Did Mr. Norm REALLY Outsmart The Engineers At Dodge? The Full Story Behind The Big Block Dart 

Thank you so much for that story. My dad was the general manager of Grand Spaulding Dodge. He started working at Grand Spaulding when it was only a used car lot in 1958. He worked with Mr Norm, Lenny, Norm's brother, & Harvey Norm's Dad. Your are accurate when you said Gary Dyer was a mechanical genius & Mr Norm Knew what the customers wanted. I hung around the dealership as a kid and in 1970 I started working at GSD until the dealership closed. I loved when you talked about the spiral staircase to the accounting office. A lot more was going on than just mini skirts. But that was the 60's & 70's. I'm still in the auto business & remained close to Mr Norm & his family until his passing. There were so many great people & stories from those days. They'll never be another era like that. Thanks again for the story. Lee Wulbert

Dodge had Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge. Ford had Tasca. Chevrolet had Yenko. Similar performance dealerships still exist but they will never, ever again be the same.

Well Uncle Tony I've always been a Bowtie guy, but I definitely appreciate the history of the Mopars, cause I love raw horsepower and those were the best days for that. Thanks from one gearhead to another.

As an owner of an original 69 cuda440, the driver side motor mount looks like someone cobbled it together. And they did.

I'm from Chicago and Grand Spaulding Dodge is legendary. The spot is still there. Mr. Norm was the Mickey Thompson of Mopar

I absolutely dig these ramblings through history, it's like having you narrate some of the old articles you guys used to do. Thanks for preserving the history for future generations! Happy Independence Day to you and Uncle Cathy!

One of the techs I worked with at the Chrysler Plymouth dealer starting in 1969 had one of the 1969 440 Barracuda's. He used it for drag racing and had many modifications on it. In late 1970 I bought a new 1970 Duster with a 225 slant six in it. He wanted the six cylinder torsion bars so we swapped my bars for the much stiffer 440 bars. That Duster with those stiff torsion bars on it handled like it was on rails. I had G60-14 tires on it, great on dry pavement but in rain, not so much. I cured that problem when I put a set of radial tires on it.

I recently started working on my buddies 1969 RR with a 1970 440, automatic. Being a GM guy, I know next to nothing about Mopar. Through my crash course of learning, it's pretty fascinating what Mopar was doing under the radar. I'm amazed the RR is so light weight, I used to think it had to be heavy a big as it seemed to be. I got the Ole 440 singing with a cam, headers, intake, carb and ignition. Have done all floor pans including trunk, complete front end rebuild, first torsion bar job. It's quite the journey learning about Mopar, even clear back to the Dodge Brothers. Nice video, great info.

I never heard of you Uncle Tony, but your video just happened to pop up in my feeds. I’m 47 and a diehard gear head that grew up around nothing but 60’s and 70’s Mopar muscle and even the 80’s turbo cars as my old man and older brother were Chrysler fanatics. My first car was a 67 Charger 440. Your knowledge of Mopar history is amazing. You’ve earned a new subscriber my friend 👍🏼

Hi Tony. I actually bought a blower from Gary Dyer also around 1979. I drove to his shop in Chicago to get a cut down Offenhauser tunnelram to accept a 671 GMC blower for a Boss 302 I was putting in my 68 Mustang. He cut the crank pulley while I waited! He told me he only made one other setup for that motor(intake is unique because of the cleveland heads). It's still together,only problem was needing a turtle cap on the distributor to clear the drive.I remember him being an unpretentious nice guy. Even kidded me about if my plane was parked outside when I mentioned I drove straight from NJ in one day.

Tony, have you ever heard of a man named Dick Stoddard? I was lucky enough to know him as a friend. He worked at the Chrysler dealership where my dad worked parts and later farm equipment sales. I heard he was one of the Ramchargers team members for a while. He is part of why I am who I am, and know what I know. He knew as close to everything about vehicles as someone can get. I used to call him when i got stumped in my shop back in the 90s. No matter what i was working on, he knew where to look and how to fix it. He was a Marine in wwii, second wave on Iwo and survived the entire battle. When i came back from desert storm,he treated me very different, like an equal rather than some goofy kid who likes GTOs. He passed in 2001 while I was deployed. I do everything on vehicles tbe right way because of him. Why half ass it, you'll just have to do it again. He loaned me a Motor manual for 64 to 72 vehicles to get me started working on the stuff I was driving. Without his guidance I'd never have been able to do what i do with cars.

This was the best half an hour of automotive information I have watched in a very long time. As a Mopar nut and a lover of the lore surrounding Mr. Norm, this was awesome. Great video, Tony! I'm always fascinated with your level of Mopar and automotive knowledge. Keep the great info coming! Cheers.

