Great story Steve. The part about the 62 Belvedere and getting your buddy to spin around and having it parked in the driveway when your Mom got home reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “Christine” And your story also reminds me of the 1950 Pontiac 2 door coupe straight 8 that my Dad and his mechanic wouldn’t let me buy. So what if it didn’t have any floors, it was such a cool looking car. LOL Instead I wound up with a 54 Dodge 4 door sedan with a flathead 6. When people ask me if my 68 GTS is a 383 car I always reply no and that I didn’t want a 383 GTS. I actually passed on a number of 383 Darts before I found this 340. First I wanted a 340 like the one I had back in 68. Second the small block A body Mopars are a great handling car and become very nose heavy with a big block. ( I do a lot of back country road driving) And third you couldn’t get power steering in a big block A body and I’m now old and lazy. I was just reading my April issue of Mopar Collector Guide. (Damn I wish it was really April lol) There’s an article in there about a very rare M-Code 440 69 Dart GTS and since we’ve been having this discussion on 340’s this quote caught my eye: “From day one, the 440 Darts proved themselves to be excellent at incinerating rear tires and making huge smoky burnouts, but that was their only strong suit. For all the torque and horsepower they packed, placing that power onto the ground proved a serious challenge and there are countless instances where the 340 four-speed Swinger could outrun a 440 Dart GTS simply because the little 340 was able to get the car moving instead of just frying the tires.” Dan From: 1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:1962to1965mopars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of stevec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx All this talk of '69 Darts got me thinking about my first car - I was working at a body shop and started car shopping just before I turned 15. The first car I dragged my mother to look at was a '66 Fury, red with a big block and a 3 on the tree. The clutch chattered when engaged and I was issued a quick "no". A few weeks later I found a '57 Belvedere - I recall it was dark blue but had oxidized and looked purple. Again a three on the tree, and again clutch chatter. Another no. One day on the way home from school I spied a red '69 Dart. A trip back revealed it was a 340 four speed car, and they only wanted $600 (1973 dollars). No clutch chatter this time... but it was loud and mom didn't like that it was a "hot-rod", That one really left me drooling... Not long after that (I was now 15) on another trip home from school I spotted a '62 Belvedere. I got my buddy to spin around, and it was a beige '62 4 door with a slant six and pushbuttons. The owner only wanted $125, so I wasted no time retrieving the money from my underwear drawer and by the time mom got home it was parked in her spot. I've learned a lot about dealing with women since then. After an accident my second month driving, I parked the Belvedere in the side yard and picked up a '63 two door Belvedere sedan. An accident during a poorly timed street race retired the '63 (the Poly held her own against a 361 Belvedere), but I soon replaced her with a '62 Belvedere 2 door sedan - I had decided I really liked the '62-65 cars. Mom wasn't so fond of them, and when I turned 17 she picked me up a nice '69 Coronet, but the mold had been cast - I really, really wanted another '62-65 car. I finally got my second '63 after finishing my first two years of school at 19... and never looked back. I often wonder what would have happened if I'd gotten one of the first cars we looked at... would I be in to C-Bodies? Finned cars? Small blocks? As always, great conversation on here. Thanks for jogging the memories, guys :) Steve Charette '60 Sport Suburban (318 stock, in pre-paint assembly) '62 Deluxe Suburban (MW project) '62 Fleet Special (383/343, 727, in metal work) '64 Savoy (long term project) '64 Fury (318/727 driver) '64 Sport Fury (MW racer project) '67 Coronet Ragtop (383 driver, looking for a new home) '68 Barracuda (500 ci cruiser) '68 Fury VIP (440/727 almost ready for paint) -- -- Please address private email -- email of interest to only one person -- directly to that person. That is, email your parts/car transactions and negotiations, as well as other personal messages, only to the intended recipient. Do not just press "reply" and send your email to everyone using the general '62-'65 Clubhouse public email address. This practice will protect your privacy, reduce the total volume of mail and fine-tune the content signal to Mopar topic. 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