1968 Dodge Dart GTS 440 V8 Four-Speed at Passing Lane Motors

Dodge never intended the compact Dart to carry a 440-cubic-inch big block, but a small number of 1968 GTS buyers ordered exactly that combination anyway. Paired with a four-speed manual, it’s one of the rarest engine-transmission combos Mopar ever built into an A-body. Here’s what makes this particular Dart worth a closer look.

This Dodge Dart is immaculate.

A four-speed manual, a 440-cubic-inch big block, and a compact Dodge Dart body were never supposed to end up in the same car, and yet somehow, a handful of 1968 buyers ordered exactly that combination. Dodge built the Dart GTS around a 340-cubic-inch V8 as standard equipment, a solid but modest performer for a car that size. Stuffing in the 440 Magnum turned the little Dart into something closer to a giant-killer, a compact street car with the torque of a full-size muscle machine and none of the extra weight. Only a tiny fraction of Darts ever received the 440 conversion at all, which is exactly why a clean, documented example sitting on a dealer’s lot is worth a second look.

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A Big Block Nobody Expected to Fit

Dodge built the Dart GTS around a 340-cubic-inch V8 as the standard engine for 1968, a well-regarded small block but hardly the stuff of legend. For the whole model year, Dodge produced roughly 24,100 Dart GT and GTS models equipped with a V8, and of the 8,295 GTS coupes and hardtops built that year, about 991 got the optional 383 – but the 440 Magnum was never a genuine assembly-line option at all. Dodge instead shipped 383-spec Darts and factory-prepped 440s to an outside shop, Hurst-Campbell, Inc., which handled the swap under inspection from Dodge itself, and only about 50 of these hybrid cars were ever built. That 440 Magnum was good for around 375 horsepower in a car that weighed barely over 3,000 pounds, turning a compact commuter platform into something that could embarrass considerably larger, more expensive muscle cars in a straight line.

Why the Four-Speed Matters as Much as the Motor

Most buyers who splurged on a big-block Dart GTS still leaned toward the TorqueFlite automatic for everyday street use, which makes a documented four-speed manual car meaningfully rarer than the already-scarce 440 option on its own. Collectors chasing an original engine-and-transmission combination like this one typically want to see the fender tag and broadcast sheet line up before taking a seller’s word for it, since decades of engine swaps and restorations have blurred the lines on plenty of surviving A-bodies. A clean example sitting on a dealer’s lot with documentation intact is the kind of find that’s genuinely hard to walk past.

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