This was the nicest talk on this legend, the GSS 440, really nice to now know the details and the who and why. HTG you take the time to do talks like this, this is really stellar!

This was right about the time I was running my little Valiant Gasser. We all wanted one of those low key 440 A bodies, but $ was tight and they were out of reach ... However, factory built and tuned 273 4-speed cars were on discount and some of my acquaintances bought them and ran in stock classes. You'd get beat up unless someone red lighted or broke, but fellas were making rounds and they were fun cars too 😁

I really like these types of stories of the little known Mopar history, I hope you do more.

I could listen to Uncle Tony rattle off these stories for hours. Great video!

Uncle Tony at his best. If you're a Mopar guy, his history knowledge is fascinating.

I think the '67 383 Barracuda was called Fomula S. Funs changing spark plugs in a big block A body. Great stuff !!

These historical uploads are fantastic Uncle Tony , can you please keep them coming be it on trucks , Cars or vans it doesn’t matter . Cheers 🇨🇦

Tony, the guy in the shop that norm had Spearhead the 383 conversion was Dennis Hirschbeck, he was the brain behind a lot of things. If you ever want to hear about the behind the scenes dyno tuning, I’ve got a good story for you I won’t say on here

I bought my first new car in 1967. A 384 4 speed Barracuda. It took over 6 months from order date to delivery. And then the dealer didn’t tell me for a week while they hit rodded it around. You said it was a tight fit: how tight? So tight you couldn’t get power steering, power brakes or air conditioning. Miss that car!

Love these stream of consciousness videos. Lots of asides and trivia thrown in an entertaining way.

8:63 in a quarter mile was nigh on unfathomable for me when i was into drag racing as a teenager. That's still ridiculously quick

In the early 70s I once had a 67 valiant that came equipped with a solid lifter 273 commando 4 speed sure grip disk brake radio delete. I loved that car, wish I still had it, it was fast, can't imagine it with a big block

Thanks for the cool info on the 440 Dart. I figured if any one knew the whole story it would be you. In 1964 I was a 17 year old gear head who used to listen to Chicago radio stations. I'm not sure of the year I started hearing Mr. Norm advertise so bear with me. I knew from his ads that any car he gave the full treatment had GSS emblem on it. Grand Spaulding Sport. All the gear heads I hung with talked about one day taking their car to Mr Norm to have it worked on. None ever did, we didn't make enough money. Later, I think it was in 1969 I saw a charger on the Dodge lot in Beloit, WI with GSS label. I just HAD to drive that car. I don't think the salesman knew what it was, he knew me from prior visits and didn't insist going with me. But I was leaving my 69 Road Runner on the lot as collateral. The GSS Charger had the inline dual quad carbs, tuned headers and I'm certain a hot cam judging by the loping idle and of course the 440 engine, from the start it was obviously tuned. Even at partial throttle the auto trans shifted firmly, I felt every shift. Barely touch the throttle and it was hustling. I went to a remote road out of town and carefully added some throttle, it was clear I could not floor it on blacktop or the back end would head for the ditch. So I made my way to the interstate where it was all concrete. Mashing the throttle at about 30 on the entrance ramp was an eye opener. The front came up, there was so much noise from engine and exhaust I could not be certain if the tires were squealing. The back end got loose for a few seconds but it stayed fairly straight. When second gear kicked in the car lunged forward and I saw in the rear view mirror it had laid down about 8-10 feet of rubber with both tires. When it shifted to third, the front stayed right where it was. It seemed to be accelerating as fast in third as it did in second. It ran all the way up to red line in third so fast I could not believe it. I don't remember how fast that was, it spooked me to see it at red line so fast, I quick let off the throttle to save the engine. When I did look at the speed, it was down to 120 so I suspect it reached 140 maybe 145. That car was wickedly fast. I took it back and told the salesman I had to think about it. I made offer of lower price but he said no. Next day at work it was all I could think of. Went to dealer after work and it was sold. Somebody wanted it at any price. I should have bought it on the spot. Lost it for trying save a few bucks. Wickedly fast barely does justice to that car. And now there is Nicks garage where he is extracting 440 power figures from 383 engines on his dyno.

I had a copper 1969 factory GTS with a 383 automatic. That thing could fly. ( I hear it is now in Florida being redone) I live in Connecticut. I bought it from a dealer that put black electrical tape over the 383 call outs on the hood bulges because he couldn’t sell it to regular people looking for a grocery getter. When I popped the hood, I told the salesman SOLD! I drove that car for years and won many trophies at a NY drag strip. I loved that car. Good luck to whoever owns it now.

