The new Dodge Dart

The cone-heads at Chrysler get more strikes than hits when they trawl through the back catalogue looking for their next great thing.

Take the Charger, for example. Nice enough car, but whadup with the four doors? Sorry, that just alienates every potential buyer who remembers the golden age of high performance. Muscle cars don’t have four doors. Period.

The re-do on the Challenger they pretty much got right. Not too much to complain about there, but the true believers would appreciate a stripped down version. Hold the carpet, hold the sound system, hold the power windows, crank up that hemi and hold on. Ford has the right idea with the Mustang Cobra Jet, except make it streetable.

 Now they’re reimagining the Dart. While the Dart’s reputation blasted into the stratosphere on the strength of those original fifty factory hemis in ’68, your local Dodge dealer always had a nice selection of 340s and a few big-blocks to choose from. They were light, they were fast, they were well-priced. They were the ultimate poor man’s quarter-mile weapon.

So when I heard the Dart was coming back I imagined a rear drive small eight with a thumping idle and eight thousand redline.

No such luck.

The new “Dart” is a retooling of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.

The WHAT?

That’s right, Chrysler’s corporate masters at Fiat own the Alfa brand too.

The new Dart Alfaghetti is just going to be another front drive four cylinder compact car.

Shame!