If the dates on its inspection stickers are to be believed, this 1963 Dodge Dart has faithfully awaited the return of its owner so long that it should be the subject of its own Richard Gere movie. I first noticed it along the tree-lined edge of an otherwise bustling parking lot at a corporate housing complex in Arlington, Virgina almost 15 years ago and, to the best of my knowledge it’s still there!
OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit that I took this set of photos during a visit to the DC area in 2014. However, a check of Google street view confirms that the car was still in its place the last time a camera car went by in November of last year. That’s a pretty amazing run – but then these old Darts were always known for their durability.
Its hard to really say when it last moved, but a note on the dash – dated 2006 – tells me I’m not the only person who has noticed this car over the years. Even so, I was careful to keep my hands off lest I rub away any of the decades-old patina.
It is my understanding that cars like this shouldn’t exist in public parking lots. Proactive property managers and profiteering tow truck companies should have sent this car to the crusher just a few weeks after its owner stopped driving it. The apartment complex in question, however, should be glad they didn’t. Checking up on this old girl is one of the reasons I choose these lodgings on my occasional trips to the DC area. Although I know this stalwart Dart isn’t awaiting my return, seeing it there visit after visit is one of the constants that help make this home away from home a little more comfortable. Hopefully this old Dart will be there for a long time to come.
A closer look at the 1963-1964 Dart: CC 1964 Dart 270 – The Valiant Brougham
Wow. I am guessing that some elderly widow has the car sitting there just in case she feels the urge to dust off that long-unused drivers license and go somewhere. Sort of in case of emergency. But that day hasn’t come yet.
Oh, those awful pine needles. I bought a 61 Tbird that sat under a pine tree like that. Those needles were in every body crevice the car had when I drove it home. As it turned out, they also filled up the drain channel under the back window and sped a rust out, so that the trunk got wet with each rain. Yuck, a car I never should have bought.
Any tree debris, esp. small leaves, is a hassle to get out of all those crevices if one can do it at all. Best I can think of is a brush/broom or pressurized air, but doing that in the hatch/trunk perimeter may just move it inside!
I like the idea of the lonely old widow, but the apartment complex is one of those furnished-apartment/execustay places where people coming to the DC area stay when they come to town for long term training. My guess is that someone flew in for a course, bought it cheap, used it for a few months and then headed off to their next adventure without bothering to deal with it.
Eric 703’s comment below, that the car’s tags will never expire because of the classic plates, is interesting. That may actually be the reason it hasn’t been towed off. The complex might have a policy that says they can’t tow a vehicle until its registration expires. Seems like a real catch 22.
The concept of this Dart waiting decades for its owner to return is the auto version of the Futurama where Fry’s dog waits for him to return. At the end of that episode I swear it’s just something in my eye(s), honest.
On other topics, Herr Kreutzer I just got home from looking at a Pao, a Figaro, a Honda Beat and a minty right hand drive 4WS ’89 Prelude at a shop here in Tampa that brings ’em in. Naturally I thought of you. Then I thought, “oh this is where he hangs out now” because honestly, the comments thread at TTAC is a train wreck these last few years with off-topic political posturing. I miss your essays there and but am about to resign from looking unless the new moderators start DOING something.
I hope you continue to comment there. You’ve always been one of the most engaging members and it would be a shame if you decided to go elsewhere. Politics are interwoven deep into TTAC’s roots, but I think a lot of the extra noise will drop off after the election cycle.
I started contributing here a couple of months ago because I felt like TTAC was moving away from general stories about the car hobby and becoming more of an industry news and auto review site. It wasn’t an ugly break-up or anything, we were just heading different directions.
I like that old Japanese iron, but after the Shelby Charger I think I’m going to take a break from old car ownership for a while. It’s more to to think about all the different cars one could own than it is to actually own one specific car…
Thanks – I’ll keep my foot in the door there for now. I’m dropping you a question at your Hotmail account (assuming you still use it) as it’s not germane here. Mazel tov!
I still use the account – I’ve had it for almost 20 years – but for whatever reason haven’t received anything from you yet.
Rear of the car was clearly influenced by the Dodge Flitewing show car. Front of the car is similar to the Turbine Car. I hope this Dart has survived !
What’s fascinating about the similarity of the ’63 Dart and Turbine car front ends is that from everything I’ve read so far, the ’63 Dart (and the rest of the Chrysler cars) were mostly finished by the time Engel came on board. He did make some minor changes here and there, but it’s to imagine him completely re-doing the front end of the Dart.
Yet Engel gets credit for the Turbine car, although he was heavily assisted by another Chrysler designer. It would appear thta Chrysler may well have adopted the large twin headlights independently of Engel, or?
John Samson would probably know, since he was a designer at Chrysler during that time. I’ve wondered about the styling of the Turbine Car myself. Since it was introduced in 1963, it must have been started during the Exner epoch. I believe Mr. Samson is a contributor to an online blog. ..forwardlook.net ?