Very informative Tony. Im in ny 50s. I grew up on the s/w side of Chicago and lived near Gary Dyers shop in Summit in the 80s. Actually worked in the area of Grand Spaulding after it shut down though. The 80s were a wonderful time in this area. Great crew of racing guys, cruising Archer avenue. Guys setting up races at Dukes on Harlem, going to the track, in the back of the yards or the corn fields of tinley park. I used to listen to the older guys all of the time. Your historical info videos remind me of those times. Thank you

640 was the production number on the Darts . As of a few years ago remaining was between 33-36 . Two years ago at Carlisle was a display of 440 Darts , both '68 & 69 . In speaking to one of the owners the new number is 45. That's 10 more in the last 32 years or so, since I bought my Black one . Barracuda production for '69 is 360

I drove a Slant Six Dart in the mid-70s. Ever since, my dream car has been a big-block Dart! With a bench seat FTW.

UNCLE Tony, keep going with those LONG historical car videos. It would be great to get an explanation of why Chrysler keep with the torsen bar suspension in their cars when everyone else was going to a coil spring setup on new cars. I thought I heard they inherited it was a previous compay.

Great video tony! Most people don't know about the 440 darts unless you fall down the rabbit hole wanting to build on like I did! I love my 440 dart but it's not original. Just a kick in the pants to drive!

Great video Tony. When I was a kid an old farmer down the road from me drove a red 68 GTS 383 4 speed Dart. It was the last new car that he bought and he drove it into the 90's when he passed away. I still see that car in my mind everytime I drive by his old farmhouse, and I still wonder if he had any idea what he had.

Great video of the factory and the ingenious designers who made these cars so successful at the tracks... When Chrysler lost money on the hand-built specialty cars that went to the race tracks, they actually got that money back (and then some) by selling many more of their production line vehicles with the standard equipment and the production line H.P. equipment, because of their participation and successful results at the race tracks of several types... Win on Sunday, sell on Monday...

So that explains the low # of 67 Dart GTS,s . Had one many moons ago. Number I have seen was 457 hardtops 67 GTS,s and possible 5 or 6 67 GTS,S. rag tops. Thanks for the great info .

Absolute true story. In the early 70's I had a friend who had a 69 440 Dart. As I remember the car it was a handshaker car, was either dark green or black. I really do not remember all of the details of the car other than it had a 440 in it. And it ran scalded dog, it was a fast car back in those days. Anyway, over the years I have told many MOPAR enthusiasts about that car and everybody has called me a liar. I'm really glad you produced this video because now I have been proven correct !

I'm not even a Mopar guy but enjoyed this. I will have to look more closely at the motor mounts next time i see a 440 Dart/Barracuda or even a 65 full size Mopar

Great story Tony, keep up the good work!

Uncle Tony you are so upto date with automotive things, America always respects what you are telling us youtubers. America is Canada and the United States of America, North America. I am Canadian.You are one of the best.

Cool story Uncle Tony. I stumbled across some old video of the defunct B-Line Dragway here in AZ from back in the day. Cool stuff, Ramchargers altered wheelbase cars and super stock mopars were taking the event.

This is fascinating stuff! I was just a 10 year old country hick back then who loved cars. Saw my first set of mag wheels in the flesh in 1967 on a 61 Chevy bubble top in Fargo ND. The coolest thing was a girl was driving and she street raced a guy right in front of me and blew his doors off. I was hooked on this stuff from that day on. Thanks UTG for keeping this stuff alive!

Tony, the Mopar sage =) Thanks dude...

Thank you Uncle Tony!! I’m a bow tie guy…but there’s something about a 1968 440 dart that makes the juices flow!!!

Always love these history lessons.

Ready for 30 min part 2. Ty utg.

I loved the history lesson Uncle Tony. More please. Cheers & stay safe🙂

​Good information here. In 1986 we put a '72 400 in a '65 Fury III 318 Poly car, using a mount bracket off of something common, turned upside down/backwards or something weird, and it worked. almost 40yrs ago now! Later a '65 Polara showed up in the junkyard and I got the left side engine mount bracket off, but my buddy never swapped it onto his Fury. Unfortunately my friend was killed in a freak snomobile accident in 1996 and the car was sold and neglected until being scrapped. I did buy the engine back, it was a "cold weather" block with a mid 1971 casting date, and the VIN said it was from a '72 Charger, "HP" stamped.

Great history lesson Uncle Tony! Keep 'em coming 👍

Definitely worth a part 2. Off to catch up on the live...

