The late 1960s were the golden years for those who yearned to race from stoplight to stoplight and loved the smell of burnt high-octane fuel. Engineers at the Big Three shared this passion and built plenty of low-volume specialty cars to sell to the public to satiate their appetite. For 1968, Dodge decided to build special Dodge Darts fitted with the drag strip dominating 426 Hemi. Hurst assisted Dodge in reworking these Darts to accommodate the massive iron elephant engine.
These particular models were only made for one year, and only about 80 were produced. They were technically street-legal but created strictly for drag racing and included a non-warranty disclaimer from Dodge when purchased. The engineers claimed the Hemi Darts could knock down sub-11–second quarter–mile times and speeds of 130 mph. These cars are hard to come by today and command a price well into the six figures, which is unsurprising considering the limited production numbers. Most of them were used and abused at the drag strips in the NHRA Stock and Super Stock classes. Jack Malloy of Mantend, Illinois, had no intention of shoehorning a monster Gen-II Hemi between the fenders of his 1968 Dodge Dart 2-door sedan like Dodge did, but after four years of ownership, he ended up building something even better; The Bullseye Dart: an unassuming sleeper.
Deleting the lettering on the hood and adding the custom spoiler add to the subtle custom look.
Humble Beginnings
Jack Malloy is from the Chicago area, and he and his Dad have been lifelong gearheads. Jack found this simple, clean, rust-free, and mostly unmolested ‘68 Dart in Florida back in 2020 and brought it back to Illinois immediately. There were no plans or intentions to build it into the Bullseye Dart you see before you. It is a well-sorted-out cruiser with 7.0 liters of power, a classic old-school muscle car that can eat up the miles, tires, and gas. It spent the first year of ownership as his daily driver while attending the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, racking up miles and memories in the summer heat, snowy winters, and even a few 1,000-plus mile road trips with friends and classmates.
Back then, the Dart still wore its original sheet metal adorned with medium tan poly paint and factory-fitted tan interior. Somewhere in its past, a previous owner swapped the Dart’s original engine for a mild LA 360 with a 4-barrel carb still fitted to the original three-speed manual transmission. Jack fitted an aftermarket A/C system to keep the classic cruiser comfortable to drive during the warmer Wisconsin months. Still, it wasn’t until Malloy and his Dad landed a deal on a Gen-II 426 cubic-inch Hemi that got the gears in Jack’s head turning.
The cowl, mirrors, emblems, and door lock cylinder have been removed and shaved. Mostly undetectable to the naked eye.
Drivetrain
There is no need to question why the 426 Hemi was nicknamed “The Elephant” back in the day. Its physical size and weight are unparalleled by its rivals, Ford and Chevy. But in the metallic-tan-painted engine bay with slightly refitted aprons, firewall, and core support, Platinum Custom Cars of Manteno, Illinois, was able to squeeze it into this classic A-body engine bay. The black color scheme fits the clean and understated style of this ex-grandma car. From the Billet Specialties Tru-Trac black serpentine belt drive kit to the black MSD Billet distributor and black Holley Terminator EFI. Careful selection of the air cleaner allowed the Hemi to fit under the stock flat hood, without the need to hack up the underhood bracing.
Malloy wanted all the brawn the Hemi had to offer but didn’t want it to end up being a Dart with terrible street manners and only wanting to live at the local drag strip. The Holley EFI paired with the MSD Ignition keeps such a beast running smooth and tame enough for the street while still providing the fuel and spark control that 426 cubic inches need to pump out the power and torque to the road. There’s no point in trying to source some original heavy cast iron exhaust manifolds to choke down this Dart; TTI Exhaust supplied the stainless headers and 3.0-inch stainless dual exhaust, custom fitted to keep ground clearance high, which is a necessity on a lowered classic but still free flowing.
The Bullseye Dart’s 426 Hemi shares the same unassuming style as its exterior. Dressed in all black and hiding Holley EFI under the air cleaner.Jack kept the car’s original three-pedal layout and mounted a Tremec TKX 5-speed manual transmission behind the Hemi, even installing a custom 5-speed H-pattern emblem atop a period-correct Hurst pistol grip shifter to let everyone know that this was no longer a three-speed or an A833 four-speed. All that bang-shifting power is sent to a narrowed Ford 9-inch rear axle supplied by Moser and fitted with a limited-slip differential to give the Bullseye Dart as much traction as possible.
Chassis and Suspension
All of that grunt mounted in a Dodge A-body necessitated an overhaul of the Dart’s unibody chassis. After the heart transplant, Platinum Custom Cars shifted their focus to the underside of this classic two-door compact Mopar. The decision was made to not chop away the floor and rails, but to strengthen it with weld-in subframe connectors and to utilize Reilly Motorsports of Gaffney, South Carolina, for some modern suspension sophistication. The front end of the ’68 Dart has been fitted with their AlterKtion (pronounced “altercation”) Street and Handling bolt-in front subframe package.
Reilly Motorsports’ subframe kits are not a cheap thrown-together setup but an entire system that is designed and engineered to eliminate bump steer, improve caster for modern low-profile radial tires, and optimize static camber and camber gain throughout suspension travel to give the driver the best experience on the track, the drag strip, or even just a bumpy road on the way to work. Polyurethane bushings and tubular control arms keep everything strong and solid, and the Flaming River supplied power rack and pinion unit offer a vastly improved steering ratio and road feel. Jack decided to opt for the Ridetech single-adjustable coilovers and 1-1/4-inch front sway bar to keep his Dart planted to the road with such a heavy lump of iron up front.
