The compact yet fire-breathing LO23 Hemi Dart is one of the landmark models from '60s-era Dodge. It's an A-body drag-racing special that began life as a 1968 Dart GTS hardtop, already an incredible machine capable of 275 or 300 horsepower, depending on whether it's fitted with a standard 340-cubic-inch small-block V8 tuned for efficiency or Mopar's 383ci big-block engine designed to deliver high performance. With a bit of Hurst Performance magic, it turned into a celebrated drag racer that rips.
Dodge adapted the LO23 Hemi Dart for National Hot Rod Association Super Stock, which required cars to weigh no more than 6.99 pounds per horsepower. As a result, the LO23 included a raft of weight-saving measures to make it as lightweight as possble. Instead of steel hoods and fenders, the Hurst-built Dart featured fiberglass hood and fenders. It also got acid-dipped steel doors with thin side window glass held in place by adjustable seatbelt straps instead of standard window regulators. And it sacrificed a lot of amenities, including rear seats, center console, armrests, sound-deadening material, outside mirrors, heater, radio, and carpets. The result? A well-engineered car that ended up weighing around 3,000 pounds.
It was a job well done, but Dodge wasn't quite done crafting prodigious power. The engineers threw in a cross-ram race-spec 426 Hemi engine -- a Jalopnik readers' favorite -- spitting out 425 horsepower and 490 pound-feet of torque. That much power in such a compact, lightweight car brought significant acceleration gains, with the stripped-down Dart taking around 10 seconds to clear the quarter mile.
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Dodge Only Made 80 LO23 Hemi Darts
By the time Hurst Performance finished modifying Dodge Hemi Darts for Chrysler at its facility in Madison Heights, Michigan, there were 80 of the muscle cars in total. So the LO23 is a rare and sought-after collector's car that requires deep pockets to own whenever it becomes available. In their original forms, these cars sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, evidenced by one car tracked by Classic, which fetched $200,000 the last time it changed hands, in 2023 -- a substantial increase from the $4,500 the L023 originally sold for in 1968.
If you can get hold of one, it should typically come with front disc brakes -- the L023 Hemi Dart was the first Dodge package to offer this feature -- and either an A-833 four-speed manual or 727 TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission. You'll also find that the regular front seats in the Dart GTS have been replaced, with lighter Bostrum seats borrowed from the Dodge A100 van (each weighing 24 pounds) taking their place.
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