ANOTHER GREAT AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY LESSON WITH UNCLE TONY! THANKS FOR SHARING YOUR ROCKING CHAIR KNOWLEDGE

Fantastic Trivia Tony. Enjoyed it all immensely.!!

Love your history lessons Tony. It would be awesome if you could ever find one of these and give us a walk thru showing the details you talk about.

Tony, that was great. I could listen to these tales all night. Keep em’ coming!

A beautiful summer morning, fresh coffee, and Uncle Tony. Life is good!

Another great Mopar history lesson. Thanks, Uncle Tony.

When I was 10 years old sitting in a barber shop. There were piles of comic books, hunting, fishing, and car magazines. I rember reading a caption in a car magazine. It was a Barricuda concept car with a 383. That was around 1963.

Love this Tony. Please do more!

I owned a 1967 Dodge Dart GTS 383 and I had a friend at a Dodge Dealer who owned a 1969 Dodge Dart GTS 440 ,so I can tell you everything Tony has said is absolutely true.

Your best yet! As a lad in the 60s, a green with white top 68 383 4 speed superbee used to chase me and my bike into the bushes whenever it went by...later, it was Parked at a house on my way to high school, I think he lunched his motor ( happened alot in the 60s, right?) And sat over 6 years..one day, it disappeared, hopefully to get fixed...

Definitely one of your best videos Tony!

Thanks for the history lesson. It was great.

At beginning of the 1967 model year, the Barracuda competed with the Mustang and got a 383 for the Mustang's 390 in 67. The Dart competed with the Chevy II. Chrysler developed a 1967 318 bored to 4.00" as a performance engine to compete with the 327 Chevy II in the Dart. The 383 wasn't originally available in 67 Dart. The high performance small block had the same size valves as the 273 / 318 and its performance was a disappointment, so it got scratched from production for 67. It was later developed into the 340 by being bored 0,.040" more and having the intake ports mimic the Chevy 327 ports, as well as the 327 valve sizes. The 340 wasn't released until the 68 model year though. The 67 Dart was supposed to get the 4 inch bore small block, but it didn't compare well to the 327 Chevy, so it was never put into production. The whole reason for the 340 was to beat the 327 Chevy. The 1967 Barracuda had the 383 from the beginning of the model year. The 67 383 A-bodies didn't have power steering available. The 68 383 A-bodies got a specially machined engine block for the optional power steering. The 69 383 A-bodies got the high performance 383 and the optional power steering used special mounting brackets. Late in the 67 model year, the 516 cylinder heads were discontinued and 67 440 915 heads were used on some late 67 383 engines, including two-barrel 383's. I remember in the mid-1970's the 915 heads were sold new, as service replacements for closed chamber big block heads. The list price was $100 each, bare, but one dealer of Mopar performance parts sold them new, two for $100, mail order, advertised in car magazines.

Great show Uncle Tony!

Your Wealth of Knowledge on Mopar's is amazing !!

Keep going Tony. We love it.

Love trivia videos like this. Ease keep em coming.

Excellent history lesson Unko. Love it. Thank you!

Superb content UTG!!!

Had a friend who had a "m" code Barricuda back in the early 80's we had never heard about the 440 A bodies so he installed a 383 and drove it like that.

Absolutely great Information! I was in Vietnam at the time but my family sent me care packages from home loaded with hot rod magazines, playboy magazines , Molanari salamis, balls of Provolone cheese , and my favorite Italian almond biscotti cookies, my uncle sent me the magazines and a box of Rum soaked Crook’s cigars! What a delight! Thought you would like to know about that Uncle Tony! LOL any way your story reminded me of the car magazines had the Mr Norm 383, 440 Dodge Dart adds in them and stories, tech arrivals on the Darts! I wanted one of those Bad! I was saving everything I could put together to buy one upon my return from the war! But even back then these cars were twice what I could afford! I ended up with a Pontiac Firebird 400 which I have to say I was throughly happy with looked all over Calif for a no power steering , no power brakes, 4speed Firebird 400 , finally found one with an all synchro three speed floor shifter that had been special ordered bought it new for $2,500.00 bucks came with 4:33 gears and double factory traction bars! I put Mickey Thompson Indy radials on the back mounted to brand new American 4slot mags and regular American mag wheels on the front! I could burn those tires for an entire block!! What a blast! I loved that car!!! Over the coarse of about 32 years I touched and wrenched on every bolt and screw on that car painted it twice! And had it in several configurations, mostly street racing it and road racing it and cruising it to the max!!! I am a Mopar guy at heart just couldn’t afford one , as I have told you before I cut my teeth on the old Flat head six’s for my first engine hop ups, and the did well although they were not built that strong and could not take the added horsepower and RPM’s I could get out of them! Loved the history lesson on this subject! Really brought me back! Regards Mad Mike from the land of freezing as cold! ❄🥶🌨…………

Thanks for the technical explanation and Mopar history. Well done!