The rear of the car received an equally thourough treatment from Reilly Motorsports with their bolt-in Street Lynx triangulated four-link rear suspension with Ridetech single adjustable coilovers to match the front. Platinum Custom Cars fit mini tubs to the original sheet metal, and the narrowed Moser 9-inch Ford rear axle was also moved back, increasing the overall wheelbase by one inch to center the wheels in the wheel openings to fit the new 275-wide rear rubber and to improve the overall look and stance.
Wheels, Tires, And Brakes
Jack is a big fan of the simple and classic steelie with hubcaps look. A timeless style that also fits the direction of the Bullseye Dart’s theme. US Wheel Corp supplied the Smoothie Series 513 wheels, 18×10 inches in the rear and 18×8 inches in front. The wheels were custom-made specifically for the Bullseye Dart to get the backspacing perfect and then painted to match the body color. Stainless steel dog-dish Hub Caps that would be more commonly found on a 1969 full-size Mopar were fitted to the custom steelies with specially fabricated brackets to bolt on the caps instead of the normal snap-on fitment to keep them from flying off in a hard curve or when enjoying all 7.0 liters of that Hemi. They mounted 275/40R18 tires in the rear with 235/40R18 in the front to fill out the wheel wells nicely.
Behind those pedestrian-looking wheels lies stopping power worthy of the monster powerplant that lives under the hood. Wilwood DynaPro front disc brakes with forged billet six-piston calipers with drilled and slotted rotors were fitted up front.Not only would the stock drum brakes be laughably inadequate and unsafe, but they also wouldn’t fit the spindles supplied with the new front suspension from Reilly Motorsports. The same goes for the rear; the new rear axle from Moser was fitted with matching Wilwood forged billet four-piston calipers and drilled and slotted rotors. This custom braking system is plumbed into a Wilwood aluminum master cylinder under the hood.
Paint And Interior
Jack had never really planned for the Dart to get a custom interior or fresh paint, but after driving around his reborn classic with such a well-sorted-out chassis and drivetrain, he knew it was worthy of getting pushed to the next level. So the big question presented itself: what color do you pick? Plum Crazy or Hemi Orange? Panther Pink or SubLime? No, those wouldn’t be fitting for a build of this caliber. When asked about the overall style and theme of his Bullseye Dart project car, Malloy said: “What would a Dodge executive make their car look like if they didn’t really want it to look like a super-stock type car? So we went with the ‘Grandma Dart’ kind of look”. The original tan metallic color fit the “Grandma Dart kind of look” perfectly and was stripped down and resprayed.
There are several fine touches to the exterior of Jack’s ’68 Dart that are seemingly invisible to the naked eye, but all come together to give it that “factory custom” touch he was aiming for. The mirrors and door lock cylinders on both doors have been shaved, but the original chrome door handles remain. Other light touches like the shaved side marker lamps and antenna, along with the shaved cowl vent, add to the subtle custom look Jack had in mind. Even the fuel filler was moved to the trunk. The original emblems have been cleanly deleted from the bodywork. A small custom-made black spoiler was fitted to the factory chrome front bumper to improve aerodynamics and aesthetics slightly.
Carriage House Automotive Restorations in New Lenox, Illinois, handled the interior once the new metallic tan paint had finally cured. The old basic tan vinyl interior had served its humble, budget-oriented purpose to the previous owners. However, Jack pictured a black interior with modern equipment and classic touches — something that could still be road-tripped in comfort but with a vintage feel. Corbeau GTS II black cloth bucket seats were fitted to a floor adorned with new black plush cut pile carpet. To set the look apart but in keeping with the rest of the car’s understated look, the seat inserts were swapped out for a greyscale plaid cloth also supplied by Corbeau.
The new custom door panels, rear seats, and trunk were trimmed with the same greyscale plaid over black cloth to match the front seats. The new black dash keeps the original look from 1968 but is now fitted with Vintage Air A/C, a modern stereo, and a Dakota Digital RTX cluster custom-fitted to the dash. The Dakota Digital RTX cluster keeps the factory-stock look but with modern electronics, so the driver doesn’t have to worry if the information being fed to him about his 426 Hemi is correct or just a fleeting wild guess from inaccurate gauges. Jack holds the Bullseye Dart to the road with a Grant Classic Series triple split-spoke wood steering wheel that’s been fitted to an Ididt tilt steering column and then stained from its manufacturer-delivered brown wood grain to an almost black finish to match the rest of the interior.
Ready For The Road
All this work was never part of Jack Malloy’s plan. His 1968 two-door sedan Dart was just a classic original cruiser, a little piece of Americana fit for Grandma to take to the grocery store or church on Sundays. However, this daily driver needed to be as reliable as a modern Japanese econobox to get to work and back and take him and his buddies on road trips while earning his college degree. But make no mistake, The Bullseye Dart may be a sight to behold, but it’s no garage queen. It gets driven around town and road-tripped like on day-one of Jack’s ownership. The entire underside has been meticulously coated in Rhino Liner so that less-than-perfect weather won’t keep this A-body in the garage or on the trailer. Like he says, “Drive ‘em; it’s just a car.” Like the postman’s official motto, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night will keep Jack Malloy from enjoying the Bullseye Dart, an unassuming sleeper.
