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Talk about BOLD! Chrysler blew everyone away with their ultimate NASCAR
warrior, the Charger Daytona. The Charger had been Dodge’s NASCAR racer since
‘66 with the big-block Fords running very close for years. Race car aerodynamics
was exploding with new ideas in the mid-to- late ‘60s and the designers at
Chrysler were paying close attention. They made a huge adjustable wing for the
back of the car and a new nose clip in the shape of a big wedge with rounded off
sides. Since car makers had to sell what they raced, there was a street version
that people either loved or hated.
There’s no doubt about it, this car
was over the top! The Charger Daytona was available with either a 440 Magnum or
426 Hemi engine. For the street, either power plant was more than enough. But
the Hemis were notoriously hard on drive trains and many of the winged Dodges
were ordered with the less expensive, easier to live with 440 engine. The
following year, Plymouth got into the game with their winged warrior based on
the Road Runner body, and called the “Superbird.” Like the Dodge, it was a
love-it or hate-it kind of car.
But by ‘71 the party was over. Muscle
cars quickly were becoming socially unacceptable and NASCAR was pulling in the
reins on the winged machines with restrictor plates between the Hemi engine’s
intake manifold and big Holley carb. The net result was the Mopar wing machines
that weren’t competitive. Not because of anything lacking in the Mopar designs,
it was the interference of NASCAR There was growing concern in NASCAR over the
200-plus miles-per-hour speeds the winged cars were reaching.
The
Chrysler winged cars was a classic example of racing advancements filtering down
into production cars. Today, Eclipses, Celicas, and Civics can be seen sporting
big wings on their rear deck lids... shades of NASCAR circa
1969-70.
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