Back in my day those steering wheel knobs were called "necker knobs", since one could hold their honey with their right arm and turn the wheel with their left. :)
NEVER in the history of automotive vehicles has there been a more perfectly discriptive phrase describing a car's aesthetic than "The Salvador Dali of Dodges." As a fan of Dali, melting clocks and crucifixes suspended in air, and as a person who spent much of his time in the backseat of a 1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer (the sad-faced Dart with half-hearted fins), I REALLY like this 1962 Dart.
The shrunken 62 Dodge and 62 Plymouth were brought out 10 years too early. If they were brought out in the 70s they would have sold like hotcakes. The most beautiful styled cars in 1962 and they flopped in the marketplace.
Hi Charles seeing this brought a tear to my eye as my Mum and Dad bought the same model Dodge brand new in September 1962 . Over here in Australia 🇦🇺 it was called a Dodge Phoenix ( no pun intended!) but except being right had drive and a slightly different dash it was basically the same car with that wonderful push button Torque Flite transmission. We all loved that car and I even got my license on it in 1970 I don’t think the Policeman giving me my driving test was used to seeing big American cars like the Dodge because when I offered to do a reverse park in a narrow street the Policeman looked around the car and said no that’s Ok just do a three point turn and go back to the station 😂 . Our Dodge Phoenix was such a unique car for its time and its beautiful styling was always admired by anyone that saw it. My parents eventually traded it on a Chrysler in 1974 and to this day I wish I had bought it at the time to keep as I had so many wonderful memories of growing up riding in our Dodge. Fortunately I still have some photos and even a very short home movie the day the Dodge was delivered to our family home. Thanks for sharing this beautiful “mid century masterpiece “ with us 😊
Phil I live in Melbourne and have 2 ! Both LHD American.One convertible (white) & one Red 2door hardtop . I have brought some Phoenix parts here in Oz to. Yours was one of 648 ,they used the Plymouth dash in it. Cool story👍
@@Russeljfinch Hi Russel thanks for your reply, Wow for you to have two is amazing. over recent years I have visited a couple of Classic car Shows near where I live on the NSW Mid North Coast and have seen two RHD '62s' a black one and a pale blue one both looked to have had pretty good restorations but the blue one looked more original with original hubcaps etc. Good examples of the '62 Pheonix are increasingly hard to find these days so you are very lucky to have yours especially the convertible. Regards
Love your enthusiasm, The knob on the steering wheel usually were only found on manual steering systems. They were called from daily drivers in farm trucks and equipment as suicide knobs for a reason. Very practical for experienced users but so much exciting when they got hung up on clothes while turning...
I remember those brand new. My parents bought a new 62 Chrysler. I still remember sitting in a Plymouth in the showroom while they were doing the business bit.
One very nice car. I have never driven a car or a pickup truck with a "brodie knob", but I have operated a Cat 988, a large, wheeled front end bucket loader, many thousands of hours using one. It works perfectly and allows you to use the other hand to operate the boom, the bucket and handle the gear/direction shifting. Those knobs are also known as "necker knobs", "suicide knobs", or "spinner knobs."
Fred Rutherford was doing pretty well. He drove a 1960 Plymouth Fury convertible in an episode where both families got together to go on a picnic. This episode is hilarious. Violet Rutherford has to sit on Beavers lap in the front seat and his friends see him when they are on their way to the picnic. Poor Beaver had it rough in that episode. He had to take a picture with Voilet kissing him on the cheek.
@@mrBILL-sr2cu Ward always drove a Plymouth starting in 1959. It seems to me that the '59 was a Belvedere 4 door sedan and starting in 1961 they used the Plymouth Fury.
I had one in the early 90s but it only had slant six and was in primer. I drove it every where and finally gave it away, to the woman I married. I miss that car. I also Dodge Polara 1964 that was a push button automatic .
My older brother was a car salesman the year this car debuted. It was marketed as the “New Lean Look” for Mopar products, but that ‘look’ didn’t migrate to the Chrysler itself until 1963. The concept was derived from the styling of the 1961 Plymouth Valiant, a best-seller, so Chrysler wanted to capitalize on the success of their first compact car.
When I was a kid I thought these were igly and the push button transmission was weird. I sure don’t anymore. Great car thanks for the entertaining video.
