Dodge Dart Swinger 340

Swinger 340 at a glance

The price-first Dart

The Swinger name arrived for 1969 on a new two-door Dart hardtop, offered in Custom, GT and GTS trim, and the Swinger 340 was added the same year. The idea mirrored Plymouth's Road Runner at compact scale: take the cheapest suitable body, fit the strongest small-block, and leave out the comfort trim that pushed up the price. At about US$2,836 in 1969 it was the cheapest way into a Dodge with the 340; another account simply puts it below US$2,900 in 1969.

The interior was plain, with a vinyl bench seat as standard. Bucket seats, a console, a 6,000 rpm tachometer and Rallye wheels were extras. Dodge spent the money where it showed on the road: the Rallye suspension, wide E70-14 tyres, dual exhaust, a twin-scoop bonnet, 340 emblems and a bumblebee stripe around the tail. By 1970 the four-speed manual cost US$188 and a Sure Grip limited-slip differential US$39.

What the 340 gave a light hardtop

The 340 was a bored-out version of the 318 small-block with a four-barrel carburettor and 10.5:1 compression. Its 205 kW (275 hp) rating was widely seen as conservative, and the engine's 461 Nm (340 lb-ft) of torque came at 3,200 rpm, low enough for brisk starts on the narrow tyres of the time. In a hardtop of about 1,497 kg (3,300 lb), the Swinger 340 carried roughly 7.3 kg per kW (12 lb per hp), our own calculation from the test weight.

Bud Lindemann tested a 1969 car for the Car and Track television programme and measured 3.2 seconds to 30 mph and 7.3 seconds to 60 mph, with a 45 mph slalom pass. He called the car "a ton and a half of go" and summed up the engine as "340 cubes to happy land". The four-speed car he also drove was quicker, though the published account gives no figures for it. Lindemann's footage also shows less body roll than viewers expected from a 1960s muscle car.

1969 and 1970: two seasons, two specifications

The 1969 car used the A-body Dart of 1967-1968 with a new grille and trim. The Swinger 340 outsold the Dart GTS by more than two to one that year: 16,637 against 6,702.

For 1970 the GTS was gone and the Swinger 340 became the only performance Dart. Dodge made front disc brakes standard on it, kept the 3.23:1 axle as the base ratio and charged US$43 for power assistance. Sales fell to 13,785; a Galen Govier breakdown quoted by owners gives 13,781, with 10,382 sold in the United States.

US transmission choices in 1970 split as follows: 955 floor-shift three-speed manuals, 4,423 four-speed manuals and 5,004 automatics, according to the same breakdown.

Why the Swinger 340 ended

For 1971 Dodge moved its compact performance car to a new body. The fastback Demon 340, a Dodge twin of the Plymouth Duster 340, took the Swinger 340's place in the US range, and the Swinger hardtop continued with the 318 V8 as its biggest engine. The change gave Dodge a direct counterpart to the Duster, which had been on sale since the 1970 model year.

Canada kept the Swinger 340 alive in small numbers. In 1971 Chrysler built 83 Swinger 340 Specials under order code Y39 for two Canadian dealers, with two more cars going to a third, and in 1972 another 24 followed, with 254 mm (10 in) drum brakes, heavy-duty anti-roll bars and an 8 3/4 in rear axle with 3.23:1 gears. Mopar Connection Magazine counts 28 confirmed survivors from 1971 and 15 documented cars from 1972.

Swinger 340 today: what to check

The Govier figures cited by owners show that every 1970 Swinger 340 VIN begins LM23H0R, with LM23 marking the 340 hardtop. The ordinary Swinger, coded LL23, is the usual base for clones, because the body is identical. Badges, stripes and the scoop bonnet are easy to add, so the VIN and fender tag decide what the car is. The Canadian Specials carry LL23 VINs with order code Y39 on the paperwork, which is the reverse case: a genuine 340 car with a base-model VIN.

Chevrolet's period answer at a similar price was the Nova SS, the compact the Swinger 340 was most often measured against. Each Dart version of 1969-1970 has a separate record in the Dodge catalogue, and the low-priced end of the class is described in the American muscle car guide.