Dodge advertised their new 1963 Dart as “a compact in the large economy size”. Clever! But how big is “large”? And how small is “compact”? Those are relative terms, not absolute ones, so context matters.
Here’s a second-generation (1970-’75; this one appears to be a ’72-’75 model) Spanish-built Dart—a 3700GT—being parked in a very tight garage with a very narrow backdown driveway walled in on both sides. The car’s dimensions are similar to those of the home-market ’67-’76 Dart, with the same 111-inch wheelbase. But there’s less of Spain than there is of North America, so lots of things—including most cars, and most parking spaces—are proportionally smaller.
The “Clenk!” every time the Torqueflite hits Reverse brings a smile to recall many such clenks have I heard from the driving seat at curb idle, plus the bigger bangs (and greater urgency to a firm foot on the brake) with a cold engine’s fast idle. The driver’s obviously done this before and knows what he’s doing. No beeping park-assist nor any camera view, but he manages the whole dance without hitting anything. I wouldn’t want to be trying to breathe in that enclosed space for awhile, but neither would I want to try parking this car in that grudge!
The movie was posted in 2008, and he carried on doing a fine parking job in the long run, as it seems; here’s the same car in the same garage with much nicer 2019 video quality:
I vividly remember the ” no Barreros ” sign on the wall of the parking garage near the Ramblas in Barcelona. In Franco’s Spain there were severe restrictions for import cars, the Barreiros Dart was locally made and it was THE car for each successfull Spanish business man and government official, of whom some were killed by the ETA while in their Barreiros 3700. Barreiros built ship’s engines, buses (AEC license), tractors (Hanomag license) and trucks.
For their trucks they used Berliets GAK cab and they were, very successful with the locally assembled Simca 1000 and 1200 (alled the 1100 in the rest of Europe)
Their last local succes would be the Chrysler 160/180 a car not very popular in the rest of Europe. But in Spain the car was very popular thanks to the import restrictions.
That thing is as straight as a die and yet every 5 year old Renault in Spain looks like someone tried to repurpose it as a steel drum.
The thing about space is so true. I don’t know anyone in Britain who actually puts a car in their garage.
I can’t help but wonder if Alfonso Cuarón saw this and inspired him to do these scenes
in Roma. The only clip is of the wife trying it, but the husband was more adept at it in an earlier scene.
On another note, that 3700 and it’s Argentine
equivalent is very sharp, much nice than any US A-Body sedan.
Thanks for the post, not seen one of these in years!
I recall seeing a wagon version abandoned in a Menorcan (One of Spain’s beautiful Balearic Islands) field when I was a child and wondering what on earth it was (it looked like a Toyota Crown or Nissan Cedric wagon with different taillights!).
Yes the Franco era government used these cars and an armoured version which was blown up by ETA (blew a crater in the road and sent the car over a multi storey building killing both minister and driver) is in a museum in Spain somewhere, a bit ghoulish perhaps!
As to Tonito’s comments, I live in Britain and do use my garage for my car! So do my folks too for their cars but we are in the minority! And yes the Spanish generally seem not to care so much about their cars, I have seen many a year or so old car completely mashed up!
Brit’s fill their garages with a fridge freezer, line it one side with their old fitted kitchen units as a “workshop” and junk that would go for a hundred bucks if they had a garage ale. Their new $30000 SUV sits out in the rain n snow!.
I know I’ve seen these Darts before, but I swear at first glance I’m looking at a 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88. But knowing these are similar to the US market Dart from same years, it really messes with my mind. I wonder if using these bodies would have been a way for Ma Mopar to update the Dart/Valiant after 1972 or so. But then, that wouldn’t have stopped the disastrous debut of the Aspen/Volare…
The Argentinian/Spanish Dart-derivatives strike me more than anything as about a 60/40 mix of domestic ’67-’72 A-body and ’68-’70 B-body Mopar design elements. “A-and-a-half bodies”, sort of. But they were actually much closer, dimensionally and in actual components, to the narrower ’63-’66 home-market Dart-Valiant cars than to the wider ’67-up ones. I agree with you this body would’ve been a nice pick for (say) the ’73-’76 domestic Dart, and let the Valiant keep its 3″ shorter wheelbase and much bigger trunk. Certainly better, at least to my eye, than the body Chrysler Australia used for their ’71-’81 Valiants.
I have seen an under hood shot of an Argentinian GTX, one of my favourite Mopar coupes, and it had the across the car hood torsion springs of the 63-66 cars, and the firewall looked to be from that same generation.
A fascinating mix of A body parts, yet the outside is completely different. I would love to know the full story on these.