Dodge Dart?

Do the early Barracudas share most of the same parts?

That Dacuda belongs to Doug "Doctor Dodge" Dutra, who is quite the Slant Six guru and a drag racer to boot.

Early Barracudas were Valiants. Then Barracuda became its own model in the A-body line. It didn't become an E-body until 1970.

There is a lot of interchange between Valiants, Lancers, and '63-up Darts, even from different eras. '62-down Darts were ... different.

The main mechanical differences between the Valiants and Darts of the same year stem from the Dart's longer wheelbase - drive shaft, brake hard lines, fuel lines, etc. Engines, transmissions, suspension components, rear ends, etc are the same (option for option).

93EXCivic wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: My Barracuda is much more modern feeling. I installed much larger torsion bars (1" dia), front sway bar (1 1/8"), stiffer rear leafs (still experimenting for the perfect combo, but these are good), adjustable shocks, 11 3/4" front disks, and 10x2.5" rear drums. I'm also running a Firm Feel Inc stage 2 power steering box (15.7:1 ratio). My headers don't allow enough clearance for the longer pitman arm and idler to bump the ratio up a little further.

Where are the disc from? Are there junkyard upgrades for brakes? What shocks are decent? As far as engine upgrades what are decent upgrades which won't kill mileage?

Sorry, didn't get back to the PC until a few minutes ago.

The front disk setup I'm running is '73-76 A-body disk spindles with late '70's B or R-body caliper adapters and the B/R rotor.

The '73-76 A-bodies with disks use the larger upper ball joint as the B & E-bodies. To use the later A spindles in a '72-down A-body you need the upper control arm too. Ones from any '73-76 A-body will work since they went to the bigger ball joint on the front drum cars too. Or go with tubular aftermarket ones like I did. There are a couple different ones on the market. I went with the Firm Feel Inc ones that use stock style bushings. They come with poly bushings and a Moog ball joint installed.

The stock '73-76 rotors are 5x4.5" bolt pattern and 10 7/8" diameter. They stop just fine. To use the later mid-size car 11 3/4" rotors you need the caliper adapter from a donor car. There are two different style brake calipers available. Slider and Pin. Just need to use the type of caliper that matches the caliper style you want to use. Both are out there. I found a pair of slider style ones that worked with my existing calipers. Found some pin style ones that will go on the Road Runner later.

The only caution on going with the bigger rotor setup is you need a minimum of a 15" wheel for it to clear. With the current poor selection of 14" tires, this isn't really a setback.

And yes they are all junkyard upgrades. As long as you can find a yard that still has some old iron in it.

There are some nice aftermarket setups available too, but we'll save that for another conversation.