TIP O’ THE SPEAR

For Mark Somma, this long-term ’68 Dart project was the culmination of blood, sweat, gears... and a highball or two.

Looking almost like a period show car, Mark Somma’s Dart was born to run and took 20 years to complete after he bought the fuel injectors.

Mark Somma.

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EGENDARY SOUTHERN ROCKERS the Allman Brothers once sang a bluesy tune called,

L“Dreams I’ll Never See.” Molly Hatchet stepped it up a notch a decade or so later with a heavier rendering and made it a hit. About 10 years ago, this 1968 Dodge Dart GTS tribute was about to become just that for Mark Somma, after a lengthy stay in body shop prison to get the sheetmetal tuned up.

Now, you can see from “them purty pho-tos” here that the car was finally done, after over a decade and a couple of stints in storage trying to find the next builder. We caught up with Mark at the Mopar Nats when he had the just-finished car on display in the HDKbacked celebrity tent, where Denny and John Laube host the best of the best each year. Mark had bought the 225-CI GT-trim car 18 years earlier, and he already knew he was in for some sweat equity when he got it.

“I had always wanted a ’68, and this one was local. It was a western Pennsylvania car, and that meant rustier than hell,” he grimaces. “It needed frame rails, floors, trunk floor, trunk extensions, quarter panels. The first body shop had it five or six years! Finally, the guy calls me up and says, ‘Uh, I can’t work on your car anymore.’ And this after I’ve already paid him, of course.”

Dart now hosts 340 mill—stock displacement, standard build with Edelbrock aluminum heads, Doug’s headers, rare smallblock Mope Hilborn injectors converted with self-tuning Holley EFI setup. Custom opening in Dart GTS hood was edged with custom-milled metal surround made by Ross Gordon. Car is all steel.

Still, the sheetmetal is now basically done, so Mark picks up the car and puts it back into storage. A buddy, Todd McKillop, does body work on the side, and agrees to get on it next. That effort finds the widened tubs put into it and the car is in primer, but Todd also has a situation and needed to let go, and the undone car again… yes, again, gets moved to storage.

“That time, it was back in storage for six years,” he says. “So, one day, I was talking with Denny (Laube), and he said, ‘why don’t you call and see if Mark Boutwell can do it.’ Boutwell Customs had it for three years and he’s the one who finally got that done.”

Now, we know you are dying to ask, “hey, what’s up with those injectors!” We were, too. The truth may seem stranger than fiction, because Mark bought the injectors first, then chased both an LA engine and an A-body car to use them on! The reality is, these vintage smallblock Mopar Hilborn units are tough to find, and

Mark had stepped up for a big cash hit when he found this set back in about 1990. “I bought this intake manifold and paid $1,200 for 20 years ago. At that time, I said to myself, I’m going to build an A-body, and I’m using this intake on it. So, the intake manifold was my idea for the car.”

As many people know, those old mechanical stack injectors can be a real pain to get tuned right, especially for street use. For that reason, Mark sent the scarce iron down to Fran Olsen in North Carolina. Fran prepped them for this project, blueprinted the mechanicals, and added Holley HP EFI to them. In the meantime, Jim Pranis of Penn Hill, PA, was busy putting the touches on a stockdisplacement 340 engine. That included Eddy heads, Doug’s headers feeding a stainless steel exhaust, mostly OEM internals, MSD ignition, and a Holley electric fuel pump in a new tank to keep the injectors fed. The battery is also in the trunk now. Mark says the finished package tagged the dyno needle at 390 ponies.

Mark has had other cars, many of them 2G Hemi powered, but this one would be a cruiser. To that end, Jamie Passon supplied one of his 5-speed manual builds to go in behind the crankshaft, and Mark opted for a narrowed Dana 60 with 4,10 gears and Moser axles out back. Hey, you can never have a tough enough rear, right?

Suspension changes included the HDK front end swap with a power rack-and-pinion and QA1 shocks, better factory springs

It’s ain’t stock, and Mark has provenance…

Interior is mostly OE with white factory buckets, stock dash design, no console. Floor shifter has 5-speed knob for Passon crashbox beneath.

and Monroe shocks out back, and Wilwood front disc brakes. The exterior was finally finished and Mark Boutwell and Chad Rentz sprayed the body with PPG factory red. The hood opening for the injectors has a custom surround made by his good friend Ross Gordon, and Mark added his own custom Sox & Martin-themed decals under the GTS front quarter trim. The interior is stock in pearl white material, and the finishing touch was period-look Cragar S/S wheels and black wall M/T tires. Finally, a special thanks to buddy Tod Hoffmann, who handled the wiring for the project, including the EFI stuff.

Rear tubs let fat Mickey Thompson 295/65R/15 tires and Cragar wheels fit underneath. One look out back and you know this one is not a stocker.

There’s one more thing—a little button when you open the trunk is labeled “VODKA”. When the bar is open, a coiled tube that looks like it came off right off of Grandpappy’s still (“That thar road goes up to it, but it don’t come back!”) is attached to a small outlet below the left taillamp and fresh martinis can be mixed at will, you know, for friends or medicinal purposes.

It was a long time coming, but once done, Mark’s Dart really…hit the mark! Bullseye! Arrow straight! To the point! …Go ahead, Mark; mix me up another one!

“Hey, bartender…”