From what I know of, 300hp is fairly easy out of a Slant-Six with a header, porting?, high compression, and good old bore & stroke. However when you can swap in a motor and drivetrain for less than building the Slant Six and pull 450hp out of it, that's a bit better. I recall a Slant Six's Slant to be 30 degrees myself. It recently hit me that putting a new slightly hopped up (aftermarket top-off pieces, no boost though) 440 small-block with a built-up Torqueflite and beefed-up 8-3/4" rear put into even a convetible Dart, you could outrun a '68 S/S Hemi Barracuda. (fastest production car to date with 70 units made exclusively for Drag Racing)

I'm fairly unashamed to say I like vinyl best. Leather gets too hot/cold, cloth wears terribly, so that leaves vinyl which can be just as comfy with a gaping whole in it.

I've had a chance at some, but currently have never driven or ridden in a slant-six car. (I'm one of those people who saw their first front bench seat in a '90 New Yorker)

67Dart34dr0

NEDLOG361

Armand Bengle

But, contrary to some commenters' beliefs, the Dart broke down every now and then. It was very, very reliable, but not immortal. Once it had trouble starting, so my aunt called her sister, my mother, who called my dad. And Dad gave the Dart a jumpstart with a Peugeot 404. How's that for irony?

Armand Bengle

R.I.P

DESKMAN

SlantSixMan

Was wondering if anyone had a front-view engineering drawing that shows the tilt of the cylinder bank, but in the meantime I've gone ahead and made a logo using a "radially-blurred" photo of a slant-six from "Mopar Engines West"

[www.moparmusclemagazine.com]
[www.moparengineswest.com]
[www.moparengineswest.com]

Mark Miller

Dick.

Jon

Mark Miller

FuzzyPlushroom

I worked for an Independent Drug Store in from 1974 through my college years (1981), and we were one of the few pharmacies that had a delivery service. This is where I was introduced to the Tower of Power, attached to a 1971 Plymouth Duster. It was pretty basic, typical Chrysler Green, bench seat, no power steering or brakes, but it did have the venerable Torqueflite automatic. Harold and Pearl (the owners) were a great old Jewish Couple, and all the men they hired were like family to them (even though they had two daughters and a son, none of them worked for the store). There were about 7 of us, and that car ran from about 10:00 AM right through to 9:00 PM, always on the run. Look I will never say this to my kid, but I beat the living snot out of that car, as we all did. 55 mph down a dirt road? yup, driving on the laws of the project? yup, full throttle up an expressway entrance with all tires squealing (bias ply no less)? yup, and there was more.

If I ever got stuck in the snow after parking it during a delivery run, I just started the car, pressed on the accelerator, and shifted from R to D and Back again, until I was free. The Dana rear axle always had a strange clung when going into reverse, but we never blew it.

Then there was the time I was doing about 45 on a main street, when a driver came out of a parking lot, and I overcorrected while avoiding him. My car ended up on it's side in a snow bank. I had to get out from the passengers side. So I walked over to a friends house, and he brought out a chain, attached it to his pickup, and pulled the car out, with next to no damage. It just started up, and I continued with what I was doing.

The Duster was totaled a few months later (I wasn't driving), and it was replaced with a 1973 Valiant 4 Door (actually, my favorite drug store car) that was a deeper green, with a white vinyl roof. This car was also totaled a couple of years (one of the guys drove the car through a customers garage!), and this was replaced with a 1975 Plymouth Scamp (Orange, with a tan Vinyl Roof). That one seemed to last a lot longer, and I left after I graduated. It was eventually replaced with a Plymouth Horizon! I will always miss those Plymouths with their Slant Six's!

UDMan

UDMan

I learned to respect the slant six early-on: when I was given a hand-me-down beige-and-brown 72 Dart from an elderly relative that was nursing-home bound. I was so peeved with being saddled with that nerdy contraption that I actually had the 16-year-old audacity to TRY and kill it by not changing oil, ever, or even bothering to check coolant levels. Even when 2 or 3 quarts low, all that I ever noticed was that the "check oil" idiot light would come on whenever I accelerated, braked, or made a turn of any kind......but the engine chugged on. I finally made a truce with the engine the day that I ran out of coolant, almost, and drove a whole afternoon with the remaining antifreeze boiling in the heater core behind the dash, it sounded like popcorn popping in the glovebox. But the engine still ran!

