Happy Thursday everyone, Big_Blocker here to bring you another high-horsepower installment of Muscle Car of the Week. This week we take at a car that could be ordered from the factory and would run 10’s on the quarter mile…yes, you read that correctly, 10 second passes right out of the box! Hit the jump for more info.

The Dodge Dart was introduced as Dodge’s entry in the small car market and during its fledgling years was nothing more than a lightweight grocery-getter with nothing to brag about under the hood. And by nothing to brag about I mean nothing to brag about; the early Dart’s biggest performance option was a 180 horsepower 273 V8. However as the decade wore on the Dart was injected with mild performance options that included more powerful V8’s and the accompanying goodies. The year 1968 was by far the biggest for the Dart as it was restyled and given a heavy dose of performance thanks to several engine options. The Dart GTS was available with a 340 V8 that made 275 horsepower and a 383 that made around 300. All that power in such a compact package *sub 3000 pounds* made the Dart one little bastard on the street to many a big block.

Now the 340 and 383 Dart’s were nothing short of great but if you wanted to order something from the factory that would literally shake the paint of your neighbors car, you ordered a Dart powered but one of the most infamous engines ever created, the 426 Hemi. Unlike the other performance Darts of the 1968 model year, the Hemi Dart wasn’t just a run of the mill car with an elephant motor dropped in, no no, this was a factory built race machine. Dodge didn’t stop at modifying the engine of these select cars, they made every effort to ensure that the new owner of one of these beasts could drive it from the dealership to the track and take home a sub-11 second time slip. The boys at Dodge shaved every pound they could off of this car including replacing the hood and front fenders with fiberglass pieces, a front bumper stamped with lighter steel, special lightweight rear window glass (not safe for public driving), rear seat removal, radio delete, aluminum seat mounting brackets, and the removal of side mirrors. They even took out the window crank mechanisms! The Hemi Darts were no joke and that beefy V8 was massaged a little bit to give even more power. Such modifications included a heavy duty cooling system, remounted master brake cylinder, iron heads and a magnesium intake manifold. The even came with a “buyer beware” sticker that stated the car was not safe on public roads or highways! Real output of the Hemi was said to be upwards of 550 and the total for this monster came in at $4,500 dollars.

All in all only 80 race-ready Darts were built in 1968 and every one of them saw their fair share of track time. Today they are extremely valuable if they can be found in decent shape which makes owning one extremely tempting…to beat on it or to let it sit…that is the question. Big_Blocker out.