I remember a time when you could buy these for 500.00. Nobody liked the look, so they were one of the cheapest used cars on the lot. Our neighbor had one that he used to pull a small Scotty travel trailer all over the east coast. Personally, I love them. The days when Chrysler products were solid performing cars. Extra care in engineering was their slogan. That and put a Dodge in your garage.
Thank you Charles and Robin! What a fun episode. I LOVE that styling and the color! We know. Charles, you're a mid-centry masterpiece of entertainment and we LOVE you! Thanks for all you do! Now head on over and grab those wonderful coffe table books of yours!
Thank you. That was fun. Although I always thought those Darts were ugly, I liked, and would buy today, a '61 Valiant two-door hardtop with the torqueflight. By the way, I love that color.
How do I love this car??? Let me count the ways.... oh my!! And COCOA!!! Inside and out. Simple, clean, and luxuriously spacey (as in alternate comfort universe!). Delicious!! I'd make some cocoa right now but I won't get the color right....
In those days you had a ton of exterior colors and lots of interior as well. Often the weird exterior color had an exact match in the interior. My Corvair had 17 paint and 6 or 7 interior colors. Now, any color you want as long as it black and white photo compatible. I know! :)
My first car was a '62 Dodge Dart with the 318 V8 and push button automatic. I paid a whole $35 for it from a relative in '72. I had it a couple of weeks and my stepdad decided to give it a tune up. The car never ran again.
My friend's Dad had a knob like that on his 63 Dodge and he called it his "Wheeler Dealer Knob". It didn't have power steering so he really needed it. Those cars were so under appreciated at the time.
Yeah, the knob is totally unnecessary with the very light Chrysler power steering, only 3.5 turns lock to lock. They were a thing on the older cars with heavy manual steering and over 5 turns lock to lock.
Exner greatness! I've perused that body many times, in awe of the unique asymmetrical ideas, but never noticed that hitch in the rear doors. They're an inch or two higher than the front doors for no apparent reason. Well, everything is for no apparent reason on this car.
Another awesome Mopar! Awesome looking Dodge Dart. OMG! What I wouldn't give to go for drive in this baby! I know! This car looks more modern today than today's cars. :)
Waiting for a video on the 62 Dodge's brother the 1962 Plymouth with it's mondo bizarro dashboard that Chrysler had the nerve to recycle on the 63 Plymouth!
Thank you Charles for bringing us another incredible car to drool over. So rare, wild and gorgeous. Thank you too, Robin for preserving it and sharing it! Love your vids Charles, please keep 'em coming!
The whole point of those nobs - we called them necker knobs - was the ability to maneuver the car at moderate to slow speeds in front of your friends with your girl very clearly snuggled up to your side, your free arm ...... around her shoulders (what did you think I was going to say).
A '62 Dart much like this one but in bright red, and with the 413 engine - sold as the Super Stock Dodge - was the car driven by The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. These Darts were one size smaller than the full size cars from GM and Ford, and quite a bit lighter. With the big engine, they were unbeatable on the track. Fast enough to inspire Jan and Dean to feature it in a pop song.
I can picture it now as Ward Cleaver (with his lovely wife June sitting next to him) is pulling out of his driveway in his 1962 Plymouth Fury, a beautiful Dodge Dart four door passes by on a beautiful April afternoon in Mayfield.
Charles, I love these videos and what you do. A number of the cars that you've showcased deserve a revisit. Not that you did a bad job but that they deserve a longer look. More detail, under the hood, in the trunk, gas filler design/location, interesting features, bits and pieces of the art. It would also be nice to hear more from some of the owner's. I was left feeling that Robin in this video had more to say.
I was four years old when this car came out. I loved the Brody Knob have not seen them in years and they were really cool!Also loved the old curb feelers they were very big in the day. Loved the Virgil body design and those lines. That Cocoa color was awesome with that interior color. Saw these a lot on Leave It To Beaver. really neat car and owner!! Thanks Charles for sharing with us!
When Captain James T Kirk was on shore leave on earth he would pull this car out of the garage & head down to A&W for a root beer!!! And the Brodie Knob? Those are great, I had one on my 68 Impala SS convertible when I was a kid!! Live long and prosper! 🖖
I couldn’t agree more! It’s too bad that space age design in cars went out of style after only a few years. If you’ve never heard of it, you should check out the 63 Chrysler turbine, a car powered by just that - a turbine!
