Mike and Tina's Car Adventures
WELCOME
Here I will tell the stories of Mike and Tina Dawson, our life with 1970 Dodge Darts, and the epic road trip plans that we have made and are taking in our retirement. In a nutshell, we have travelled all across America and some of Canada throughout our lives and hatched a plan a few years ago to build another 1970 Dart, basically from scratch, for this particular purpose - to carry us on more epic adventures. Our First Big Trip will start near our home on Vashon Island, Washington (a rural place out in Puget Sound between Seattle and Tacoma). Starting in June 2023 we will start at the end of the Pacific Coast Highway near Olympia, travel down the coast to Santa Monica, California, take Route 66 to Chicago, and then the Lincoln Highway to Philadelphia. On the East Coast we will visit friends and family, and take the car to the big national Chrysler car shows, in the US and Canada. We will store the car for several months and return in the summer of 2024 to do those shows again, and then do the same 5000-mile trip back across the country and up the coast to home. We will be posting our adventures along the trip on this site.
MIKE & TINA’S LIFE with
1970 DODGE DARTS
So how did we get here - A retired couple finishing up restoration and modification of their THIRD 1970 Dodge Dart?
In 1970, Mike's Dad decided it was time to trade in the family’s 1965 Dart 270 and took Mike to Smith Motor Co., a Dodge dealership in Whitemarsh Maryland. There was a Plum Crazy purple Dart 340 Swinger on a turntable in the showroom and Mike got on his knees and BEGGED his dad to buy the car. They ended up getting a white 1970 Dart Custom 2-door hardtop with a 318. When his dad went to trade it in, Mike gave him $500 and it became his first car - a car that he and Tina dated in in high school and college, and took on their honeymoon when they got married in 1976. That car is the modified 340 Dart that Mike still takes to car shows to this day – completely rebuilt twice and closing in on 200,000 miles.
In 1989 when they were still living in Southwest Virginia, Mike saw an ad in Hemmings Motor News for a 1970 Dart Swinger with only 27,000 miles on the clock for $2500. They drove to central Tennessee, bought the car and drove it home expecting to use it as daily transportation until it became a parts car for the other Dart. In 1998 rather than abandon it to that fate, they restored the car to original condition, warmed over the 318 and automatic trans for more zip, and it became their first show car. It still has only 85,000 miles on the clock after 53 years on the road.
Mike and Tina have always driven their Darts. In the mid 70s to the mid 80s they were the only cars they had. Now they go on trips and go to car shows from British Columbia to Oregon. Driving the cars and sharing them with other people is the best part of having them. Trailers are for boats. ​ Mike had this vision of epic road trips in an old Dart as a large part of his retirement. In 2002 Mike was on the ferry from Vashon to Southworth and spotted a rare 1970 Dart GT that was obviously someone’s daily driver. He waited for the owner and gave him his card and asked him to call if he wanted to sell it. So began his friendship with Scott Starr and his association with the All Around Mopars car club. Scott sold him the car a couple years later and after driving it around for a couple years it went into hibernation in the back corner of Mike’s garage. Whenever anybody asked, he told them it was his retirement project. When he retired in 2018, they decided to unite the two dreams and restore the car specifically as a long-distance road trip car. It took 2 and a half years to tear the car down to an empty shell and rebuild literally every system in the car inside a completely restored shell.
In June of 2023 it went on its first big road trip: starting at the end of the Pacific Coast Highway (101) in Olympia. They headed 1500 miles to Santa Monica CA and the west end of Rt 66. After following 66 for 2600 miles to Chicago, the last leg was 800 miles on the Lincoln Highway to Philadelphia. On the East Coast Mike participated in the Chrysler Nationals in Carlisle, PA, the Mopar Nationals in Columbus OH and Moparfest in Ontario, the largest Chrysler show in Canada. After storing the car with relatives in PA, they will attend this whole round of shows in Summer of 2024 and then head West on roughly the same route – 5000 miles back home. Epic Road Trip indeed! ​ ​
