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Classics
From the seller's description:
For your consideration is an absolutely stunning and rare 1961 Dodge Dart Phoenix 2 door Coupe. This ain't your grandmothers 61. She is equipped with the rebuilt original numbers matching 318 Poly V8 and Push Button Automatic Transmission, power steering and power brakes. This beauty was built to cruise and show! 1961 was the second year for the Dart, and The Phoenix trim level was the highest option.Restoration on this beauty was completed about 2 years ago and looks fantastic. The PPG Base Clear Blue paint shines at any angle with much incredible depth and gloss. Very Straight, and shows exceptionally well. I would call it a higher end driver quality vehicle. Undercarriage is really clean, straight, & finished in flat black and a light undercoat consistent with a factory finish. No issues, holes, rot, no sloppy patch panels, shows as it should with correct stamped steel. The engine bay has a painted finish that looks great. It just has a super clean appearance when you pop the hood at local cruise nights! All Chrome, Bumpers, Trim, Door Handles, Stainless, Etc has been redone and looks like new.
It rides, drives, and handles like a much newer vehicle; straight down the road with no shimmies, shakes, or vibrations. Extremely tight and surprisingly easy to drive for what it is. I would not hesitate to get behind the wheel of this car with my family and drive it to a car show 5 hours away! A person of any size or age could drive this vehicle comfortably. Don't let the 318 V8 fool you, she will throw you back in the seat, yet cruise at 65 MPH economically with ease. All of the lights, turn signals, brakes, gauges,etc are functioning properly. Engine fires right up with no smoking, ticking, noises, etc. Has a fantastic sound with Dual Exhaust. Car is turnkey and ready to drive anywhere. Doors fit nice and have that distinct sound when they close, not like this new junk we call today's cars! The Interior has been upgraded top to bottom with new seat foam and covers, Headliner, Carpet, and all show very well. New Brake lines. Fresh Service including all fluids, New Battery.
Included in the sale is the original front bumper. During the restoration, the owner opted to finish the front end by fabricating what you see here. Frame was not cut, and bumper could be remounted if desired. The car just has a look quite like no other. The attention this Dart gets is ridiculous! Don t be in a hurry when you take this baby out! She looks like a futuristic concept car or something George Barris would have built!
Below is a detailed breakdown:
Original 318 Polysherical V8 Engine. (Semi Hemi).
Motorcraft 4 BBL Carburetor.
Electronic Ignition.
Push Button 3 Speed Torqueflite Automatic Transmission.
Power Front Disc Brakes, Rear Drum.
Power Steering.
Upgraded Suspension w/ New Shocks.
Factory Rear w/ 3.08 Gears.
New Aluminum Radiator.
Rebuilt Gauges.
All New or Redone Bumpers, Chrome, Stainless.
New Interior Carpet, Seat Covers, Headliner.
Fresh Tune up and Service.
New Wiring Harness.
15” Cragar Chrome Smoothie Wheels.
New Goodyear White Letter GT2 Tires.
Original Paperwork Including Bill of Sale, Invoice from Purchase in 1960, Manuals, and Service Receipts Over the Years.
1961 Dodge Dart Phoenix
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Recent
Like most race cars, the Tiger II Chevelle was built in stages. In early-1965, Fibercraft fitted the front end with flat a fiberglass hood and fenders formed using a 1964 front end. A straight fron axle and Pontiac rear axle were installed on the original chassis and an Enderle fuel injected 376 cubic-inch small-block Chevy provided power, fed by a 30 percent load of nitromethane. Trial and error led to several wheelbase changes and many tweaks to catch more traction over the years. By mid-1966, it was already receiving an engine upgrade with a Hilborn-injected 427 cubic-inch big-block.
By 1967, the Esso sponsorship ended and the car received a new identity with blue paint and the name “Blitzer” on the side. Adcock reportedly installed a blown and injected big-block Chevy engine, but the NHRA would not allow that combination. The engine and the car were soon sold. According to history records, the car was last raced in 1973 by Jerry Rhodes under the name “Funny Money.”
For a stint, the Chevelle even ran wheelstander exhibitions with The Little Red Wagon, Hemi Under Glass and many more. The seller states that all collected documentation, including original old magazine features and historical information, is included with the sale.