The Cleavers owned one of these. At the beginning of show when they were running the intro credits it shows Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver getting into the car. When they back out of the driveway Beaver turns and looks at the camera right when the announcer says and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Great show and fantastic car that was so underappreciated in It's day. It ended up being a single year design. Dodge and Plymouth rushed larger cars into production using the Chrysler Newport platform because the dealers were complaining that they didn't have cars large enough to compete with Ford and GM.
Rick, Plymouth unfortunately did not get a large car like the Dodge Custom 880.. they had to make do with the new "standard" 116" w.b. car and didn't get a truly full sized car until the 1965 redesign.. not to put too fine a point on it!
I tried to talk my dad into buying a 1962 Dodge as our first NEW family car. I thought that teh styling was so odd an yet, beautiful. but my father thaught that it was to UGLY & passed on it by buying a Mercury. I was a little dissapointed. However my love for the 62 Dodge never went away. She is one lucky lady.
I remember that! What a great movie...and such a star studded cast. There were something like twenty well known stars of the era in that movie, from Spencer Tracy to Mickey Rooney to Jonathon Winters to Milton Berle etc., etc. The old cars were great, too!
My first car in 1969. 100 bucks from my friend`s grandma. 318 automatic, ugly dull dark brown paint and rust holes in the floor. Drove it for a year and a half and sold it for............100 bucks. I miss that car.
i had a 64 GMC pickup with a Brody knob on it, i had it at 10 o clock on the wheal so i could have my left hand on it and my arm out the window. Kool Kar!
A) The steering wheel center logo that's peppered throughout the cabin is SUSPICIOUSLY similar to the Lincoln logo, which is...SUSPICIOUS! But the little art inside the upper-right corner is beautiful B) The taillights are truly wonderful. C) Those space-age side details that follow the taillight curves are perhaps too cool. D) The fender ornaments, what?! Craziness. E) That's a great shirt, Charles.
I've never seen those fender-top ornaments on a 62 Dodge. I don't believe they are original or correct. Otherwise, a very nice, correct and original car. PS: 62 was the last year a power pack 318 poly (4 barrel, dual exhausts) was an available option. It had 260 hp vs. the 230 of the two barrel 318. Top option until later in the model year was a 361 four barrel with 305 hp.
This and the 1962 Plymouth got Virgil Exner fired. When the cars were revealed to dealers, a number of them tore up their contracts on the spot. The Plymouth of that year was Ward Cleaver's car on Leave It to Beaver, and not a bad looking automobile.
I was shocked to see this. I never thought Darts had the 318 cid V8 back then and came in 4 door pillar-less hardtops. As a kid, our family had a 63 with the 225 cid slant 6 and I believe, a mere 2-speed automatic, though yes, push-button, and it was a 4-door sedan. I do believe we had the same cocoa color. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and learned that the Dart featured in this video was actually an "intermediate" sized car, while 1963 was the first year of the "compact", hence, the downsizing of the engine options. I believe the pre-1961 models were even larger, based upon the full sized Polara. Ah yes, the push buttons. As a 9 year old kid, I played with the push buttons until I broke the transmission. Dad was not too pleased the next morning when he went to start the car to go to work.
@@moyadapne968 Okay, It must have been our 57 Fury, also with a slant 6, and I think that was the one whose transmission I played with, or it might have been the 59 Rambler Custom.
Love it, love it, love it! Happy to see that Robin loves it, too and that you are doing a feature on this car, indeed the very essence of whimsical Space Age fabulosity. And a breezy, elegant (and very rare) 4-door hardtop to boot! Makes it hard to believe that these cars were once considered by many to be ugly and weird-looking. Hah! Philistines! What do those common people know about art? Nothing! Commercially, these were total disasters for Chrysler Corporation. Some time in 1960, a top Chrysler exec eavesdropped on a conversation that a top GM exec was having at a country club. In that conversation, the GM exec was talking about a coming "new smaller Chevrolet". The Chrysler exec was convinced GM was about to downsize its big cars (it wasn't, the conversation was probably about the compact Chevy II Nova or the Chevelle) and ordered that all Plymouths and Dodges be downsized for '62. These trimmer, leaner "full-size" cars from Dodge and Plymouth sold very poorly compared to GM and Ford. They were really intermediate-size cars (along the lines of a '64 Chevelle or Olds Cutlass) and became much more successful as such a few years later in 1965, when Chrysler re-introduced "proper" full size Plymouth and Dodge cars and correctly positioned these as the intermediate-size Dodge Coronet and Plymouth Satellite on the same body shell with the styling "normalized"...and much more boring! I recently snapped up the ultra-rare Plymouth sister car, a 1962 Fury 4d hardtop and I am very excited to call it my own. Besides the unique George Jetson aesthetic, these are actually totally decent cars. Because they are smaller and lighter than typical full size cars were then, they are quite fast. Ride and handling is pretty decent and they corner relatively flat. That TorsionAire suspension wasn't all hype! The seating position is good and the visibility fantastic. Lots of room yet trim enough on the outside to be a joy to drive in today's traffic and easy to park compared to most of the other land yachts of their day. I guess they were just a little too ahead of their time and a victim of bad marketing.
