MR. NORM’S DODGE DART GSS: THE WHOLE STORY
It can be said that Bill Sefton, from a car guy standpoint, has lived a charmed life. How many car buffs have owned over 200 cars, most of them to-die-for performance cars, and presently his two daily drivers are a 2019 Corvette Z06 coupe and a 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat? Bill’s so-called charmed life was also filled with hard work and following his dream of owning some truly fabulous performance cars from the 60s and 70s.
Bill resides in Phoenix in the winters and Sawyer in Southwest Michigan in the summer. He grew up in the Chicago area and got his electrical engineering degree from Michigan State University. He’s married with one daughter and two grandkids. In 1988 he founded a company that contracted with banks to track credit cars loyalty programs. His success with the company enabled him to retire seven years ago at the age of 61.
His love of performance cars was forged early on. When he reached the driving age of 16 in 1967 it was the apex of the American muscle car era. Pretty much from the get-go he was a performance car buff and recalls with great joy being a young man who reveled in hearing the throaty roar of the V-8 engines and seeing the myriad of exciting muscle cars on the streets and highways in his hometown.
It should be no surprise that his first car was a performance pony car. A 1971 Ford Mach 1 purchase that he’s owned over 200 cars. As I alluded earlier Bill’s daily driver here in Michigan is the 2018 Dodge Challenger Hellcat with wide body option. For those not in the know, this is the pony car that has 707 horses under the hood. His daily steed out in Arizona is a 2019 Corvette Z06 coupe with 650 horses making noise under its fiberglass hood.
I asked Bill if he had a bias for MOPAR cars because, from first glance at the performance cars in his collection, there are a lot of Chrysler Corporation products. “I’m a brand X guy and like all American muscle cars,” he replied. He explained that if he does have a bias toward the MOPAR performance cars it’s because ChryCo has seemingly so many more choices for buyers such as Roadrunners, Chargers, Barracudas, Demons, Duster 340, etc. Bill went on to say that he collects two types of cars: dead stock and resto-mods “I like resto-rods because they have the looks of the old cars and the drivability of new cars.” For the uninitiated, a resto-mod automobile has been upgraded with improved suspension systems, fuel injection, radial tires, disc brakes, etc.
Over the past few years, Bill has whittled his once enormous collection of 160 performance vehicles to just 20 and most reside in the Chicago area. His eye-popping favorites include a 1967 Corvette (427/435), 1968 Super Stock Dodge Dart with race Hemi, 1968 Dodge Dart 340, 1969 Plymouth Barracuda Mod Top coupe (his Holy S**T car, people who know what it is are amazed to see the rare car, those who are unfamiliar say the same thing because they think it’s ugly), 1971 resto-mod Dodge Demon Hemi, 1969 resto-mod Mustang with Ford GT motor, 1978 Little Red Express PU with 360 V-8 (15,000 miles, all original survivor), 1971 Dodge Demon Super Stock (Chrysler was going to build and release this car but changed their mind — Bill got together with designer Tom Hoover and re-created it. It has a 426 “Wedge Motor.”) , 2011 Challenger Super Sctock (not streetable) with V-10 from Viper (Chrysler built 50 of them and Bill’s is №50. This Car was prepared by Roush.)
Does Bill have one special automobile in mind if he could have a “wish car” in his garage? No surprise here, he picked a current McLaren F1 streetable super car. The most beautiful car to Bill? His 1967 Corvette convertible with the 435 horsepower big V-8 under the hood. His pick of the 1968 Dodge Charger 4-speed Hemi R/T with bumblebee strip (black with red interior and red stripe) was the answer for his nominee for the most successful, iconic muscle car of all time.
Bill revealed that other car collectors referred to him as the “black hole.” For a long time, he never sold a single car from his collection. “Once I bought a car, eager potential buyers could look at it but I would never sell it.” This went on for 15 years after he started his collection in the late 1980s.
He did finally decide to whittle down his collection. In 2013 he asked Dana Mecum to handle the sale of 44 of his cars at the popular Indy Mecum affair. It took six Reliable Transport Company semi-trucks to deliver all the vehicles. By the way, Bill bought his cars at both auction houses like Russo and Stele, Mecum, RMSotheby’s, etc. and from private owners.
Bill in retirement keeps busy. He is one of the founding owners of the annual Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals that are held in Stephens Center in Chicago the weekend before Thanksgiving. This event attracts the best of the best muscle cars, stock or modified. Now in its 10th year, thousands of attendees make their way to this show. The organizers select the vehicles from the many submitted. Prizes and award are given. Bill has entered up to 18 cars per year to this show. Performance buffs unfamiliar with this successful event should visit www.mcacn.com and plan a trip to Chicago come November.
It should not come as a surprise that word of Bill’s fabulous collection reached members of the Gilmore Car Museum staff. For the ongoing Born to Perform: The Era of the Muscle Car presently on display at the Gilmore, Bill will be sharing his super rare and ultra-restores 1968 Dodge Dart GSS. For the uninitiated, the “G” stands for Grand, the “S” stands for Spaulding and the final “S” stands for either Sport or Special. The story behind the GSS is a fascinating one. Mr.Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge in Chicago (located at the corner of Grand and Spaulding Streets) was recognized nationwide as the headquarters for high-performance Dodges.
Mr. Norm urged the folks at Dodge to put a big block 440 cu. In/375 hp motor in their A-body Dart but was told that it couldn’t be done. He proved them wrong. His shop shoehorned the powerful motor in a Dart GTS and took it to Highland Park for show and tell. Voila, ChryCo decided to build the 440 Dart in 1968. Mr. Norm asked for exclusive rights to sell the powerful car buy ChryCo said no. A deal was struck that all dealers could sell the GSS if they committed to ordering 50 at a time. Perhaps not surprising, only Mr. Norm’s dealership made that commitment.
Forty-eight of the GSS Darts were built and only 13 are still in existence. To make the stock Dart GTS capable of receiving the big block 440, several modifications had to be made. Items like heavy-duty motor mounts, special exhaust manifold and a heat shield to protect the steering had to be used. Bill mentioned that the build sheet for his GSS shows at bottom the words “BUILD LESS END (engine,) TRANS (transmission,) CARB (carburetor) and AIR CLNR (air cleaner)”
The engine and transmission-less GTS body were shipped to Hurst for final assembly. Bill describes his black GSS with exclamations like “One of my dream cars!” and “I went nuts!” The “nuts” comment references his admission. That the restoration of the car took two and a half years. He considers the car “over-restored” and is proud of the fact that the car’s finish is almost like that of a mirror.
Of interest, model car maker Revell used Bill’s GSS to create a plastic model kit. Highway 51 also made a die-cast model of this car. On display with the GSS at Gilmore is a Revell model kit as sold some 51 years ago. Bill Sefton’s GSS and 19 other domestic muscle cars will be on exhibit at the Gilmore until the opening of the new muscle car museum building in the spring of 2021.
Article was written by Dar Davis. Dar is a volunteer in the museum library and former Excutive Director of the Krasl Art Center.