Last week, we all agreed that the 1966 Buick range was rather more interesting than its 51-year-on successor. This time, we’re heading back a little further, to see what Dodge had to offer us in 1962.
This brochure, presumably issued as a supplement to a magazine at the time, is among the most gratifyingly wordy of all those in The Carchive. It reads as a treatise of just what the “New lean breed of Dodge” was made of.
Click on the images to make them bigger and more legible
“You’re going to like what’s happened to Dodge”
In an interesting break from what would happen in the future, Dodge sought feedback from notable driving personalities of the time for this piece of publicity bumph. “Champion race drivers Rodger Ward and Buck Baker, ace dragsters Don Garlits and Jack Chrisman, top auto writers Bill Carroll, Max Muhleman and Bill Callahan, economy driver Woody Bell and sports car driver Walt Hangsen”.
A reasonable cross-section. Let’s see what they have to say.
“… I ran their cross-country test – up and down hills, sharp turns, blind turns, rough roads. The works! I got 19.9mpg. And for a full-size car that was plenty good”
Woody “Leadfoot” Bell, there.
“Quite a bomb”
The words of Don Garlits, after testing the Dart 440 hardtop with its 361 cu.in V8, 3-speed auto and 3.23 rear axle. It put in a 15.4 second quarter mile, with 60 reached in 8.1 seconds. That strikes me as a pretty impressive set of statistics even today.
“Interesting type of acceleration”. The words of Bill Carroll.
“Extremely smooth, and though I could feel the transmission shift, there was no objectionable jerk as in the past from high performance transmissions. Pushed me back against the front seat…”
“We gave that Dart 440 a good pounding. The kind that would break up some cars. But this one was as quiet and smooth as when we first got our hands on it”
Rodger Ward, here.
“It’s a tight piece of machinery without a lot of softness or foolishness”.
Sometimes, you see, it’s best to keep the copywriters on a short leash.
(All images are of original manufacturer publicity materials, photographed by me. Copyright remains property of Chrysler Motors Corporation, or FCA now, should imagine. Strange times we live in)
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