First time to this channel. Not sure how I ended up here but......what a fantastic car! I am not fan of Chrysler products except for the '60's models. This one is rare in many ways. First, it has the 440. Speaking of which , let me offer a tiny bit of constructive criticism. When you feature an antique automobile such as this one, especially one from the 60's with a big engine..... OPEN THE HOOD and show us the engine! Auto enthusiasts will appreciate showing us the engine, filming a start sequence and hearing it running all while video is focused on the engine bay.
Ok, the 440 Dodge is just a model designation. Like 330. So, it goes Dart, 330, 440 and Polara. Most Darts had either a slant 6 or a 318. Polara had 361 mostly.
The dashboard has all lower case letters. Interesting!!!
Love 62 Dodge and Plymouth. Virgil Exner Mondo Bizzarro styling at it's best!
Back in my day those steering wheel knobs were called "necker knobs", since one could hold their honey with their right arm and turn the wheel with their left. :)
I can totally imagine Jane Jetson driving to the salon in this beauty. This one left me wanting for more. So many extraordinary details.
Lmao 😂
Indeed. this was entirely too short for such a fantastic car.
Oh ... TOTALLLLY !!! ...
The 1962 318A engine had polyspherical combustion chambers good for at least 240 Hp
NEVER in the history of automotive vehicles has there been a more perfectly discriptive phrase describing a car's aesthetic than "The Salvador Dali of Dodges." As a fan of Dali, melting clocks and crucifixes suspended in air, and as a person who spent much of his time in the backseat of a 1961 Dodge Dart Pioneer (the sad-faced Dart with half-hearted fins), I REALLY like this 1962 Dart.
That’s a Suicide Knob! Useless with Power Steering. Cool car.
He likes backing up.
The shrunken 62 Dodge and 62 Plymouth were brought out 10 years too early. If they were brought out in the 70s they would have sold like hotcakes. The most beautiful styled cars in 1962 and they flopped in the marketplace.
Hi Charles seeing this brought a tear to my eye as my Mum and Dad bought the same model Dodge brand new in September 1962 . Over here in Australia 🇦🇺 it was called a Dodge Phoenix ( no pun intended!) but except being right had drive and a slightly different dash it was basically the same car with that wonderful push button Torque Flite transmission. We all loved that car and I even got my license on it in 1970 I don’t think the Policeman giving me my driving test was used to seeing big American cars like the Dodge because when I offered to do a reverse park in a narrow street the Policeman looked around the car and said no that’s Ok just do a three point turn and go back to the station 😂 . Our Dodge Phoenix was such a unique car for its time and its beautiful styling was always admired by anyone that saw it. My parents eventually traded it on a Chrysler in 1974 and to this day I wish I had bought it at the time to keep as I had so many wonderful memories of growing up riding in our Dodge. Fortunately I still have some photos and even a very short home movie the day the Dodge was delivered to our family home. Thanks for sharing this beautiful “mid century masterpiece “ with us 😊
Phil I live in Melbourne and have 2 ! Both LHD American.One convertible (white) & one Red 2door hardtop . I have brought some Phoenix parts here in Oz to. Yours was one of 648 ,they used the Plymouth dash in it. Cool story👍
@@Russeljfinch Hi Russel thanks for your reply, Wow for you to have two is amazing. over recent years I have visited a couple of Classic car Shows near where I live on the NSW Mid North Coast and have seen two RHD '62s' a black one and a pale blue one both looked to have had pretty good restorations but the blue one looked more original with original hubcaps etc. Good examples of the '62 Pheonix are increasingly hard to find these days so you are very lucky to have yours especially the convertible. Regards
I really like all that extra stainless steel trim it makes the car look regal.
Love your enthusiasm,
The knob on the steering wheel usually were only found on manual steering systems.