Most recently, the Tiger II Chevelle underwent a five-year-long no-expense-spared restoration which was completed in late-2023. It was brought back to its original gold metallic flaked funny car state. Hot Rod Hoarders released a YouTube video about the restoration around a year ago:
HISTORIC Chevelle FUNNY CAR Found and RESTORED!youtu.be
“Most of what you see here is the original car down to the magnesium spindle mount front wheels,” writes the seller. “The Randy Bradford (Bradford’s Fiat Fuel Altered) built Hilborn-injected 427 cubic-inch big-block, Mike’s Transmission Ultimate 400, and the rest of the fresh Mark Williams drivetrain is capable of running competitively in modern nostalgia AFX, but still looks like 1966.”
This six-page feature in the January 2024 issue of All Chevy Performance magazine takes a deeper dive into the build’s history. The seller says there is another upcoming feature coming soon to the Chevy Hardcore magazine.
Original AFX cars are rarely seen in the collector car market. This historic 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle “Tiger II” is sure to fetch a lot of attention. Check out the classified ad on Hemmings Marketplace and pounce on the opportunity to own an incredibly rare hot rod.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
Why Didn't Dodge Offer A Manual Transmission?
1978 Dodge Monaco A38 tribute
Photo: Hemmings Archives
Sure, the police vehicles still had teeth, but the muscular B-body offerings that Mopar had been known for were pretty much gone. Instead, the company had chased the Chevrolet Monte Carlo into personal luxury territory and the audience knew it. You could still order a watered-down 360 or even the 400-cu.in. big block, but you were pretty much stuck with the 727 TorqueFlight automatic transmission. Would you like your PRNDL on the column or on the floor, sir? It didn’t matter if you were looking at a Charger, a Road Runner, a Coronet or a Fury... the likelihood that you’ll find one with three pedals is about the same as finding a unicorn munching on the grass in your backyard. While production numbers aren’t easy to find, after 1974 a four-on-the-floor ceased to exist. If you wanted to shift for yourself in a 1975-1979 B-body Mopar, you were stuck with the A230 three-speed…on the column. Suffice it to say that there were few takers for a Slant-Six or 318-powered stripper Plymouth Fury, Dodge Coronet or Monaco.
This 1976 Dodge Charger Daytona is typical of what you would normally find: its asthmatic 360 small-block was mated to an A727 TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission. Solid, stable, bulletproof… and boring. As the owner of the Charger, I’ll admit that there was no real reason to even perform this swap aside from my usual reason of "because I can". The Charger’s long 2.41 rear gears made for excellent Interstate driving and returned surprisingly decent fuel economy in return. Why mess with what works?
Why Swap A Manual Transmission Into A Car That Never Came With One?
This 1987 Dodge Diplomat was a cop car from Austin that had been built into a stout performer. It featured a warmed-up 360 and an A-833 overdrive four-speed manual transmission.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
To understand why I would take a 67,000-mile survivor and go straight under the knife with it, you need to know of another manual-swapped Mopar from my past: a 1987 Dodge Diplomat. Converted by Steve Knickerbocker, this AHB (police package) Dodge packed a warmed-up 360 and an A833 four-speed, a combination that Chrysler only put into maybe a couple hundred M-bodies prior to 1980, and without question not after 1983 in any market. I bought the car from him in 2005, had it painted Midnight Blue Metallic, threw on chrome wheels, and proceeded to drive it as if I had bought a stock car. Having owned seven other FMJ-body Chryslers throughout the years, the Diplomat was an absolute stormer by comparison. But it wasn’t so much that it had power…it was that I had control of that power with the four-speed that made the difference. I wasn't held to the lazy shifting patterns of 1970s Chrysler transmission engineers, and I had an overdrive gear to use.
The author's Charger, parked next to Matt Graves' 1983 LSX/six-speed Cadillac Coupe de Ville.
