Dodge Charger Daytona

Dodge Charger Daytona at a glance

The Charger Daytona belongs to the short era of the NASCAR "aero wars", when Chrysler, Ford and Mercury built road cars with special noses and wings so that they could race them on the fastest ovals. The name comes from Daytona Beach in Florida, home of the Daytona 500 and NASCAR. The brand's story is told in the history of Dodge, and Dodge models, including today's Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, are in the Dodge catalogue.

Why the Daytona was built

In 1968 Dodge tried to make the Charger competitive on NASCAR's fast tracks with the Charger 500, which had a flush grille and rear window, but it failed to win the important superspeedway races, and Richard Petty, NASCAR's biggest star, left Plymouth for Ford in autumn 1968. Chrysler responded with a far more radical car. Engineers, helped by specialists from Chrysler's missile programme, added a pointed nose and a tall rear wing to the Charger. To race the car, NASCAR required a minimum number of road cars to be sold, so Dodge built 503 Daytonas for its dealers in 1969.

Design and aerodynamics

The Daytona's nose cone was made of sheet metal, not fibreglass, and replaced the Charger's upright grille and bumper. According to the old 1cars text, it added about 46 cm to the front, bringing the overall length to about 5.8 m, and the streamlined body cut aerodynamic drag by about 20%. At the rear, a flush window with a cap replaced the Charger's tunnelled backlight, and a 584 mm (23-inch) wing on tall struts sat above the roofline. The wing only became effective at high speeds, above about 150 km/h, where the nose and wing together gave the car stability and downforce. Scoops on the front wings ventilated the wheel wells.

Engines and drivetrain

The 426 Hemi's rating of 317 kW (425 hp) at 5,000 rpm and 664 Nm (490 lb-ft) is the figure quoted for the same engine in the 1970 Plymouth Superbird. Engines were paired with a four-speed manual gearbox or a three-speed automatic. The Daytona used the Charger R/T's heavy-duty suspension and brakes, with extra cooling for the brakes. Weighing about 1,725 kg, it was not the quickest muscle car from a standstill, but it had few rivals at very high speed.

Interior

Inside, the Daytona is a regular Charger R/T: two front bucket seats, a floor-mounted gear lever and a dashboard with round gauges. The cabin is simple, as the car's purpose was homologation for racing rather than luxury.

Racing career

Daytonas also won races in the USAC and ARCA series. Together with the Plymouth Superbird, which won eight NASCAR races in 1970, the winged Mopars were so fast that NASCAR changed its rules: from 1971, aerodynamic specials with engines over 305 cubic inches were penalised, which effectively ended the aero cars.

The Plymouth Superbird and later Daytonas

For 1970, NASCAR raised its homologation rule from 500 cars to one per two dealers, which meant about 1,920 cars for Plymouth. Plymouth built the Superbird on the Plymouth Road Runner, with a refined version of the Daytona's nose and wing, and lured Richard Petty back, who won 18 races in 1970. The Daytona name was later reused for a 1975–1977 package on the Charger, for the separate front-wheel-drive Dodge Daytona hatchback of 1984 based on Chrysler's K platform, and for Charger Daytona versions from 2006 onwards.

Daytona versus Superbird

The two winged cars look alike but differ in detail. The Superbird's nose and body were refined from the Daytona's design, and its wing, also mounted on tall struts, was set high enough to work in cleaner air above the roofline; the popular story that the wing height was chosen so the boot lid could open is considered a myth. The scoops on the Daytona's front wings vented air from the wheel wells, while on the Superbird they were mainly cosmetic. Plymouth built far more Superbirds, about 1,935 for the US market, because of the stricter 1970 homologation rule, which makes the 503 Daytonas much rarer today.

Rivals and collectability

On the track, the Daytona fought the aerodynamic specials from Ford and Mercury; on the road, it belonged to the same muscle-car generation as the Ford Gran Torino and Pontiac GTO. With only 503 built and just 70 with the Hemi, original Charger Daytonas are highly sought after by collectors. Value depends heavily on the engine, gearbox, originality and documented history.