They were called from daily drivers in farm trucks and equipment as suicide knobs for a reason.
Very practical for experienced users but so much exciting when they got hung up on clothes while turning...
The more I look at it the more I like it.
Too bad Exner got fired for the design.
It was ahead of its time.
("I knooow")
I love how you present these cars on this channel.
My first car was a 62 Dodge Dart. I SO wish I still had that car! My dad had a Brody knob on the wheel of his 62 Cadillac Sedan de Ville.
Love that Dart and the unique design. So cool to see out on the road in a sea of jelly bean cars... nice!
How can something be hideous and yet gorgeous at the same time?
I have a 1962 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door sedan and it's a joy to own and drive.
I remember those brand new. My parents bought a new 62 Chrysler. I still remember sitting in a Plymouth in the showroom while they were doing the business bit.
Looks better now than when i was young!
Love your show, the Brody knobs we called em finger breakers
One very nice car.
I have never driven a car or a pickup truck with a "brodie knob", but I have operated a Cat 988, a large, wheeled front end bucket loader, many thousands of hours using one. It works perfectly and allows you to use the other hand to operate the boom, the bucket and handle the gear/direction shifting. Those knobs are also known as "necker knobs", "suicide knobs", or "spinner knobs."
Fred Rutherford from Leave it to Beaver was likely very jealous of Ward having one of these. LOL! Whata out of this WORLD car!
Actually it was Ward who was probably jealous, at least in latter episodes. Ward had the Plymouth Fury, and Fred, the Dodge...
Fred Rutherford was doing pretty well. He drove a 1960 Plymouth Fury convertible in an episode where both families got together to go on a picnic. This episode is hilarious. Violet Rutherford has to sit on Beavers lap in the front seat and his friends see him when they are on their way to the picnic. Poor Beaver had it rough in that episode. He had to take a picture with Voilet kissing him on the cheek.
Fred had a '63 Dodge Polara that got towed away when that numbskull Eddie Haskill parked it in an assigned parking space.
@@mrBILL-sr2cu
Ward always drove a Plymouth starting in 1959.
It seems to me that the '59 was a Belvedere 4 door sedan and starting in 1961 they used the Plymouth Fury.
@@spiff8862 I was thinking the 59 was a Fury 4 door sedan, with the '60 a Belvedere. Definitely Furys beginning with the 61...
Very Good Restoration 🥰😏
Oh dear lord, I learned to drive in one of these. In Australia these were sold as a Dodge Phoenix.
Another all time Favorite
Beautiful!!!
Thank you!!
Epic! Daw it as a kid👍👍👍👍👍👍😎😎😎🇺🇸 Imagine my surprise when I found out it wasnt a sales success.
Hi Paulie, hope you are doing well, I’m buying a Polara so I’m selling my Dart, T
I had one in the early 90s but it only had slant six and was in primer. I drove it every where and finally gave it away, to the woman I married. I miss that car. I also Dodge Polara 1964 that was a push button automatic .
My older brother was a car salesman the year this car debuted. It was marketed as the “New Lean Look” for Mopar products, but that ‘look’ didn’t migrate to the Chrysler itself until 1963. The concept was derived from the styling of the 1961 Plymouth Valiant, a best-seller, so Chrysler wanted to capitalize on the success of their first compact car.
Such a beauty! Fabulous in every way💜💕
Charles you do have a knack, at placing the perfect name on motorized art! The “Salvador Dali Dodge”! Perfection!!
You are one lucky person to get to drive all of these gorgeous cars!!!
When I was a kid I thought these were igly and the push button transmission was weird. I sure don’t anymore. Great car thanks for the entertaining video.
I remember a time when you could buy these for 500.00. Nobody liked the look, so they were one of the cheapest used cars on the lot. Our neighbor had one that he used to pull a small Scotty travel trailer all over the east coast. Personally, I love them. The days when Chrysler products were solid performing cars. Extra care in engineering was their slogan. That and put a Dodge in your garage.
One of my all time favorite designs of the era, or any era. I loved them when I was a teenager and nothing's changed. Awesome example.
Thank you Charles and Robin! What a fun episode. I LOVE that styling and the color! We know. Charles, you're a mid-centry masterpiece of entertainment and we LOVE you! Thanks for all you do! Now head on over and grab those wonderful coffe table books of yours!
Yeah, I think that color was "the color" for 1962.
I’m drooling! I would love to own one of these in that color, too!
