Ron Floray

1969 Dodge Dart

This is my 1969 Dodge Dart. It is an original 340, 4-speed car. Twenty years ago, my cousin, brothers and Paul Van Ostrand rescued this car out of a junkyard in Trenton, MO. At the same time we pried and dug Paul's yellow Duster out and the cars rode home on the same truck. My cousin did a lot of work to this car. The roof had been caved in at the junkyard so he replaced that, the hood and the bumper. The front clip, bumpers and trunk lid became fiberglass. He raced it until he got fed up with the constant rule changes and the car sat. Finally, after 7 years of it sitting under a tree, I bought it from him. It was a perfectly good, complete car and I couldn't see it sitting any longer.

However, it was a big job getting this thing back up to safe driving conditions and I think it took me forever to polish up the chrome rims. I repaired one of the quarter panels, replaced the grille and brakes, as well as repainted the car (Mitsubishi Caracas Red) and rebuilt the motor. The car holds a 440 with big valve heads, roller rockers, six pack rods, 11:1 compression, and a 650 Comp Cam. I had Jerry Moody in Kansas City flow the heads as well. It has s got a Dana 60 rear end with 488 gears, super stock springs, 727 auto trans with reverse valve body and a turbo action J converter.
It ran a 10:92 at 123 mph in St. Louis and repeated this at the Mopar Weekend in Kansas where I went 4 rounds until I red lit. This is a very consistent car but after 9 years of racing my Challenger, it's me, the driver, who is having a hard time getting used to a new car. But we'll get it eventually.