Re: Original hemi dart information
 

"Tim, who lives in Canandaigua, New York, is the fourth owner of the Dart pictured here, and he is the first to street-license the car. The original owner, Charlie Castaldo, raced the Dart and in 1968 won a York, Pennsylvania event sponsored by Super Stock magazine. With the help of friends Al Vespucci, Norm Delooza, Lester Manche, Mike Wirt and Mike Guenther, Tim painstakingly restored the Dodge Red Dart inside and out over a 3 1/2-year period. 'I wanted all areas of the car to be of equal quality,' he said."--MOPAR MUSCLE October/November 1991

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/6287/sdart.jpg

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

When I got this car, I thought, "hey great!!!!! this one I don't have to do any searching or, documenting. It's all done."
WOW!!!!!! was I ever wrong . 10 years & still nothing.
There were alot of magazine articles done of this car in the late 80's early 90's shortly after Tim finished it. All with the same background stories of it.This thing saw ALOT of print. Unfortunately tho, alot of that information was incorrect.
The good thing tho, is that it is a great original car that survived fates others didn't. I am just it's current caretaker trying to find it's true history for future generations.

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

What was the first thing about the car that caused you to suspect it wasn't Castaldo's old car?

M68

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

I wanted to get more info & pictures for my new ride (2001). I started searching for Charlie Castaldo, only to find he had passed a few years previous.
At a car show in Carlisle, I met a guy who knew one of Castaldo's crew members, Charlie Licata. So, I contacted Licata & he started telling me about some of the mods they did to Castaldo's auto car including cutting out the trans tunnel & installing a 4 speed. They modified the rear wheel well openings by flaring them, cut out the trunk floor for a different fuel tank, & installed fiberglass,titanium & nylon bolts onto everything that wasn't structure related to run A/MP.
My car hasn't had any of these mods done to it. Never had a stick in it. The biggest mod on my car is the mini tubs.
So, basically, a 1/2 hour telephone conversation crushed many years of hear say & rumours.

liteweight
http://i1115.photobucket.com/albums/...pt03JPG595.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Liteweight, have you tried that fellow who writes those Super Stock authenticity books, (Darrel Davis) because he used to work for Chrysler apparently and has a ton of documentation from them...he also has access to the IBM cards that verifies all of the factory race cars they built...maybe give him a shot, it can't hurt.

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Haven't tried that yet, Great idea. Will get back with results. Thanx HM
Hey, any idea where Paul C. is hiding???

liteweight

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

my name is Noah Lutman, my father-in-law was friends/worked with Doug Warren and originally painted "checkmate"! His name is Barry Pell, they worked together at Bill Binko Chrysler. Barry has pictures of the car before paint but not after, and would like to see if anyone has pictures of the car. Thank You!

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Here's a couple of the '68 Hemi Barracuda called 'Checkmate'...

http://img9.uploadhouse.com/fileuplo...e4199f52e0.jpg

http://img7.uploadhouse.com/fileuplo...b72a231ff4.jpg

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

how do i see these pictures, they won't open?

Re: Original hemi dart information
 

Noah, the old Checkmate B029 Hemi Barracuda was for sale last year at Mecum auction...

http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_de...=FL0111-103147