Photo: Matt Graves
Then there is a friend of mine: Matt Graves from American Powertrain. Matt is the owner of the “Chicken Coupe”, a 1983 Cadillac Coupe de Ville that is packing a 427-cu.in. LS mill, enough suspension tweaks to allow the big Caddy to keep up with a Corvette in the corners, 14-inch Baer brakes, and a six-speed. And it retains the plush velour interior that the original buyer was sold on. Call it Pro Luxury. It works better than it has any right to. It is hard to say that you own a Dodge Charger with positivity in your voice when a brougham-tastic 1980s Cadillac can stomp it into the dirt at a moment's notice.
At the end of 2023, having rid myself of the last manual-transmission car I owned (an absolute money pit of a Chevrolet Cruze) years prior, I decided that the Charger had to have a manual transmission. It didn’t matter if the car had 170-ish horsepower on tap from a smogger small-block… I can build the engine later. Having a third pedal became a priority. There is just one problem: this is a platform with about zero aftermarket support. How well would this work out?
Plan Out Your Transmission Swap Before You Begin
Before any transmission can be swapped in, the A727 TorqueFlite automatic transmission has to be removed. Overall, the automatic is in great condition. It just needs to be re-sealed anywhere a seal exists.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
Before I was going to Sawzall a hole in the floor of my car, research had to be done. I wanted to know how difficult this swap would prove to be. I wanted to keep any kind of fabrication to a minimum, I wanted to keep the cutting to a minimum, and I wanted to keep the appearance of a “theoretically possible” look… In the end, I want the interior to look factory-possible instead of backyard butchery. I also wanted to have a minimum of five forward gears for the sake of Interstate drivability, regardless of what is going on in the engine bay. Your car can sound as mean as all get-out, but there are few things more irritating than getting passed by a Kia Soul doing 85 MPH while you are stuck in the slow lane, turning 3,000 RPM and barely doing 65 MPH.
Before anything got cut, numerous test-fits were made and patterns were marked using a nearly-dead shoe polish marker. The square is the hole for the shifter, the dot above marking the end of the tailshaft.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
I leapt into this project with a lot of assumptions. I assumed that the 1975 re-skin of the B-body lineup was more-or-less a visual change and not a complete re-engineering of the 1971-1974 B-body platform. This opened the option of some parts from the more muscular Mopar nameplates, like Charger, Road Runner, GTX and Super Bee. Additional research suggested that the firewall of the B-body was shared with the E-body twins, the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Barracuda. This project looked very plausible on paper.
A Malwood USA hydraulic clutch pedal and a manual transmission/brake pedal for an E-body (Challenger/'Cuda) compose the pedal assembly for the Charger. The pedals were fit prior to removing the interior, as we wanted to ensure that they would actually work before we began cutting holes into the car.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
After some discussions with Graves, I made two purchases prior to any transmission purchase: a floor-shift column from a dearly departed 1979 Chrysler 300 and a set of 1971-1974 E-body manual transmission pedals. While I restored the column, I had the pedals shipped directly to Graves to see if they would play nicely with a hydraulic throwout bearing. By early December, I had a box filled with pedal parts and a Malwood USA Under Dash Hydraulics system dropped off on my porch. This was my cue, and for Christmas, I bought myself a TREMEC TKX with a 2.87 first gear and a .68 fifth gear.
How To Swap A Floor-Shift Column Into A Column-Shifted Car
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
As purchased, the Charger's steering column was exactly what you'd expect: big chrome shifter, PRNDL on top. We couldn't explain why the car had a Plymouth steering wheel on it, but we'd fix that as well. We began by removing the entire column, steering shaft, and shifting linkage from the Charger.
Taking Proper Measurements For Your New Transmission Before Cutting
Once we figured out where the shifter would be located, we drilled two holes for the "forward" and "rearward" shifter mounts underneath the car. With some measuring, we drew our cutting pattern in the interior and cut the floor out. Other than some minor clearance grinding on the sides, we were pretty spot-on.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
In addition to the transmission that I had bought, American Powertrain sent other parts to see how plausible a 1975-1979 B-body manual transmission swap could be. Within a few days’ time, the pedals were installed, a process that only requires the lower HVAC vent tube and the front seat to be removed… both in the name of making space for you to work in.
My next task was to prepare the new floor-shift column for the Charger. To make a long story at least a bit shorter, here is what I did: I swapped the wiring, steering shaft, and ignition key cylinders from the original column to the new one, painted the outer body, and installed the Tuff Wheel adapter and wheel that I recently had restored by Craft Covers.
