My 1969 Dart GTS was born on September 17, 1968 at the Hamtramck Mi plant. Originally an L1 beige car with a V1T tan vinyl top and an R6 red interior. The car was delivered to Penner’s in Winnipeg. About a year later, my uncle Jim Clayton was in the market for a new Dodge Dart. He wanted a 340 car and preferred the 69s over the restyled 70 Dart. Perhaps due to the unfortunate color combination, this car was where his search ended as this late in the year there were not a lot of cars left to choose from.I have no memory of a time when this car didn’t exist (I was less than a year old when he bought it), it was just what my uncle drove, a Dodge with a loud engine! Then one Sunday afternoon when I was about 14 my dad and my uncle went for a ride in the Dart to pick my older brother up from his part time job. As my uncle pulled off a side road onto a busy stretch of the Perimeter Highway, he let that 340 do what it was supposed to do to get up to speed and blend with traffic. I will never forget the first time I felt the force of being pushed back in the seat from the acceleration, or that wonderful sound of a small block dodge winding out!!! It was incredible and for the first time in my life I was in love. From that day forward I knew I had to have that car. Like so many owners of old muscle cars in need of attention, my uncle planned to fix it up one day. However after four years of "Is your car for sale?" he knew I would give it the home it deserved and parted company with the GTS. At the age of 18 it was mine.

Two years later it was repainted R6 red and a black vinyl top installed. Never did get to the interior, I bought my first house and life took over, you know how it goes. My GTS is mostly original, and any changes are reversible, but also could have been original to the car. The color is the red it would have been had it been red from the factory. The drum brakes are gone and in their place are the correct four piston disc brakes (off another 69 GTS). The column shift is also gone and replaced with a console from a 69 GT. The tired but numbers matching 340 still lives under the hood with 132,000 miles on it. and the original torqueflite transmission was rebuilt with a stage 2 shift kit. After 20 years and several different addresses on the registration card, my GTS now has a new garage to call home, and is soon to be at the beginning of a complete ground up restoration. I am working at saving some money before I start to keep the down time to a minimum and at least be able to enjoy it in the meanwhile. I haven’t decided what is in store for the future for it, I am a little torn between a correct restoration (although it will never wear beige again) and adding some improvements to make it a really nice driver. I would like to thank you for the opportunity so share my dream with the members of the MMA and am fortunate to have the knowledge and expertise of so many Mopar enthusiasts so close at hand. I will keep you all posted as things progress.

Ray Landygo