Supercharged 1965 Dodge Dart SL 392 HEMI Build Project

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Supercharged 1965 Dodge Dart SL 392 HEMI Build Project
If you’re surprised to hear that green 1965 Dodge Dart was a Great Eight contender at Autorama, took home a Good Guys Street Machine Top 5 award, and was in the running for the Barrett-Jackson cup, you can’t be any more surprised than the shop that built it. Will Posey of Big Oak Garage in Hokes Bluff, Alabama, says that when his dad’s friend Willie Maise told them he wanted to build a car, they never expected to see a clean, red mid-1960s A-body show up at the door. “It’s not the usual model people customize,” says Posey. “I asked Willie to bring it by before we even started on it just so I could learn more about it. I hadn’t worked on one before.”
Posey made a few passes around the car and decided that Dodge’s styling wasn’t bad, but it could be improved. “Do what you want,” said Maise. “I just want it to still look like a Dart when you’re done.” Posey felt like the stock Dart was disproportionate. “It was as narrow as a ’32, and as long as a Top Fuel dragster,” he jokes. He disliked the long front overhang, the placement of the wheel arch in the rear quarter-panel, and the divergent body lines between roof and doorline. He drew up some renders of what the Dart would look like if the roof were wedge-cut, and the fender and quarter-panel openings were moved forward. He showed the sketches to Maise who said, “Well, it still looks like a Dart but it looks expensive.” Keep in mind that originally, Maise just wanted to build a nice, little Dodge to remind him of the one his brother had in high school. Then he said something we should all keep in mind when we start wussing out on a project, “If I don’t do it now, I’m gonna regret it.” Three years later the car debuted at the 2015 Autorama in Detroit, and Maise hasn’t regretted a thing.
If you know your motorsports and Mopar history, you’ll know that the idea of a sporty corner-burning third-generation Dart isn’t such a crazy idea. In 1966, Bob Tullius and Tony Adamowicz campaigned a Dart in the very first Trans-Am race at Sebring, and finished First in class, Second overall. Posey may not have had the Group 44 Darts in mind when we sketched out his lowered A-body with its stripes and big tires, but he was continuing a legacy nonetheless. We can only guess what Tullius would have given to have a supercharged 5.7L Hemi and Ridetech coilovers under his machines.
Once you blink a few times and the afterimage of the BASF Green with Envy paint fades a little from your retinas, you can admire how much work Big Oak has done to the Dodge. It’s a completely custom chassis, supporting Ridetech shocks and Magnum Force swaybars and control arms. Wilwood 14-inch discs sit on all four corners behind Schott wheels designed just for the Dart. Anyone who has ever tried to fit wider rubber under an early Dart is going to want to know how Posey managed to get 225/40R18 Michelins in the front and 345/30R19s in the rear. A narrowed Ford 9-inch provided the inside space in the rear, but in the front Big Oak reshaped the fenders, bulging them to provide room to turn those big tires without resorting to a bolt-on flare. It’s similar metal magic to what was done with the roofline. You wouldn’t know it unless you had a stock Dart there to compare it to, all you know for sure is that it looks mean.
Why shouldn’t it look mean? Under the hood is a Magnuson supercharger bolted to a bored and stroked 5.7 Hemi measuring out at 392 ci. The engine, like the tires, was ready to poke right through the Dart’s stock hood, but some careful metal massaging gave the hood an ever-so-subtle bulge, just enough to clear the powerplant. Back in went the stock divots and center spine. It’s an impressive bit of fabrication, and all so that the casual viewer thinks nothing has been changed. In other areas Posey and his team made more dramatic changes. Certainly the enclosed engine bay won’t ever be mistaken for stock 1960s Mopar, and the crosshairs grille gives the Dart an almost ’Cuda-like front fascia. It’s flanked by one-off headlights with integrated turn signals and sits above a completely reshaped bumper.
Built By:
Big Oak Garage
6818 U.S. 278
Hokes Bluff, AL 35903
[phone]
www.bigoakgarag...
Facebook: / bigoakgarage
Instagram: / bigoakgarage
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