Here, we mocked up where the shifter would be for the two main shifter locations offered by the TKX. As you can see, the forward location was immediately ruled out due to interference between the Pistol Grip shift handle (and my hand) against the lower dash and the radio.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
To properly begin the transmission fitment process, the carpet and the sound deadening that will be in the way of a shifter hole needs to be removed. Aside from presenting an opportunity to clean nearly fifty years’ worth of detritus from the carpet, it also brought to light the 99.5% complete broadcast sheet for the Charger. Having removed that little note of history, the Charger was placed upon 3-ton jack stands and ramps and the A727 TorqueFlite was removed from the car.
Numerous test-fits were performed to make sure that we had the optimal location for the shifter hole for our TKX before we broke out our grinder and started cutting. In the end, we cut a 12 x 4-inch hole in the floor that, while a bit oversized for the final product, allowed just enough room to very work from above and below. In addition, a section of a floor brace that was both in the way of the shifter and redundant due to the transmission crossmember was cut away as well. Once trimming was complete, a test-fit of the transmission with the bellhousing attached showed that while tight, the entire assembly would fit. With that, the new flywheel, pilot bearing, and clutch were installed, and it was time to bolt everything together for the last time.
1976 Charger TKX Installation Details
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
The Cost Of Swapping A TREMEC TKX
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
Putting a dollar figure to this build is going to be difficult. Part of this deal is an exchange with American Powertrain – for the help prototyping a potential new platform for them and provide post-installation advertising options, they supported this swap with parts. The other thing to consider is the “handshake deals” that were worked out between friends and contacts. Being up-front, I am not going to fully disclose every cost I paid, nor will I highlight everything that I did not pay money for. But for the sake of transparency, here is an idea of what you would expect to spend to get this project started.
- TREMEC TKX (Ford-style, 2.87 first, .68 fifth), from American Powertrain: $2,250
- Lakewood LK7000 bellhousing adapter: $358.95
- Lakewood inspection cover #50360: $51.20
- Driveshaft: $409
- SFI Flywheel: $279
- Underdash Hydraulic Clutch Kit, with reservoir, hydraulic lines, and Malwood Clutch Pedal: $625
- Hurst Pistol Grip shifter for 1971-74 Mopar B/E body #5388575: $348.95
- American Powertrain’s Oil Service Package, which includes break-in oil, Driven Racing Oil STF fluid, and DOT 3 brake fluid for the hydraulic throw-out bearing: $100
- Pilot bearing, SB Mopar to Ford TKO: $63
- American Powertrain “White Lightning” Shifter mechanism for TKX with offset shifter adapters: $339
- Hooker BlackHeart Transmission Crossmember BHS567: $196.95
- Differential Gear Upgrade: about $1,000
Gear Ratio Comparison
In addition to the transmission swap, we chose to upgrade the Chrysler 8.25 rear axle, swapping in a set of 3.73 rear gears and a limited-slip differential. Big thanks to Ron's Machining Service and Seth at Rears and Gears for their help with the re-gearing project.
Photo: Bryan McTaggart
STOCK: Chrysler A727 TorqueFlite
1st/2.54....2nd/1.54....3rd/1:1....Reverse/2.21....Rear Axle Ratio/2.41
MODIFIED: TREMEC TKX (Ford-style)
1st/2.87....2nd/1.89....3rd/1.28....4th/1:1....5th/0.68....Reverse/2.56....Rear Axle Ratio/3.73
Note: TREMEC TKX is offered in both Ford and GM-style bellhousing bolt patterns and is offered with close and wide ratios, with numerous gear ratio options. First gear can be as low as 3.27 or as high as 2.87 and overdrive can be as low as 0.81 or as high as 0.68. There are also two Reverse ratios: 3.00 and 2.56.
Sources
American Powertrain
931-646-4836
www.americanpowertrain.com
Mark Muffler Shop
270-781-6722
www.markmufflershop.com
Ron's Machining Service
800-694-3098
www.ronsmachiningservice.net
Rears and Gears
423-963-2671
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