Wouldn’t it be awesome to get the guy’s insights here at CC? 1963 was such a transitional, turbulent time at Chrysler styling, moving from Exner to Engel, it’s difficult to know who was really responsible for what. For example, Engel gets credit for the good-looking 2nd Gen 1963 Valiant, but it was almost entirely an Exner design.
Big headlights were a Chrysler trademark in the early 60’s. Remember the A100 ? The pickups? Even the ’64 Polara had dramatic headlights. I wish Exner was alive now and working for Chrysler. He’d show Marchionne how a car is supposed to look !
The big-headlight theme began with the downsized 1962 Plymouth, then flip-flopped back and forth between Dodge and Plymouth until about 1967, when the only remaining big-headlight Chrysler product was, indeed, the A100 mid-engine van, which was finally laid to rest in 1970.
That would sorta make sense, because it seems like the Turbine Car was intended to have some family resemblance to other Chrysler products (basically, it turned out as a Mopar interpretation of a contemporary T-Bird) and be advanced looking but not outlandishly futuristic.
The problem with Engel ‘not’ getting credit for the Turbine Car is how closely it resembles the ’64-’66 T-bird ‘Flair-bird’ which, if I’m not mistaken, was actually an Engel conception before he left Ford. But maybe that’s not really the case, either.
It’s very muddled, but it seems quite possible that, until the 1965 Chryslers, Engel was getting a lot of credit for some car styling at both Chrysler and Ford that maybe wasn’t really all that warranted.
If I lived near where that Dart was parked I’d mosey on over and remove as many pine needles as I could; there’s no nostalgia for pine needles stuck in cowls. I shudder to think how much mould is inside the car if it’s been sitting there since ’99.
Somebody’s at least been looking after it; if not those tires would be flat as a pancake. The patina really is something else though!
The reliability of those early slant 6/TorqueFlite Darts and Valiant is legendary. GM and Ford WISH their cars lasted so long! Even New York City taxi drivers couldn’t kill this powertrain.
These cars never die; even when the owners fervently wish they would.
My guess is the long term owner got tired of waiting for it to croak, parked and and walked away.
Very cool, thanks for sharing. That’s a car I’d love to learn the back story of.
Nice car, that would be a fun project once you get the pine needles out.
Thomas, I applaud your use of the word Stalwart although personally I’m aiming for Steadfast myself.
Wow!
I can only assume that the owner has some sort of agreement with the apartment company’s managers to keep the car there. But still, I think I’d find some sort of better environment to keep a car long-term, at least not under pine tree!
One advantage of antique-vehicle license plates is that there’s no annual registration sticker, so the car won’t lapse into being “unregistered” — and often that’s a criteria for apartment parking lots.
All just guesses, of course, but the real story must be pretty interesting.
My cousin had a a 15-year-old Duster. He didn’t live nearby but was in the area one time and ran it out of coolant. After a call from a pay phone, I found him by the side of the road and found a blown lower radiator hose. We got the stuff to fix it and off he went with no apparent residual damage.
On his way home, it ran dry a second time… I hadn’t tightened the hose clamp enough. But, once again, a tightening and top off, and it ran as new. Impossible to kill!
I wonder how the trunk got that deep dent without denting the trim panel.
Also, the trim panel says OG which may explain why nobody bothers the car.
Another blue Dart within a few miles of me? I have found many of them within jogging distance of my house, enough to think of them as the official CC of Arlington, Virginia. I wrote about them a couple of years ago:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/cc-outtake-local-objets-dart/
Arlington being a large town, I am not surprised that I have not run across this car.
If you can provide me with an address or a nearby landmark, I can easily check to see whether the car is still there and what kind of condition it is in, before the end of the week. I might even be tempted to make the owner an offer and see if I can join the club of local blue Dart owners.
I don’t want to reveal the name of the complex (lest someone in the corporate office see it) – but let’s just say that you can see it from N Roosevelt street.
Speaking of Darts, mine just came home from storage about an hour and a half ago, and it’s already undergoing surgery!
I hope my new used rear axle is quieter! I’ve put all new seals in it, so I’m crossing my fingers.
Another fine old WPC product .
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I too hate pine needles and leaves etc. as I’ve seen far too many otherwise perfectly good vehicles ruined my them holding water in place to accelerate rusting .
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Aaron , good to hear you’re working on your Dart , was it a pinion bearing or what that was making noise ? .
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-Nate
I’m not totally sure…the pinion seal was really bad when I bought it, so it may have run really low on oil. The gears don’t look very good. Then, to really finish it off, I may not have tightened the pinion nut quite enough when I replaced that seal. These have a spacer and shims, not a crush sleeve, so that probably wasn’t the problem, but it couldn’t have helped. This time, when I replaced the seal in the new used one, I punched a mark into the pinion and nut to make sure I tightened it a little past where it was. Factory torque is over 240 ft./lbs. (!).
The gears in the new one look good though, so there’s hope, and I pulled the front pinion bearing out when I replaced the seal and it looked good too.
Great article. I have seen this car while there for a weekend. One of my friends actually showed it to me by his apartment.