1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix

[gearheadeh]

That is quite the expensive alternator mounting bracket...

[Polyhead]

That is quite the expensive alternator mounting bracket...

but... but... boost!!

[Polyhead]

https://vine.co/v/ipqXWrnuA2B

Today was the day.  Today she went  on the road for the first time since 2008.  Tommorrow she gets a vin inspection and proper plates.  Then onward to the 130mph club.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

How fun -- taking it on the road after all that time.

Enjoying the ride so far?  It gets better and better...

73 from WA8GDW  a/k/a SSS

[manta22]

Cool car!


Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ

[Polyhead]

How fun -- taking it on the road after all that time.

Enjoying the ride so far?  It gets better and better...

73 from WA8GDW  a/k/a SSS

Yeah... it rides, ok... needs stiffer torsion bars and shocks up front.  Both are in good shape but I want to get the ride height lower and as is it's very easy to bouncer her off the stops over any speed bump.  Needs new tires too.

[wobblywalrus]

An excellent machine and one to be proud to own.  That car is from the era when beer cans were opened with church keys and then evolved to pushing in two dots on the top of the can.  The little one let in the air and bigger hole let the beer escape.  Such fond memories.  Does it have the push button trans? 

[RidgeRunner]

It's the sequel to '57's "Suddenly it's 1960!"

Brings back a lot of good memories from those times.

            Ed

[Polyhead]

An excellent machine and one to be proud to own.  That car is from the era when beer cans were opened with church keys and then evolved to pushing in two dots on the top of the can.  The little one let in the air and bigger hole let the beer escape.  Such fond memories.  Does it have the push button trans? 

It does have a pushbutton torqueflight, with the accumulator spring removed, shifts very nicely.

Because it was the upper trim level of the line, it came standard with 4bbl polysphere, 11" drums, 8 3/4" diff with 2.76:1 gears, and power steering.  The difference in price over the base model Seneca was about $200 so they were expensive cars for what they were.  This one has no optional extras, it's the absolute base model phoenix.  The only thing the origonal owner spent extra money on was a two tone paint job, which cost him the lofty sum of $4 extra.

I do plan to convert her over to manual at some point, I even have the factory delete panel for the push button unit in storage.  This year though, we'll beat up on the 727.

But yeah, proud to own, you have no idea.  The car is just too much fun and blows minds everywhere it goes.  I've only run into about 4 people that even knew what it was.

[Polyhead]

It's the sequel to '57's "Suddenly it's 1960!"

Brings back a lot of good memories from those times.

            Ed

Which is to say "suddenly we look dated!"  The car was probably behind the times in styling in 1960.  But at the time it took chrysler two years to go from design to production on bodies.  So, the car was designed in 1958, didn't see the light of day till 1960.  Virgil Exner could design a car though.

[panic]

IIRC back in the 1970s there used to be a street racer on Union Tpke. (Queens, NY) called "Batman" with a '60 coupe, 413 New Yorker junkyard engine, 727, with a few bits in it, won a few.
Famous for a safety incident: speeding along, the hood came unlatch and (duh) blew up and blocked his vision. What to do?
He pulled over, tools out, removed the entire hood and propped it up against a bus stop sign, and drove away - much to the amazement of the waiting bus passengers.

[hotrod]

needs stiffer torsion bars and shocks up front.

At least in the later years (my 72) they had a heavier torsion bar option used in the models with A/C. Switching to the stiffer bars was a nice change in handling for more "energetic" driving.

[panic]

Or a B/RB. or trailer tow package

[Polyhead]

Or a B/RB. or trailer tow package

I'm not sure if they did that in 1960.    I've asked a few "experts" and just got "I don't know if they did or didn't"

I may just resort to coil overs.  I would need to re-enforce the shock towers to keep them from bending in that case.

[panic]

I'm pretty sure trailer tow was offered in the 300F.