On July 27 Charlie Glotzbach lapped the Chelsea oval at 204 mph. Track testing at Chelsea continued in parallel with production of the 500 copies needed to meet NASCAR’s requirements. Planned as a 1970 model, a bomb dropped on the engineering staff when the introduction date was pushed up to September, the date of the 500 mile race at the brand new superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama. Excessive turbulence at the windshield corners was tamed with wind deflectors on the a-pillars. They cut out the offending fender areas and added bumps for a little more clearance. Running with the nose down helped reduce lift but caused the front wheels to rub the fender tops at speed. The height of the wing was set not by aerodynamics but by the simple realization that it had to clear the rear deck lid when it was opened. Working simultaneously in the wind tunnel and trying promising changes on the Chelsea test track the solution was found: a wing mounted on tall pylons at the very back of the rear deck. Conventional wisdom would counter that with a rear deck spoiler but in practice it would have to be so large most if not all of the advantage created by the nose would be lost. Two teams of Chrysler designers came up with essentially the same conclusion: replace the Charger’s ring bumper with an extended aerodynamic nose cone and a low front spoiler.It worked, but it also exacerbated the nose lift problem. The Chrysler designers went back to the drawing boards and reviewed their data from wind tunnel testing. They completely dominated the Charger at Daytona in 1969. It also prompted Ford to unveil its counterparts, the Torino Talladega and Cyclone Spoiler. It was the Charger Daytona 500, with flush grille and extended fastback rear glass worth a minimum of five mph. The new 1968 Charger hardtop was a beautiful, sleek, design but it wasn’t aerodynamic enough. Rather than creating limited production aerodynamic bodies (like the fastback Charger) Chrysler turned to its design studios with the objective of creating a production car that was aerodynamic on the track but also stylish and handsome on the showroom floor. The dominance of Ford was more than Chrysler could countenance.
Ford responded in 19 with the Holman-Moody Fords driven by David Pearson. Chrysler came back in 1967, dominating the season in his Plymouth. Ford withdrew in 1966 citing the Hemi’s advantage, then came back when NASCAR allowed them dual 4-barrel carbs. NASCAR banned the Hemis in 1965, then relented. Richard Petty’s pole-winning speed for the 500 was more than 13 mph faster than his pace in 1963. To minimize development time and costs it was based on the basic dimensions of the 413/426 wedge block so it could be machined on existing tooling.Working with a nearly impossibly short deadline, the 1964 Daytona 500, Chrysler’s program was a success, with Hemi powered Plymouths taking the top three places and five of the top ten. In late 1962 Townsend gave the go-ahead to create a second generation Hemi. The story goes, too, that Chrysler Chairman Lynn Townsend’s teenage sons were coming back from Woodward Avenue and giving their dad the word that his company’s products were nowhere. Chrysler, GM and Ford deployed fabulous, exotic engines – the porcupine head Chevy, the Dodge and Plymouth 426 Wedge, Ford’s threatened sohc 427 – while NASCAR, NHRA, USAC and an alphabet soup of other sanctioning bodies and promoters fiddled with rules to try to keep one brand from running off with everything, keep the cars looking like something fans could buy in the showroom on Monday and keep one step ahead of the imaginative ways cagey guys like Dale Inman, Smokey Yunick and Bud Moore came up with to gain an advantage over their competition.The most egregious example of manufacturers’ specialization to meet NASCAR and USAC production requirement is Chrysler’s 1963 creation of the second generation Hemi engine and then putting it into the wildest automobiles ever offered to the general public, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona and the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird.Ĭhrysler was getting hammered on the NASCAR ovals and the NHRA strips in the early Sixties. Ford, Chrysler and GM deployed teams of engineers, drivers, mechanics to devise technical advantages and finesse the rules makers.In the late Sixties the focus was on engines and power. These were the days of all-out, no holds barred, performance. "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was never more important than in the years that crossed the intersection of the Sixties and the Seventies.
The Story Behind Cotton Owens' Dodge Daytona and the Legendary Hemi that Powered Buddy Baker to a New Record 1973 NASCAR Race Car Construction Guidelines.
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