1969 Dodge Dart GTS 440 - The Petersen Promo Car, owned by "Pete" Petersen

By the spring of 1968 the race was on! Mr. Norm was for Dodge, what Don Yenko was for the COPO GM program. Norm Kraus established himself as the leading high-performance Dodge dealer in the country. In 1968 Norm's race car driver, Gary Dyer, and shop mechanic Rich Mouldry, attempted to put a 440 Magnum in a Dodge Dart. Within a matter of days, Rich and Gary had the 440 shoehorned into a tentative position, new motor mounts were fabricated, and the first Dart 440 was born. Mr. Norm built 50 of these custom drag cars in 1968 at his father's Grand Spaulding dealership.

Seems the "brass" of MoPar, satisfied that the "backyard" built bomb M Code 440 Magnum GSS (Grand Spaulding Special) program was so popular they wanted in on the act. Just as the 69 Dart is being ready to be released, Chrysler contacts Norm and Gary to again engineer the Baby Bruiser, lined up Hurst Performance of Detroit to do the actual engine installations. The demand for the M Code was more than Mr. Norm could handle alone and MoPar announces the Drag Racing performance option to select Performance Dealers.

Los Angeles most performance minded dealership, Gene O'Hara's Saddleback Dodge in Santa Ana, CA quickly jumps on the custom drag cars and ordered 20 M Code Darts. Similar to Grand Spaulding, Gene and Bob Moore set up a "Hot Parts" Hi-Per Service options. Robert E. "Pete" Petersen owner of Petersen Publishing bought the car from Saddleback as a Car Craft Test Mule Promo at local Dragway's. The Dart achieved some measure of immortality for first appearing in the May 1969 issue of Car Craft Magazine as their famed promo race car.

Jerry Mallicoat was not only the article author, but he was also the drag racer of the car. Taking the Car Craft Petersen Promo car to Lions Drag Strip in Long Beach, CA as well as the Winter Nationals in Pomona, CA. The Project Dart finally hit an impressive 12.70 and made it onto the 1969 Car Craft All-Star Drag Racing team, continuing to work with The Saddleback Hi-Performance guys. The short-term fate of the Dart is cloudy these days, as it was apparently used around the Car Craft offices as a promo car and was driven by Petersen himself. The car was sold to its first real owner in San Diego, Chuck Verda who used this hotly modified A-body as a street/strip weekend shootout machine.

This is a picture of the car after nearly 20 years of racing and 6,000 miles. Chuck started taking the car apart with intentions to do a rotisserie restoration. In 2007 with the car completely apart nobody knows where the Car Craft M Code is. Chuck was moving to Arizona and would have to sell the car. That's when Mark Lewis from West Texas happened to be flying into San Diego to leave on a cruise. He called Galen Govier, who was at Bill Goldbergs house up in Malibu documenting some of his Mopars. Galen met with Mark and Wayne Smothers who came to pick the car up. Galen does a full physical inspection and certifies that the car is indeed the missing Car Craft car, is real and except for its original transmission is all there! Mark buys the car, and Goldberg invites everyone to come up to his house for the evening to talk Mopars.

Mark sends the car to Jeff's Resurrections in Tyler TX, one of the premiere Classic Car Restoration shops in the US. The car undergoes one of the finest rotisserie restorations a Dart has ever received, returning it to pristine originality as it was delivered to Saddleback Dodge in 1969. In 2012, after 5 years, Mark receives the Award-Winning Dart.

The car goes up for sale in 2013 and was quickly purchased by an Ohio collector who owns several famous factory drag racing cars including Judy Lilly's Historic Hemi Super Stock drag car. Since then, this car has been invited to several National Car Shows and featured in numerous national magazines.

🏆 Mopar Nationals 2014 Judged 519 out of 520 points

🏆 MCACN 2018 Several Awards including Gold Concours

🏆 Carlisle Chrysler Nationals 2019 Featured Display Vehicle, video from Lou Costabile ​

🏆 Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance 2019 Best of Show Runner Up