"Have you ever, will you ever, do you ever, I don't think so..." Poetry!
Looks like something out of the JETSON"S. I could see George Jetson driving that gorgeous old Dodge Dart.
Thank you. That was fun. Although I always thought those Darts were ugly, I liked, and would buy today, a '61 Valiant two-door hardtop with the torqueflight. By the way, I love that color.
Robin is cool. If she would fire up a joint I’d fall of my seat. 👌
Hey Jim! This is Guy Will. I love this! This year of Dodge is a veritable smorgasbord of Steele and chrome!
How do I love this car??? Let me count the ways.... oh my!! And COCOA!!! Inside and out. Simple, clean, and luxuriously spacey (as in alternate comfort universe!). Delicious!! I'd make some cocoa right now but I won't get the color right....
In those days you had a ton of exterior colors and lots of interior as well. Often the weird exterior color had an exact match in the interior. My Corvair had 17 paint and 6 or 7 interior colors. Now, any color you want as long as it black and white photo compatible. I know! :)
For all the insanity of the design, when you think about Mopars 1955-61, this is dialed back and understated.
My first car was a '62 Dodge Dart with the 318 V8 and push button automatic. I paid a whole $35 for it from a relative in '72. I had it a couple of weeks and my stepdad decided to give it a tune up. The car never ran again.
In 1973 my neighbor had 62 Dodge Dart 330. Big block 318 was our party car 2 door sedan cool old car
My friend's Dad had a knob like that on his 63 Dodge and he called it his "Wheeler Dealer Knob". It didn't have power steering so he really needed it. Those cars were so under appreciated at the time.
Yeah, the knob is totally unnecessary with the very light Chrysler power steering, only 3.5 turns lock to lock. They were a thing on the older cars with heavy manual steering and over 5 turns lock to lock.
Back in the 60's I learned to drive in this exact car. It was even the same color. Seems like it had factory dual exhaust .
Exner greatness! I've perused that body many times, in awe of the unique asymmetrical ideas, but never noticed that hitch in the rear doors. They're an inch or two higher than the front doors for no apparent reason. Well, everything is for no apparent reason on this car.
That same inexplicable step up is on the two-door hardtop too.
@@wildcat64100 **Cough. They are the most beautiful car ever made, but I'm biased.
Wow! I was born the year the car was made. My first car was a 1971 Doge Dart Swinger 2 door hardtop.
I just loved the Dodge Dart Swingers.
Especially the '69 with a 340 cid V-8.
Awesome piece of machinery!
Another awesome Mopar! Awesome looking Dodge Dart. OMG! What I wouldn't give to go for drive in this baby! I know! This car looks more modern today than today's cars. :)
Waiting for a video on the 62 Dodge's brother the 1962 Plymouth with it's mondo bizarro dashboard that Chrysler had the nerve to recycle on the 63 Plymouth!
Thank you Charles for bringing us another incredible car to drool over. So rare, wild and gorgeous. Thank you too, Robin for preserving it and sharing it! Love your vids Charles, please keep 'em coming!
We called them "suicide knob"😮
Robin is a doll!
love it thank you for sharing another classic
Need to do a '62 Plymouth now....love it, how can you not? 😍😎
I gotta find one nearby first ...
@@_charlesphoenix
I've got all the faith in you young man! 👍🏻
I’m sure that brodie knob is excellent for backing into a parking space. 🎥 another great video 📺
The whole point of those nobs - we called them necker knobs - was the ability to maneuver the car at moderate to slow speeds in front of your friends with your girl very clearly snuggled up to your side, your free arm ...... around her shoulders (what did you think I was going to say).
A '62 Dart much like this one but in bright red, and with the 413 engine - sold as the Super Stock Dodge - was the car driven by The Little Old Lady From Pasadena. These Darts were one size smaller than the full size cars from GM and Ford, and quite a bit lighter. With the big engine, they were unbeatable on the track. Fast enough to inspire Jan and Dean to feature it in a pop song.
I can picture it now as Ward Cleaver (with his lovely wife June sitting next to him) is pulling out of his driveway in his 1962 Plymouth Fury, a beautiful Dodge Dart four door passes by on a beautiful April afternoon in Mayfield.
Awesome car! The interior and exterior color is called Nutmeg Poly Brown. A PPG Color still on file.
