COPPER HEAD

THE DAY YOU PLUCK IT FROM A ROW

of cars at the local dealership, can you ever really know that it will be your forever car? Many don’t. We get the feeling that Bill Stanfield did. “We bought it June 26, 1969, from Blackwell Motor Company in Danville, Virginia,” wife Laura Stanfield recalls. The Dart was painted Y4 Gold (Bill’s preferred hue) and came with a four-speed stick, black bench-seat interior, black tail stripe, and little else. “We bought it a few weeks after our son Tony was born. Bill traded cars a lot.”

But somehow this Dart Swinger 340 is the one that stayed. It’s easy to understand why: Space across two bench seats made ample room inside for Bill, Laura, and sons Tony and Brian, perfect for the Stanfield family; a 275-horse, 10.5:1 compression 340 under the hood backed by a Hurst-shifted four-speed satisfied Bill’s need for speed; and the car’s low $2,819 price to start. Cheap, fast, fit everyone inside… this ’69 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 was all the car Bill needed.

In its decade of regular use, and the 140,000-odd miles racked up therein, the Stanfields accumulated a lifetime of stories that have become