and offset version. All of which makes you wonder how a convertible GoGo (the one that belonged to the girl I knew) and a coupe wound up in Oklahoma City in 1966-67. Where did you get your information about GoGo’s being west coast only? I believe it to be true, but I’m really trying to gather some information and sales history about these cars. If you’re correct, I’m willing to be that there were a small number of dealers pushing them. Maybe some west coast version of Norm Spaulding, perhaps?
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It was something I read long ago. No idea what the reference was.
 
Thank you so much for posting this. It’s the first thing I’ve seen that gave a run date for the models in addition to where they were sold. I will try to follow up some more.
 
I picked up the GoGo dealer brochure at Hill Kelly Dodge in Pensacola, Florida in 1965. (Wasn't old enough to drive, yet. Imagine that!) I still have the brochure. Anyway, I just thought "GoGo" was a slogan, not the actual name of a model. At any rate, Hill Kelly never actually had one that I saw, but they did have a yellow 65 Coronet 2dr hardtop with a black interior, Cragar mags with blackwall tires, and a 426 wedge/Torqueflite. I drooled over that one. . . .

When I first started showing my 63 Valiant convertible back in the mid 90s, some people asked me why I ran Cragars instead of rally wheels. My answer was (1) rally wheels didn't exist in 63, Cragar mags did (or at least pretty soon afterwards), and (2) Cragars were a factory option on 65 Darts, so Cragars were closer to being factory correct than rally wheels on an early A body. I didn't realize until later that the optional 65 Dart Cragars were 13 inch, because I had never actually seen one with the GoGo package, just the brochure. So mine were 14 inchers (now 15 inch).
 
That Coronet would have been a real knockout in that color/interior combo. Cragar wheels were some of the strongest aftermarket wheels available when they came out, as well as being one of the best looking. The thirteen inch wheels still looked good on the cars even though they were small. When I put new wheels on my convertible, which I intend to be a GoGo clone, I went with the 14 inch wheels because I have a set of Kelsey-Hayes disc brakes and it’s my understanding they won’t fit under 13’s. If I’m able to save my coupe, it will also wear 14’s to clear my other set of KH brakes. I think the Cragars look really good on a Valiant.
 
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