This is the original Dodge Dart Swinger 340 concept car that was first shown to the world at the 1969 Chicago Auto Show, it was a precursor to the upcoming 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger production car with many styling elements making it onto the final vehicle.
This concept car was off the radar for many years, only resurfacing when it was acquired by Steven Juliano and given a careful restoration back to the condition it was in for the 1969 auto show circuit.
Fast Facts – The Dodge Dart Swinger 340 Concept Car
- The Dodge Dart Swinger 340 concept car was developed to showcase styling that would appear on later Dodge production cars, specifically the redesigned Dodge Dart in 1970.
- The concept car is powered by the Dodge 340 cubic inch V8 fitted with a 4-barrel carburetor and sending power to the rear wheels via a 4-speed manual transmission.
- Interestingly the car was largely designed and built by the Alexander Brothers in Detroit in conjunction with Chrysler, rather than by Chrysler themselves.
- The ’69 Swinger 340 concept car vanished for many years before being rediscovered by Steven Juliano and restored, it’s now due to be offered for auction by Mecum in January.
The Dodge Dart And The Swinger
The Dodge Dart was original introduced back in 1959 as a less costly full-sized Dodge, it became a mid-sized car in 1962, and then from 1963 onwards it became a compact car. The Darts that are best remembered now are the V8 two-door performance version of the Dart that became popular in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The styling of the concept car was a sign of things to come with the 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger, with some of the design elements being carried over.
The production Dodge Dart Swinger appeared in 1969 as the two-door hardtop version of the model alongside the Custom, GT, and GTS trim levels. The two-door Dart proved a popular alternative to the more common Mustang and Camaro V8 models.
It’s likely that the 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 concept car was developed to test the waters with the design changes intended for the 1970 model.
The concept car is based on a fourth generation Dodge Dart two-door, it’s been given a series of styling upgrades including a distinctive new front end, a new rear, square Cibie headlights accompanied by inboard fog lamps, a black bucket seat interior, an elevated hood scoop, hood hold-down pins, Ansen Sprint slotted aluminum wheels, and the wipers were deleted for a cleaner look.
The Alexander Brothers in Detroit
Much of the design and all of the construction of the Dart Swinger 340 concept car was handled by the famous Alexander Brothers in Detroit made up of Mike and Larry Alexander – two brothers who studied automobile body and fender work at a trade school thanks to the GI Bill.
The interior was largely the same as the production Dart Swinger, with black bucket seats, a wood-rimmed steering wheel, and a Hurst shifter atop a 4-speed transmission.
Mike and Larry started out doing repair work on cars in their father’s one-car garage however by 1957 they realized they had enough work coming in to sustain themselves as a business, and so they set up the Alexander Brothers Custom Shop in Detroit.
Between 1957 and 1969 over 60 custom cars rolled out of the Alexander Brothers shop, many of them were highly influential and the Dodge Dart Swinger must have been one of the final cars out of their garage before they shutdown due to a planned highway through the area.
The Dodge Dart Swinger 340 Concept Car
The Dodge Dart Swinger 340 concept car is now due to be offered for auction in January in immaculately restored condition.
Great care was taken to get the Maroon Metallic paintwork and the black tail stripe correct as per the original design, and it’s powered by the original 340 cubic inch V8 mated to the correct 4-speed manual transmission with a Hurst shifter.
If you’d like to read more about this unusual Dart of register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.
Images courtesy of Mecum
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