Yes, slant sixes and cockroaches, I love the analogy.

Tales of Hyper-Pak Slants next!!!

Sharpie

Murilee Martin

SlantSixMan

Andrewpetty

and Murilee: "But enough of my old-time Alameda gibberish..."

Listen, anyone who is bored, or thinks it is gibberish, is free to read elsewhere. It's the personal touches, eloquently presented, that make Jalopnik the community it is. Gents and Ladies, young and old, wax on to your hearts' content... we enjoy it...!

charles_barrett

The car was rebuilt. The section on the left containing the rear window was from another car. All windows but that one were replacements. Rear axle housing was bent, right wheel was off by 1.5 degrees. Also found right rear shackle bolts sheared off.

But the beast was reliable, and ran well. With good radials (designed for bias ply), I could get the inside wheels off the ground on a hard curve. Of course, it had no sway bar.

The best story is from the design of the slant-six. The distributor for a 225 was drivin from a gear in the middle of the crank shaft, below the slant of the engine. Old 225s always leaked from the spark plug wells. So, the distributor was soaked with 30 weight Quaker State. Got me through a flood deep enough that a wave from another vehicle went over my hood!

Reliable enough that it once cranked at -34F. The anti-freeze was slushy, but was liquid enough.

okvol

deskman said if you can digg a panther pink mod top 70 swinger with the tower of power under the hood he is in .

SlantSixMan

BLS

slantsick- leaning 30* towards awesome

Sharpie

And it's entirely possible that neither the grille or back bumper are the wrong year- looks remarkably like a '71 to me.

slantsick- leaning 30* towards awesome

SlantSixMan

Anyone else ever get belly/back burns from the chrome seatbelt buckles and trim inserts in the seatbacks on a sunny day?

Turboner

Oh, is that how the seats were arranged? Thanks for clearing that up.

squablow

SlantSixMan

SlantSixMan

[www.slantsix.org]

WheatKing

Omigod that's my car. No wait, circa 1982, I had a "stripper" 1972 in a metallic lime-like green, manual three on the tree, vinyl floor covering, windshield squirt bulb on the floor...(which if you really stomped; would squirt over the roof!)

I cursed my automotive fortune, but the thing grew on me. I ironically named the plain-jane car my "Objet D'Art". I even accidentally tested the theory that the only thing surviving nuclear war would be cockroaches and slant-sixes. (Coolant disappearance, long story.) ...I was sure that she was a goner. However, after changing the oil, (which it used a bit more of after that), put many more miles on it. It also withstood me messing with the pushrods. I felt so butch with my shop manual and the thing running with the valve covers off. (And such an authentic rural Mainer working outside in the dirt driveway.) Those were the days mere mortals could mess around under the hood.
(Does all this nostalgia bore the kiddies on Jalopnik?)

Ok, re the vote: I have trouble lovin' the familiar but awkward econo-sedan/fastback mix that was the early Barracuda...

Call me biased but I voted for the '70 (or whatever it is). I think it has the "cleanest" styling. ...and sorry, but the Buick knockoffs are knockoffs. (hehe)

Dodge Dart [en.wikipedia.org]

Mark Miller

Mike the Dog

SlantSixMan

Mark Miller

thatguy01

+ Watch video

Mark Miller

graverobber- Two BEER minimum

NatefromOgden

Chuckie_A

Had to go with the Barracuda for its absurd rear aquarium glass. Take that, Marlin!

brandegee

Also, a guy in high school had one into which he'd installed "Javex Injection." He put a wiper motor and nozzles into the trunk, used a bottle of bleach as a reservoir and stuck the nozzles through the rear wheel wells. Bleach shot onto the tires so he could do a smoke show, even though the clapped-out slant six prolly only produced 34.8HP.

Number_Six

Yeah, there is something amusingly cruel in this particular DOTS today!

I voted for the drop top. But I have to say the specimen featured today is in amazing shape. I think it fell through a time warp. And in some other dimension a piece of paper saying "1970 Dodge Dart" appeared. Just a theory.

