Up for sale is a REAL 1968 LO23 Super Stock Hemi Dart with a fire breathing 426 Hemi engine. Those of you in the know are aware there were only 80 of these cars ever built. Dodge built these cars specifically to dominate the ¼ mile strips and pushed them out the back doors of the factory with no warranty, expressly prohibiting them from street use.
Anything that could be lightened or removed to save weight and make these cars faster was done. The doors were acid dipped light-weight steel, windows were extra thin, fiberglass hood and front fenders were installed, as were seats out of A100 vans. There were no creature comforts. The windows rolled up and down with seatbelt straps. The seats were installed with aluminum seat brackets with no adjustment, it had no back seat, and definitely had no radio. These were purpose-built race cars.
This example is extra special with a great history. Included is a letter from Dell Jones confirming this car is, in fact, one of the original LO23 cars. Not only that, but it also states this car was built in the first batch of these cars to roll out the back door at Dodge and was likely the 15th car built. Also included in the sale will be the The Wise Vehicle Inspection Report.
Many of these cars were sold to Dodge dealerships because “what won races on Sunday, sold cars on Monday.” This car was no exception and was sold to Jim Miller of Miller Dodge in St. Louis, Missouri. It was painted metallic green and campaigned as Miller’s King Dodge.
The car changed hands a few times through the years. The third owner was Harry Prososki, who owned the car for 20 years and raced the car extensively as the “Spider” car. I’ve included several photos of the car in the Spider livery.
The original front fiberglass fenders and hood are still in place. The door panels, seat covers, headliner, and seat belts are original. To those who really know a lot about these cars, even the red primer is visible behind the glove box door (even though they didn’t have a glove box). The aluminum seat brackets are visible in some of the pictures.
The current paint job was done in 1995 for a gentleman who owned Checkers restaurants. Unfortunately, he never took delivery of the car after it was painted, but the paint scheme remains. When the car is up on the lift, if you look very closely, you can still see a few flecks of the original green metallic paint under the car. The current owner was encouraged to cover it, but he refused feeling that it is a part of this cars history and should stay there.
Under the hood and trailing back to the rearend is where the magic happens. The 426 Hemi was recently rebuilt and hasn’t even seen any road miles. It has a Mopar performance block, 53 mm cam bearings, Smith Brothers push rods and Manton adjusters. It also sports Stage V intake rockers and stock wide pad exhaust rockers. When you watch the video, you’ll hear that this car roars.
Under the car, it has Wilwood front brakes and Lamb twin caliper brakes back brakes. Ray Barton had the car back halved and updated by Ed Quay. It sports a 4 link wishbone suspension with coil overs, and a 9” Ford rearend with Strange aluminum center section. The wheels are Weld Pro Stars and the engine breaths through giant full-length headers, Spin Tech oval mufflers, and nothing else.
Another important piece of information, for those of you who know to ask, is that this car still has the Certicard. There are very few of these cars that still have this card. We have included a picture of that as well.
Currently, a collection is going up for sale at Mechum where one of the legendary Dick Landy’s original Hemi Darts will be going up for sale. That car is expected to fetch upwards of $800,000 to $1,000,000. You can own this car for a fraction of that and put a rare and exceptional piece of history iin your garage. Feel free to email with any questions.