Charles, I love these videos and what you do. A number of the cars that you've showcased deserve a revisit. Not that you did a bad job but that they deserve a longer look. More detail, under the hood, in the trunk, gas filler design/location, interesting features, bits and pieces of the art. It would also be nice to hear more from some of the owner's. I was left feeling that Robin in this video had more to say.
Needs twin exhaust MOPAR for life 👍🏻🇦🇺.
When I was a kid it was easy to identify these in the dark just based on the 'unusual' headlamp placement.
Thanks for another great old car, Charles! My folks had a '61 Dodge wagon, and we loved the push button transmission. It seemed so futuristic!
Great Video Thumbs up Charles
A lot of people didn’t like the styling, but most of those people only ever saw the tail lights. Super fast.
I was four years old when this car came out. I loved the Brody Knob have not seen them in years and they were really cool!Also loved the old curb feelers they were very big in the day. Loved the Virgil body design and those lines. That Cocoa color was awesome with that interior color. Saw these a lot on Leave It To Beaver. really neat car and owner!! Thanks Charles for sharing with us!
Charles Phoenix is too pure to be a meme. Cool vid Charles 😎👍
When Captain James T Kirk was on shore leave on earth he would pull this car out of the garage & head down to A&W for a root beer!!! And the Brodie Knob? Those are great, I had one on my 68 Impala SS convertible when I was a kid!! Live long and prosper! 🖖
My Dad had a Brodie Knob on his '47 Chevy...
I thought I was the only one who loved this style. I can’t belive we don’t see more. That was very enjoyable.
I couldn’t agree more! It’s too bad that space age design in cars went out of style after only a few years. If you’ve never heard of it, you should check out the 63 Chrysler turbine, a car powered by just that - a turbine!
The Cleavers owned one of these. At the beginning of show when they were running the intro credits it shows Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver getting into the car. When they back out of the driveway Beaver turns and looks at the camera right when the announcer says and Jerry Mathers as the Beaver. Great show and fantastic car that was so underappreciated in It's day. It ended up being a single year design. Dodge and Plymouth rushed larger cars into production using the Chrysler Newport platform because the dealers were complaining that they didn't have cars large enough to compete with Ford and GM.
The Cleavers owned a Plymouth version of this car.
Rick, Plymouth unfortunately did not get a large car like the Dodge Custom 880.. they had to make do with the new "standard" 116" w.b. car and didn't get a truly full sized car until the 1965 redesign.. not to put too fine a point on it!
Chrysler Corp's B body platform; which was used for many cars: Charger, Satellite, and even Cordoba.
I tried to talk my dad into buying a 1962 Dodge as our first NEW family car. I thought that teh styling was so odd an yet, beautiful. but my father thaught that it was to UGLY & passed on it by buying a Mercury. I was a little dissapointed. However my love for the 62 Dodge never went away. She is one lucky lady.
Virgil Exner's final descent into madness!
I thought this car was strangle looking at one time. My faulty judgement call. It was nice looking
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World the police drove these.
Yes!!! Spencer Tracy one of my favorite films
@@jakespeed63 Yup....and it had that big block 361 or 383 exhaust note.....
I remember that! What a great movie...and such a star studded cast. There were something like twenty well known stars of the era in that movie, from Spencer Tracy to Mickey Rooney to Jonathon Winters to Milton Berle etc., etc. The old cars were great, too!
the way you Grip that Knob!!...
My first car in 1969. 100 bucks from my friend`s grandma. 318 automatic, ugly dull dark brown paint and rust holes in the floor. Drove it for a year and a half and sold it for............100 bucks. I miss that car.
i had a 64 GMC pickup with a Brody knob on it, i had it at 10 o clock on the wheal so i could have my left hand on it and my arm out the window. Kool Kar!
A) The steering wheel center logo that's peppered throughout the cabin is SUSPICIOUSLY similar to the Lincoln logo, which is...SUSPICIOUS! But the little art inside the upper-right corner is beautiful B) The taillights are truly wonderful. C) Those space-age side details that follow the taillight curves are perhaps too cool. D) The fender ornaments, what?! Craziness. E) That's a great shirt, Charles.
Really cool video. I love your videos!!!!
Glad you like them!
Carefull Charles ...she was about to push your ejection seat button when asked advice for old ladies
I've never seen those fender-top ornaments on a 62 Dodge. I don't believe they are original or correct. Otherwise, a very nice, correct and original car. PS: 62 was the last year a power pack 318 poly (4 barrel, dual exhausts) was an available option. It had 260 hp vs. the 230 of the two barrel 318. Top option until later in the model year was a 361 four barrel with 305 hp.