What an awesome video!!! I love Uncle Tony history lessons 🙌

As an owner of one of the 69 m code darts I found his history lesson to be very interesting Uncle Tony. There was supposedly only 640 of them made. They were all automatic, no power steering or brakes.

Uncle Tony Enjoyed this .I'm a long time Mopar owner an fan

Old video but I enjoyed hearing the true story of the M code Dart as I am the proud owner of one. Thanks Uncle Tony!

Excellent editing, Kathy!

Mr.norm did some cool car's,but to me Baldwin motion was the best aftermarket car builders,they went to the extreme with in your face badass,

My next door neighbor owned the AMC dealership, they had 401 Javelin, and a Mark Donahue Javelin. Also a big block Rambler.

This was a great throw down of knowledge. Thank you

Great story! Keep them coming ! this type of auto history needs to be recorded! 👍👍🇨🇦🇺🇸

Hey UT, love the channel! The 383/4bbl was available for the 1967 Barracuda as the Formula S option . . . .

Good to hear these stories......... wish I was a little older to be in those days.......... had a RT/SE Charger as a kid but of course sold it....... remember my local Dodge dealer and the Direct Connection shop that was in there.......... yeah the 80s but hey like I said was not around in the earlier days.........

Tony, you're totally amazing! I can literally listen to you all DAY

Googled & found pics of the angle iron added to the mount. Very cool info UT!

I really enjoyed this video, thank you uncle Tony!

I never owned a Mopar but I like the passion of the the people that do . Barracuda - is a car song by American rock band Heart ?

I'm absolutely green with envy of your knowledge/life experiences with early Mopars. I find your ramblings riveting. Kudos for pointing out Gary Dyer's involvement. 🤩

Gary Dyer. A great guy and really considerate of his neighbors on West 63rd Street in Sumit ill. That pontiac trans am would have been a sleeper except that blower.😊

WeNEED a part two uncle!!

I love these GTSS. Grand Tony Stories Specials

Loved this Uncle Tony. I love sponging this kinda stuff

Tony, I love all of the info from years past. Nice!

Uncle Tony (and friends) You're likely the only person that can shed some light on this car. I sold MAC tools from 1985 to 2000. I came across this car in the 90's. The owner was a deaf mute guy that used a teletype deal to communicate. He brought it into a frame/ alignment/ suspension shop for a brake job. A very good friend of mine worked there and he had done all the work on this car for years. He said it had "special brakes"? They had to send out the calipers to get them rebuilt. As I remember, it was a 70 or 71 Dart Rough shape with a terrible paint job. I noticed the B-pillars had a sort of twist in them. Now, as to the car. 1. It currently had a 318 with factory A/C. If it was an add on, it was the best I'd ever seen. Everything looked perfect, The dash, ducts, lines, etc.. 2. It has the big differential.. However, it had the smaller wheel bolt pattern 3. The brakes... MANUAL brakes with 4 piston Aluminum front calipers? 4. I ran the vin tag under the hood (somewhere I still have it written down) Said it was a 426? I sure would like to know what it was. As I understood, with a hemi, there was no room for a brake booster. So they used the 4 piston calipers to compensate. All I could think of was that it had been used as a race car when new, and some swapped out the drivetrain for a street car. I was never able to ask the owner about it because he was a deaf mute. Uncle Tony, can you or your followers help me out?

Awesome! Off the dome knowledge, didn't look up anything. Respect.

Good stuff. love learning about the history of these cars and stuff. Im a huge Mopar fan

Great video

PLEASE DO MORE LIKE THIS!!!!

The 440 A-Body is the Mopar equivalent of a Ford Model A roadster body on a '32 V8 chassis. It's just such an inspired, elegant device conjured up with mundane parts. It's my absolute favorite Mopar combo. I haven't had one for a long time but I've sure been thinking about building another one lately. I've got enough decent stuff to parlay into a decent 67-69 Dart or Valiant, and more than enough hardware to build a better one than the ones I had before. Time to start looking

Wow, I saw a 440 Dart at a classic car show in BC Canada years ago and thought it odd, but never knew it was so rare.

I’ve also read that Mr. Norm was the creator behind the 340-6 Pack when Chrysler said it couldn’t be done. So he released GSS Darts with 340-6 packs! Or so i read! That supposedly lead to the Challenger T/A 340-6 packs.

Please do more videos on these unsung factory muscle cars as well as the dealers that were selling them as packages ! Long videos too please!