When where Daytonas built? Any special days?

Thanks,
Bob

I'm pretty sure they were only built on days ending in Y.

Bob, that I think is a two answer question because the Charger 500 was used to make the Daytonas and then taken over to Creative Industries to be finished with the nose, wing and.......also I think in order to meet the NASCAR homologation they needed to have 500 of them done by a certain date (hence the "500" of the Charger "500") This may be completely wrong but that's what I'm going with seeing that there's only been one good reply...beside mine...."days that end in a Y".... oh now I get it


MikeR

Maybe look here: http://www.wwnboa.org/

MikeR

In 1968, Dodge had created a beautiful new body design, but that design had problems on the super speedways. For 1969, Dodge wanted to fix some of the problems that prevented their Charger from being as successful as they had hoped. Designers proceeded to bring the headlights and grille forward and eliminate the hollow air dam up front. In the area of the rear window, they added a plug that was raked from the roof line to half-way back on the trunk deck, with the trunk lid being shortened to accommodate the window plug. To make the car legal for racing, rules at that time stipulated that 500 units be built, and that was the reason for the name "Charger 500".

The Charger 500 was faster and had definite advantages over the regular Charger. However, it was still not as slick and fast as the new for 1969 modifications that Ford had put on their Torino and Mercury Cyclones to create the Ford Talladegas and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II's. The sad fact for Chrysler was that the Dodge Charger 500's were still being beaten regularly by the Ford products.

Chrysler racing powers-that-be decided that it was time to remove all stops and create a machine--no matter how exotic or expensive--that could beat the Talladegas and Spoiler II's. Thus, the birth of the Dodge Charger Daytona came half-way through the 1969 season.

To test the new design and find out what worked best, extensive wind tunnel and track testing was conducted. However, in 1969, neither Chrysler nor any other auto maker for that matter owned a wind tunnel. To test the new design, Dodge engineers borrowed the wind tunnel facilities at the Huntsville, Alabama Space and Rocket Center that had been used to test rocket designs for NASA. *

*WW/NBOA wishes to thank Dick Lajoie of Chrysler Corporation, who recently provided the following facts to set the record straight on some information found in this section:

"It is not (or was not) the Alabama Space and Rocket Center; it was called the George C Marshall Space Flight Center, and we worked for the Chrysler Space Division under contract with NASA, not to work on rockets but rather on the Apollo-Saturn Space Program. There was never a wind tunnel in Huntsville to do any kind of car testing. Some testing was accomplished in Huntsville, but this was on full-sized cars and this was done at the old airport. All the full-sized car aero tests were done at the then new Lockheed-Marietta low speed wind tunnel. Interestingly, Chrysler was the first company to test in this facility. In fact, the first test required the car to be dropped through the ceiling in a very precarious angle (45 deg.)!"

The design for the Charger Daytona had started out as a Charger 500 and incorporated the aerodynamic improvements in that design. To the front of the 500 was added a shark shaped nose that sliced through the air more efficiently. To the rear of the vehicle was added a wing that was like an upside down airplane wing whose angle of attack could be adjusted. Studies indicated that at speed, that wing could add as much as 600 pounds of down-force on the rear wheels of the vehicle, thus countering the lift effect on the rear at high speeds.

Incidentally, tests indicated that the wing did not really need to be two feet above the deck. The same effect could be achieved with a wing only a few inches off the deck. The extreme height of the wing was chosen primarily for it's psychological impact on competition.**The upright also helped serve as a rudder to help keep the car running straight. Also, the extreme height of the wing made it possible for the trunk deck lid on the Daytona to open.

**"The other faux pas [in this section] was the comment that the wing height was based on 'psychological' reasons....not so! Actually, we were at Creative Industries looking to make sure the prototype was being built as tested, both in 3/8th scale and at the P.G. (proving grounds). We were looking at the rear deck and the wing, (which was actually developed at about 6 in. above the rear deck), and discovered that, lo and behold!!.... the deck would not open high enough to utilize the trunk space acceptable for normal production usage. So, we raised the wing until the trunk could be opened and used normally....the rest is history! We, of course, went back to the tunnel and the track to optimize it's height and to define the aerodynamic characteristics. As it turned out, the increased height allowed the vertical stabilizers to be much bigger. From that, we gained a lot of lateral stability which is what really gave the driver the ability to turn faster lap speeds due to it's improved cornering ability. We also discovered that the high wing also provided better handling characteristics during drafting and passing maneuvers. All because we could not get the trunk open!!"

Frank Moriarty in Supercars: The Story of the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth SuperBird, quotes Charlie Glotzbach as saying that in the summer of 1969 at the Chrysler test track at Chelsea, Michigan, "I hit 243 MPH at the five mile oval."



MikeR

I can't tell you about days, but I DO know Dodge wanted them ready for that brand new track that Mr. France had just built for which the Ford camp "brown-nosingly" name their Aero-submission, Talladega. So, they all needed to be built and shoved off to dealerships before the Sept. '69 Talladega race.

I was wondering because of the spd's of the Superbirds. Did't know if the Daytonas had the same build date deal.

Thanks for the input guys!
Bob