Yeah, the way the ornaments sit at a weird angle isn't right.
Those are correct for Dart 440 but not for 330 or base Dart.
This and the 1962 Plymouth got Virgil Exner fired. When the cars were revealed to dealers, a number of them tore up their contracts on the spot. The Plymouth of that year was Ward Cleaver's car on Leave It to Beaver, and not a bad looking automobile.
I was shocked to see this. I never thought Darts had the 318 cid V8 back then and came in 4 door pillar-less hardtops. As a kid, our family had a 63 with the 225 cid slant 6 and I believe, a mere 2-speed automatic, though yes, push-button, and it was a 4-door sedan. I do believe we had the same cocoa color. So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and learned that the Dart featured in this video was actually an "intermediate" sized car, while 1963 was the first year of the "compact", hence, the downsizing of the engine options. I believe the pre-1961 models were even larger, based upon the full sized Polara. Ah yes, the push buttons. As a 9 year old kid, I played with the push buttons until I broke the transmission. Dad was not too pleased the next morning when he went to start the car to go to work.
All Chrysler Corp cars from '62-on had 3 speed autos.
@@moyadapne968 Okay, It must have been our 57 Fury, also with a slant 6, and I think that was the one whose transmission I played with, or it might have been the 59 Rambler Custom.
Epic
Dartarrific.
Love it, love it, love it! Happy to see that Robin loves it, too and that you are doing a feature on this car, indeed the very essence of whimsical Space Age fabulosity. And a breezy, elegant (and very rare) 4-door hardtop to boot! Makes it hard to believe that these cars were once considered by many to be ugly and weird-looking. Hah! Philistines! What do those common people know about art? Nothing!
Commercially, these were total disasters for Chrysler Corporation. Some time in 1960, a top Chrysler exec eavesdropped on a conversation that a top GM exec was having at a country club. In that conversation, the GM exec was talking about a coming "new smaller Chevrolet". The Chrysler exec was convinced GM was about to downsize its big cars (it wasn't, the conversation was probably about the compact Chevy II Nova or the Chevelle) and ordered that all Plymouths and Dodges be downsized for '62. These trimmer, leaner "full-size" cars from Dodge and Plymouth sold very poorly compared to GM and Ford. They were really intermediate-size cars (along the lines of a '64 Chevelle or Olds Cutlass) and became much more successful as such a few years later in 1965, when Chrysler re-introduced "proper" full size Plymouth and Dodge cars and correctly positioned these as the intermediate-size Dodge Coronet and Plymouth Satellite on the same body shell with the styling "normalized"...and much more boring!
I recently snapped up the ultra-rare Plymouth sister car, a 1962 Fury 4d hardtop and I am very excited to call it my own. Besides the unique George Jetson aesthetic, these are actually totally decent cars. Because they are smaller and lighter than typical full size cars were then, they are quite fast. Ride and handling is pretty decent and they corner relatively flat. That TorsionAire suspension wasn't all hype! The seating position is good and the visibility fantastic. Lots of room yet trim enough on the outside to be a joy to drive in today's traffic and easy to park compared to most of the other land yachts of their day. I guess they were just a little too ahead of their time and a victim of bad marketing.
What no power windows?? :P Awesome ride.
not on this car ...
First time to this channel. Not sure how I ended up here but......what a fantastic car! I am not fan of Chrysler products except for the '60's models. This one is rare in many ways. First, it has the 440. Speaking of which , let me offer a tiny bit of constructive criticism. When you feature an antique automobile such as this one, especially one from the 60's with a big engine..... OPEN THE HOOD and show us the engine! Auto enthusiasts will appreciate showing us the engine, filming a start sequence and hearing it running all while video is focused on the engine bay.
Ok, the 440 Dodge is just a model designation. Like 330. So, it goes Dart, 330, 440 and Polara. Most Darts had either a slant 6 or a 318. Polara had 361 mostly.
DODGE-the car that says “Let’s Go!”
Hi Charles can you review a 1957 to 1963 Imperial by Chrysler some time? ( I like the 1962 especially.) We love those! I know. Great channel, love it!
Dodge for 1962 "The New Lean Breed of Dodge"!
Miss Jane drove one like this I believe!
Yes, but her's was a convertible.
great video, love the car one of my favs. I Have a 63 Conv.
Very cool!