Mr. Norms GSS 440 Dart - 1968

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In the late 1960s Mr. Norms Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago was the nations number one high performance Mopar dealer. The Chevy guys had Yenko in Pennsyvania and Baldwin Motion in Long Island New York. The Ford guys had Tasca Ford in Rhode Island.

While its true every marque had at least one muscle car store in the form of a dealership. Probably none was better known than Mr. Norms Grand Spaulding Dodge. The philosophy at the corner of Grand and Spaulding in Chicago was very simple: take the already potent Dodge muscle cars , offer the customer any and all modifications desired right off the showroom floor and honor the factory warranty on the modified car. Rare was the car magazine that didn't feature a Mr. Norm advertisement or car.

By 1968 Norm Kraus had figured out what the factory couldn't and had installed a 440-ci 375 HP Magnum engine in a Dart. Mr. Norm showed the prototype 440 Dart to Dodge and asked them to build a special run of 440/375 HP Darts just to be available to Mr. Norms customers. This special run of 1968 440 Darts built exclusively for Mr. Norm totaled forty eight cars and would also make them NHRA legal for drag racing. So forty eight 383 GTS Darts were pulled from the factory assembly line and sent to Hurst for the 440 conversion. The forty eight 440 Darts were serialized with an M code in the VIN. All forty eight 440 Darts were automatics. When completed the forty eight cars were sent to Mr. Norm where he rebadged them as GSS Darts for "Grand Spaulding Sport". The original 383 emblems were left on the fenders since their were no 440 emblems to replace them with.

Thus Mr. Norm successfully had put the biggest engine in the smallest and lightest Dodge for one of the muscle car era's most potent street legal racers. The best part was that the only way a street racing warrior could get one was at Mr. Norms. This street legal rocket ship was so popular Dodge built from their factory about 600 for 1969. Don't confuse the 1968 GSS Darts with the later 1969 M code cars built in house at Dodge for 1969. The 1968 cars were hand picked and individually converted by Hurst, making these forty eight cars some of the rarest lowest prodcution Mopars ever built.

Of the original forty eight GSS Darts just 12 are known to survive. Our car is the earliest known surviving example and is the third car in the sequence of the cars converted by Hurst. We were able to pry this beast from the amazing private collection of Colin Comer(check out Colins incredible collection at www.colinsclassiccars.com) and it is one of perhaps two surviving GSS Darts with its factory original (born with) 440 cubic inch motor.

Our GSS Dart was sold new from Mr. Norms to a Saginaw Michigan buyer who had Mr. Norms install the fender through headers, header dumps and aftermarket gauges. As with all our Mopars this one has been personally inspected by Mopar guru Galen Govier to ensure its authenticity. In fact galen has been famailar with this car for decades. Not for sale.

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