Dodge 3700
The Dodge 3700 is a model of luxury car manufactured by the Spanish company Barreiros between 1971 and 1977. It was presented in May 1971 at the Barcelona Motor Show.
In 1963, Eduardo Barreiros reached an agreement with the American company Chrysler Corporation to manufacture cars in Spain. Two cars would be the first to be manufactured by Barreiros; Dodge Dart in 1965 as high-end vehicle and a year later the Simca 1000.
Under Spanish law of the time, cars made in this country, should be constructed of materials and components manufactured in Spain, although for the first units, the government allowed that they had an important part and decreasing instead of imported items (racks and bodies as major elements).
Under current law, the manufacture of Barreiros Villaverde (Madrid), was prepared to build with items imported from Dodge in the United States, the 1000 Dodge Dart and Simca models. 20,000 units chassis and body were imported from the United States for these models between 1965 and 1966.
Soon, Barreiros realized that 20,000 units were far from the reality of sales in Spain, since the first year only sold 742 units of the Dodge Dart made the 1,200 and the second 6,399 of the 8,000 manufactured, and as worst sales year was 1967 Dart, where only 2,745 units were sold.
Due to poor sales, Barreiros accumulated significant losses in 1967 forced the company to expand its capital, so Chrysler became the majority shareholder in Barreiros.
In 1969, Mario Gamarra, head designer and author of almost every truck cabs manufactured by Barreiros, suggested making a new car, barely making investment and with existing items. In that year the Dodge Dart was born 69 version, being an only Spanish Dart on the front, and in the case of GT in many other details. Some exterior details of the model are also changed, as the headlights, front grille and roof Vinyl in the GT.
These changes paid off and sales are enough to exhaust relaunched between 1969 and 1970 the stock of items imported between 1965 and 1966.
In 1969 and due to poor performance of the company, Eduardo Barreiros and his brothers left the company in 1969, selling its shares to Chrysler and renamed Chrysler Spain SA
Once finished stocks of the original Dart, to continue manufacturing the Dodge had two options: Proceed to the full nationalization of the company, or propose a new automobile, taking advantage of factory in Villaverde had a major machinery whose function was to build elements Dodge mechanics, and to amortize it should continue manufacturing cars in the same mechanics.
Therefore, the decision to continue to build a car that was basically the same as the Dart was taken, but in turn, was to be a new car.
Thus was born in 1971, the 3700 Dodge curiously had no correspondence in your body with American models, and it was the same as that developed by Chrysler for its Dodge Polara models manufactured in Argentina since 1968, but also suffered some cosmetic changes that differentiated.
Dodge 3700 model two versions, simplified, called 3700 and had gearbox three-speed lever on the steering wheel and front bench seat, and another called GT 3700 with gearbox 4 speed and is best performed interior finishes. The 3700 GT was the best selling model by far.
In March 1973, the 3700 GT model with automatic transmission is offered.
The 3700 GT was elected Car of the Year in 1971 and had a major sales success, especially for its attractive line and good behavior on the road, but since 1973, the oil crisis, these vehicles became seen with objections by users due to its high consumption.
The Dodge Boulevard emerged in Spain an initiative of Pedro Serra bodybuilder Catalan and Italian designer Michele Liprandi (author LMX Sirex model) to build a coupe based on Dodge Dart, Serra Liprandi technology and become known in the lounge of Automobile Barcelona 1970 and agreed to design a muscular body coupe based on the Dodge Dart technology manufactured by Barreiros in Spain. The project is realized in 1971 with the approval of Chrysler Spain (former Barreiros) to coincide with the launch of the 3700 Dodge. Boulevard step made with mechanical and interior design elements 3700. Was a model designation Dodge to sell (to facilitate the approval and therefore their permission traffic on Spanish roads) between 1971 and 1974 with many difficulties due to pressure from the government of Spain that Serra became a builder and not a mere manufacturer body. The oil crisis finally derail a pretty pattern but too "thirsty" that came to be built about 18 units.
Sources:
The December 20, 1973, Admiral and Spanish Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco, killed in an attack aboard his official car, a Dodge 3700 GT where he lost his life when placed in its path and exploded, 150kg of Goma 2 (divided into three batches of 50kg) by the terrorist group ETA, in the so-called Operation Ogre.
The remains of the 3700 GT Carrero Blanco was placed in the Army Museum in Madrid, where for a decade could be seen in one of its rooms, until the mid-1980s were transferred to the Army Museum in Toledo, where they remain stored in a basement, with no public access.
Dodge 3700 units produced