NovaloadMissesPolar

Oh thank God someone has Dodge Dart stories.

Andrewpetty

abgwin

Eldorado

This just made me spill my coffee on myself from laughing.

I wish I had a slant-six Dart.

BeerDearthair

dulcamara

I'd drive that to the Country Club and ask the kid to get the clubs out of the trunk. Next to the Benz's and BMW's, it'd be The Cool Car!

DonSchenck

Chuckie_A

crazygutgut

SlantSixMan

I was the 3rd person to call. The first caller (my neighbor down the street) snagged it and drove it home (I think) that Thursday night. The seller fellow had it about a month, buying it from someone in NY or somewhere, and it was the first "fast" car he ever had. He was really afraid of it.

My neighbor had it for some 15 years, but when he moved, we lost track of that car.

NoWin

Also, my dad drove a Duster for about five or six years while he was in university. I'll have to bug him sometime, see if he's got any pictures, or remembers anything about it other than the "keen lights" (what a friend of his called the hood-mounted turn signals).

Maymar - now with 37% less anonymity

How Bout that Dex Cool Lawsuit settlement!!

AlfaCharger

"I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM!"

HoubaHouba!

I sent it to the crusher because I thought wrongly that the front end was tough to rebuild and besides, there were always more $500 Mopars around then. Sniff. I'm so sorry.

Being a single enginerd (yeah those terms are like peanut butter and jelly) at the time I moved upscale & got an off-lease, low mileage '84 RX7 GSL-SE which was a total hoot.

HoubaHouba!

Long Live Deskman !!!!!

SlantSixMan

dolo54

Isetta

Car got hit so hard in the ass while in front of his house, the fuel tank's capacity was reduced to 3 gallons. Insurance paid for the car 50 times over and he continued to drive it for another year...trunk floor, what was left of it, blocking the rear window.

Long live the slant six! Wait, that's redundant...

Kelly

[www.slantsix.com]

[www.slantsix.com]

econobiker

Surprisingly, the most common remark he got about the car was: "Dart, huh? I had one of those once. Worst car I ever owned." We never did understand that.

Anyway, voted for the scamp purely b/c it's the same color as my buddy's Dart.

Still wish new cars had those fresh air ducts. They worked brilliantly.

YankBoffin

SundaySunday

JRX

Okay, okay, I have some stories. My dad actually still has his '72 Dart four-door with the slant six (same body style as this one).

I can remember many snippets about riding in the car, but I was kind of young when he parked it for good. But not so young. My sister (5 years older than I) drove it as her first car. I remember riding with her as we cruised the backroads at what seemed like breakneck speeds. That thing had a two big bench seats (one up front, one in the back), and was an on-the tree auto tranny, so you could slide around up there pretty good. Especially if you went without the lap belts, which we very rarely did.

I also remember my dad and sister taking it out on the highway and cruising in 2nd gear (three speed auto, I believe) at actually breakneck speeds, to hopefully clear enough gunk and crap out so it would pass emissions (before Oregon settled on their current emissions scheme).

But my most vivid memory is of myself and one of my brothers taking it out without permission when my folks weren't home. He was 15, I was 13. We drove it around the new housing development across the way, and almost got it stuck in some mud. Actually, I think the mud is still on the tires, as it was right after that it was parked for good.

I should steal it from him, after I take his AH Bugeye sprite. And maybe one of his Saab 96s....

Jon

I also have a '60 Dart Pioneer wagon. Interestingly, From '60 to '63, the Dart shrunk by quite a bit. The '60 Wagon is nearly 18 feet long. The '63 convertible, only about 14 1/2.

I just sold my '64 Dart parts car (which is the twin to the '64 in this poll) to a fellow with 2 '65's, 2 '63's, a '68 and a '69. He daily drives a '63 4 door, white with red vinyl interior, and as nice as any show car you care to mention.

mechimike

Bucket UncleBo Head

LTDScott, Porcubimmer pilot

Andrewpetty

Also, that 61 Valiant is damn ugly. Not cute and interesting ugly, just damn ugly.

HansStuckJr

Alameda
Funeral
Directors
Association

POLAЯBEEЯ

Ash78