Amongst Peter and Julie Wiseman’s list of rare classic Mopars they’ve owned are some of the most desirable models ever made. However, the Superbirds have now made way for a car whose appeal is more … select.

Words: Andy Craig, Photography: Mike Key

Usually when people mention Sixties Mopar, we think of Chargers, Challengers, GTXs … that sort of thing. The Wisemans are no different and over the years they’ve enjoyed some of Mopar’s finest late-Sixties muscle. However a trip to the Legendary ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits museum in Ocala, Florida changed all that.
Of course the Don Garlits museum has the lot; veteran cars, classics, race cars, muscle cars, trucks, even ex-Presidents’ cars, the list just goes on and on. It was somewhere amongst this huge collection of automobiles that Julie Wisman spotted a red 1962 Dodge Dart 440 and she found herself drawn to it. The ’62 Dart was around for just the one year, possibly due to its unusual and quirky styling, or as Julie puts it: ‘the Marmite effect’ (i.e. you either love it or hate it … also known as the peanut butter effect!).

The ’62 Dart was a downsized version of the previous two years’ cars and was a fresh design from the ground up intended to compete with Ford and Chevrolet. Being typical of other Dodges, Plymouths and Chryslers of the time, it had some rather bold design features. Of particular note is the headlamp arrangement which has the inner two units mounted higher than the outer pair – a trick that was repeated with the rear units – and the heavily accented feature lines on the side of the car. Starting at the front, a line first appears as a ‘brow’ over the outer pair of headlights and then runs along the side of the car for approximately half its length when it abruptly stops. A second line starts subtly where the rearmost part of the sill meets the forward section of the rear wheel arch, sweeps up with the line of the wheel arch and then angles back along the rear quarter panel to a point even with the inboard tail lamps. A chrome strip highlighted each line.

For 1962 Dodge dropped the old Seneca, Pioneer and Phoenix trim levels and replaced them with Dart, Dart 330, Dart 440 (a model reference number, not the motor size in cu.in.!), and Polara 500 levels of trim. In a break from Chrysler group tradition it had no chassis frame, instead having all the major components fixed to the body – otherwise known as ‘unibody construction’. In 1962 a brand-new Dodge Dart 440 would have cost $2731, about the same price as a ‘wide-track’ Pontiac Catalina. It is perhaps an indication of the Dodge’s acquired-taste styling that the total production figure for all ’62 Darts (330, 440, station wagon etc) was 165,861, whereas production for the pretty Catalina alone (excluding Bonneville, Starchief and Grand Prix) totalled 204,654 units.

The man responsible for the Dart’s challenging styling was the legendary Virgil Exner. Well …. he was sort of responsible. You see, in 1959 Chrysler had been tipped off by ‘industry spies’ that Ford and GM were going to dramatically down-size their cars. The Chrysler executives were worried that the competition was going to clean up by selling relatively small cars, and Chrysler just wasn’t about small cars in the late Fifties! Their solution? Well, they instructed Exner to remove three inches from the wheelbase of his designs, a request which he vehemently protested, claiming that it would make his designs look all wrong. Nobody listened to him and Chrysler went ahead with the automotive circumcision, lopping off a few inches. Much worse than that – the ’62 Ford and GM cars weren’t down-sized after all. The car-buying public stayed away from Chrysler and the corporation, desperately needing a scapegoat, fired Exner.

So Julie had completely fallen for a highly significant (if not-too-popular) car – but how would she find one? Being one-year-only, good ones are rare even in the States. As an indication of just how rare these cars are, it was four years later that a friend of the Wiseman’s, John Deitle (whom they met through the Mopar Muscle Association), posted pictures of a ’62 Dart he had for sale in Seattle where he was based with the armed forces. The car in question was a Dart 440 model with a 318cu.in. small-block motor and original push-button transmission. Julie showed immediate interest and managed to negotiate a deal with John. All that remained was to arrange transportation of the car from Seattle to San Francisco and then a six-week trip to Chatham docks in Kent.

‘When we went to collect it I was disappointed,’ says Julie ‘the front fender was going to have to be repaired and painted because it had been damaged in transit. I was particularly upset because this car was a survivor with all original paint, marks and blemishes.’ Be that as it may, Julie was nonetheless smitten with her ‘Marmite’ car and couldn’t wait to take it to the 2006 Euro Nationals at Santa Pod to see how it liked the strip.

Managing two 19-second runs wasn’t exactly fire-breathing performance, but despite this, Julie realised two very important things; firstly, that any ideas the Wisemans had about turning the Dart into a race car were well and truly optimistic with the car’s set-up at the time. The second thing was that she was now hooked on racing! This meant that the Dart was now going to be restored and prepped for racing.
Enter G&B Autospray who were chosen to carry out all the necessary bodywork. According to Julie, G&B ‘did their customary professional job’ and we certainly can’t argue with that. The Dodge is a stunning thing to behold, as anyone who saw it at last year’s Classic Motor Show at the NEC would testify. Mechanically, the car drove nice and tight and needed very little work, although the standard nine-inch drum brakes were simply not up to the task of driving in modern traffic and so they were replaced with some more suitable 11-inch items, donated by an R/T Charger.
So with the bodywork expertly renovated and the brakes now up to scratch, things were looking good. However, it is usually at about this stage with old cars that something fails which hitherto has been giving no trouble at all. Sadly, Julie’s Dodge conformed to this truism and shortly before the 2007 Euro Nationals the motor cried ‘enough’. Luckily for Julie, she managed to find a correct replacement Polyspheric 318 cu.in V8 motor through the ever-helpful Mopar Muscle Association. The motor and the engine bay took a bit of work to prepare and once the work was completed Julie had just enough time to fit a new headlining from A R Pounds of Baldock before the Nationals began.

Understandably, Julie was just a little bit nervous as the Dart made its way to Santa Pod, but she needn’t have worried; the car behaved itself impeccably and made it without mishap. ‘When we arrived at the Nats the car received some very peculiar looks – it must have been the Marmite effect that this car seems to have. People simply either love it or hate it - nothing in between!’ says Julie. The Show-and-Shine judges must be Marmite lovers though, because they thought the car was worthy of a top-10 prize, much to Julie’s delight.

Shortly after, the Wisemans were asked if the car could be used at a wedding and this gave Julie the ideal opportunity to complete the final part of the renovation: the upholstery. Both front and rear seats were removed and it was entirely in keeping with the quirky nature of this car that a mouse’s skeleton was found in the back!
A R Pounds, who provided the headlining did a spectacular job with the upholstery and Julie was very pleased with the results. Not quite as pleased, however, as the bride, who will probably never forget being driven to church in such an individual car as the Dodge.

Julie’s year was topped-off perfectly by being asked to represent the Mopar Muscle Association on their stand at the NEC Classic and Sports Car show in November. ‘It was quite an honour’ says Julie, ‘we’re now totally hooked on quirky Mopar styling now and have even acquired a rust-free ’62 Plymouth Belvedere from California which is being restored’. If it ends up anything like as nice as the Dodge it’ll be something to look forward to seeing, despite the fact that its styling can be quite challenging to some. But as Julie reminds us: ‘Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder.’ Isn’t it just!