The '65 AWB Hemi car was good, but the competition was growing stronger. Other Funny Cars were sporting supercharged engines, nitromethane fuel, and other tricks. To maintain his edge, Dick had to make a stout forward leap. He did just that with a radically designed '66 Dodge Dart. This car featured a more sophisticated chassis and a considerably lighter racing weight than the '65 fullsize Dodge it replaced. It was also powered by a Landy-built 426 Hemi that sported Hilborn mechanical fuel injectors with long ram tubes and a healthy percentage of nitromethane mixed with alcohol. Dick's engines were plenty powerful, and on marginal tracks he was often forced to detune to get a grip.
The new '66 Dart proved itself quickly. Dick enjoyed a competitive edge that lasted until Ford's Lincoln-Mercury Division raised the bar with the first of its fiberglass-bodied, flip-top, Logghe tube chassis, SOHC 427-powered Mercury Comet Cyclones. This first car was assigned to Dick's old rival, Dyno Don Nicholson. Soon after, several other regionally-based factory Mercury drivers received their own Logghe cars, and the face of Funny Car racing changed forever. The new tube chassis cars suddenly obsoleted all the A/FX/Funny Car modified entries with their lightweight and powerful new 427 SOHC engine.
NHRA still failed to correctly grasp the importance of Funny Cars as an exclusive eliminator category. Those cars that showed for NHRA events were exiled into Super Eliminator, where they were up against roadsters, altereds, and dragsters rather than other Funny Cars. Meanwhile, Dick and the other Funny Car racers were busy making money running match races and open competition Funny Car races. Funny Cars were not seen on the now-televised NHRA races, and this caused concern among the boys in marketing who were not happy about the lost opportunity to expose their showroom musclecar products.
The edict came down, and Chrysler regrouped their factory-supported racing program by moving more to the types of vehicles available in dealership showrooms. This new development allowed Dick and the other Mopar factory racers to hang up their aluminized fire suits and focus more on competing with gasoline and carburetors. The change suited Dick just fine.
It was during this period that Chrysler also created their roving Performance Seminars, an ingenious program that packaged factory-sponsored racers and their crews with shiny, new Super Stock race cars supported by literature on do-it-yourself performance modifications to Chrysler vehicles. Dodge and Plymouth performance and race products were displayed, and seminars were conducted on how to modify, prepare, and tune Mopars for drag racing competition. The dealership sites provided the backdrop and the racer stars supplied the knowledge to an eager audience of Mopar faithful.
The Performance Seminars were staffed by racers in various geographic locations in the U.S. Out west, Dick Landy's own brand of showmanship made his clinics and programs among the most popular. Dandy Dick was well versed in presenting the image desired by the Chrysler factory brass. The announcement that the Dick Landy Dodge Performance Seminar would appear at a dealership meant an overflow crowd, hundreds of new Dick Landy fans, a tremendous boost in the image of Chrysler Corporation, and, most important of all, a notable rise in the sales of both new vehicles and performance parts.
Although the Performance Clinics meant extensive travel, Dick and his crew thrived on the schedule and always managed to put in a racing appearance at any local or regional events in the dealership's location. He also continued his entries at major NHRA and AHRA events, running a team of Super Stocks and capturing eliminators in the process. His flagship vehicle had by then become a Dodge Dart, Super Stock A car. This was one of the fabled Hemi Darts and Barracudas built under contract to Chrysler by Hurst-Campbell.