Alaskan Thunder

 
The Story of this 69 Dart actually begins with the death of another. Carter Wirtz bought a 70 Sport Satellite from his sister when he was 11 years old. He drove it stock for many years, and finally in '98, he began a serious project to modernize the Satellite. 20 years after he bought the car, it was nearly finished. Carter, in the Air Force, was restationed to Alaska and had just a few days to gather his things. He finished assembling the car and handed it to the movers.
Upon arriving in Fairbanks, he learned the car had not been properly secured and left it's trailer. Carter's project Satellite was completely totaled before he put a single mile on it. After months of wrestling with insurance companies, he finally got a decent settlement, which included keeping the wrecked B-body.
With the drive train still intact, it was time to find something to put the fresh 440 into. A few months of searching yielded a decent 69 GTS clone, complete with a '69 vintage 340/727/8.75 combo.

 
With the major components in a pile, work began.


Moser cut the Satellite's old 8.75 down to 43" and 3.91's spin the 345/55 BFG Drag Radials. S&W ladder bars were used to hold it in place and Strange shocks provide some adjustability. 
Further up, Carter rebuilt the 727 with a Mancini kit, steel sprag, Cheetah manual valve body, and a 10" Fairbanks converter. A Derale pan and B&M Super Cooler keep the trans from slipping under torque.


Aluminum wheel tubs were installed to the factory width frame rails and the factory trunk hinges were moved in and use a gas strut system to tidy things up. A Summit 16 gallon cell supplies fuel to the BGfilter and Aerospace 350 pump.

 

The lower inner fenders were removed to help with cooling and access to the headers and plugs. The underside was painted with gloss black epoxy and the assembly began. A 74 Dart donated it's front disk brakes to replace the ailing Kelsey/Hayes system and all new urethane parts were used from Performance Suspension Components.
The firewall was mildly reworked and the heater was removed - in Alaska...
All electronics are now mounted under dash.
Next, a FirmFeel adapter helped make the switch to manual steering and the fiberglass fenders were fitted with Dzus fasteners for easy removal. WS Racing in Ohio built the 6" cowl hood, which Carter says is a top shelf job.
Almost everything was done by Carter himself -including the paint.

 

 
 
The interior houses Jaz racing buckets, a Grant wheel and Autometer tach. The remainder of the gauges are housed where the radio used to be and a B&M QuickSilver handles gear changes. A new headliner was installed and a few items to dress things up a bit. Believe it or not, the rest of the interior, including the back seat, is factory original.

 
After all this work, it was finally time to put the cherry on the cake. 

The heart from Carter's Satellite is a '68 440 bored .040. It contains a stock steel crank and polished and shot-peened LY rods with ARP  fasteners.
The 452 heads were Carter's first attempt at porting and retain the stock valves and rockers. Double springs and hardened lock were used along with Crane chrome-moly pushrods. A Crane hydraulic cam features 528/552 lift and 312/322 dur. It's topped off with a Torker 440 intake and 2" phenolic spacer. The Rupert-prepped 850 Holley flows near 1000cfm and is fed by a 1/2 aluminum line from the Aerospace pump.
The mix is fired by an underdash mounted 6AL and an  MSD billet distributor. Exhaust escapes through 2" CPPA headers and 3" exhaust with Flowmaster mufflers.
Cooling is handled by a 28" Howe radiator and Black Magic electric fan. The radiator was recessed into the support so the fan could stay on the engine side.

To date the car has run a best of 11.56@119
Future plans include 1.6 rockers, Edelbrock heads, Meziere pump, Dominator carb, roll cage and a little nitrous to wake everything up.
The car appears to be pretty lively already, but you know how gearheads are ...
If some is good, then more is better - and too much is just barely enough.

 

 
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