Posted on 01/23/2015 7:21:39 PM PST by smokingfrog
George Gibson Jr., a former chief engineer for Dodge, died Wednesday in Rochester, Minn. He was 92.
As chief engineer, Gibson’s biggest pride of his work was the Dodge Dart.
According to his daughter, Lisa Gibson, the Dart was the most hands-on work he did at the company.
He admired the functionality of the compact car and was even featured in Dart ads.
Given his 6-foot, 190-pound frame, critics couldn’t believe that a man of his size could fit in the car. He proved them wrong with the ad showing him getting in and out of the car. It read, “Over six feet tall? So is our chief engineer.”
He also had influence in naming the models. His daughter mentioned that the Dodge Lancer was named after the family’s yellow parakeet, “Lancer.”
Born and raised on the east side of Detroit, Gibson graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
He also went to the Chrysler Institute of Engineering in Highland Park, Mich. where he got his foot in the door at Dodge.
Gibson also served in the U.S. Army as an atomic engineer on the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
But Dodge is where he spent the bulk of his career.
(Excerpt) Read more at autonews.com ...
cool car, especially the convertible
Yep. My husband swore by the slant 6 engine.
Samuel C. Florman. I just bought it on Amazon. Thanks for the recommendation!
In ‘69 I was stationed at an Army base in Alabama, the last closed post in the US at that time.
Being in the MP Company had its advantages among which was our weekend fun nights where we closed off a stretch of road on the “backside” of the base and had drag races.
A lot of the guys had muscle cars. Especially the returning Viet Vets who had saved their combat pay. There were GTXs, Mach 1s, Roadrunners, Z28s, you name it.
But the guy who came out on top (or pretty close to it) week after week ran a Dart 340 Six-Pack with an automatic.
I’m not saying he never lost a race, but his defeats were few and far between.
(I think that a big part of it was the fact that he could actually control his car. In some cases there was more car than driver, if you know what I mean.)
That Chrysler Torqeflite automatic was the toughest automatic of its day and was even used on the 440 cuin engines as well as the 426 Hemi. Modified it was used for Super Stock drag racing and was a huge winner. Even used in A Alterd with a manual clutch used for leaving the line and then pushing the push buttons to shift.
To this day it is still used for all kinds of drag racing.
First Tom Magliozzi, now this guy. The Dart is having a bad year.
Whenever I think of the Dart, I think of the Plymouth Valiant. And that makes me think of Dual. Ahhh Dual... Dennis Weaver as the ultimately “valiant” uber dork swathed in glorious 1970’s polyester, the bad ass rust bucket Peterbilt with deception and murder in it’s eyes, and the climatic truck over the cliff scene. Ahhhhh. This is probably the film that got me hooked on action movies, just like the Dual contemporary “Born Innocent” with Linda Blair got me hooked on hot women in prison films. (Guilty - no wait -— I mean NOT guilty. )
If you gotta Dart
383 GTS
440 GTS
426 Hemi Hurst
440 magnum
340 swinger
Those are your choices if you’re a man
the slant six came in 3 sizes a 170 and 225 at first, then in the early 70s a 198 variant. The blocks were cast iron with some blocks cast in aluminum. In 1960 , Nascar had a compact class, which was dominated by slant six powered Valiants powered by a “hyperpack” version with a tuned length intake manifold being a key to the suprising horsepower advantage. The compact class was done away with very quickly because the other makes’ compacts could not compete with the slant six.
The Dodge Dart in 1960 was a intermediate,the Valiant was the stand alone compact make by Chrysler until 1961 when it became a Plynouth product, Dodge introduced a compact, the Lancer,and DeSoto division was discontinued.
In 1963 the Dodge Dart compact was introduced, the Valiant was remodeled and the series known as A bodies continued into the 70s,to be replaced in 1976 by the Aspen/Volare which were better riding cars as far as comfort, but plagued by rust and quality control issues.
My first car. It was great and I thought I was hot stuff with the vinyl roof. Lol
My Mom had one that if you came to a downhill stop and made a right hand turn it would stall out. Took the dealer a couple of months to figure a fix out.
I had a ‘63 Dart w/slant six and a push-button tranny.. The only problem I had with that little beauty was the manifold cracked twice. I was told it had something to do with the slanted engine causing unusual pressure on it.
Check your motor mounts and add an A-Body Torque Strap.
I learned how to drive a stick in that car.
That brings back some fun memories.
When I was a teenager, one of my first part-time jobs was as a delivery boy for a local Rexall drug store. We made our deliveries in a bare-bones Dodge Dart, with no factory options.
One summer, I made deliveries on a day where the air temperature was 118 degrees. The only way I endured it was because I was young, thin, and drank cold water between stops.
We joked that the stock Dart had “360 Air Conditioning”: You rolled down 3 windows, and drove at 60 MPH.
Thanks. Sounds like it would have been an easy fix.
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