Car Craft 340 Dart Swinger
Car Craft teamed with Dodge and numerous advertisers in 1969 to prepare this nifty Dart Swinger 340 giveaway. For maximum exposure, mismatched wheels were used. The rears are Cragar S/S composite 14×6 die-cast aluminum and steel—small-bolt-pattern Mopar Cragars were never offered with a 15-inch hoop diameter. The Cragar name is a mash-up of Depression-era investor Crane Gartz’ first and last names. Up front, what initially appear to be American Torq-Thrusts are actually Cragar Swinger wheels. New for 1969, the Swinger, also marketed as the S/X, was Cragar’s first one-piece, all-aluminum five-spoke. Visually, the Swinger emulated the Torq-Thrust’s one-piece cast appearance but with subtle differences. First, the center cap lacks mounting ears. Cragar devised internal mounts using five screws to secure the caps from the inside of the rim, making removal impossible with the wheel on the car. A round plate with a single machine screw to keep them in place retained Cragar S/S centers. The Swinger wheel is not to be confused with the Cragar G/T, which was an unpolished five-spoke that emulated the no-nonsense look of magnesium racing wheels—at one fifth the price. Introduced in 1967, the G/T used an unpolished steel hoop with a die-cast aluminum five-spoke center spider that differed from the S/S in that it extended all the way to the edge of the rim hoop.