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Dodge built the 1969 Charger Daytona for exactly one reason: to beat Ford on NASCAR’s fastest superspeedways, and every strange line on the car traces back to a wind tunnel rather than a styling studio. Only about 503 were built to satisfy homologation rules, and roughly seventy of those carried the 426 Hemi. The wing’s real purpose is not the one most people repeat, and the fender scoops have nothing to do with cooling. Read on for what this car was actually engineering around.
Tom Lembeck’s Mopar collection includes two of the rarest muscle cars ever built: a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona in Spring Green and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird in Vitamin C Orange, both packing factory 426 Hemi engines. Filmed side by side in Chicago, the pairing even fooled a passerby who walked right past without noticing. Fans in the comments are split on which winged Mopar deserves the edge. Watch to see which one Tom calls his favorite.
After the 1968 Dodge Charger’s handsome fastback shape turned into a liability on NASCAR’s high-banked superspeedways, Chrysler answered with the radically reshaped 1969 Daytona — complete with a nose cone, towering rear wing, and a Lockheed wind-tunnel-tested aerodynamic package. It worked immediately, winning its first race and becoming the first NASCAR stock car to top 200 mph. Read on to find out how two cars sharing one platform ended up telling such different stories.
A 1969 Dodge Daytona and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird — two of NASCAR’s most extreme aero-warrior street cars — sit side by side in one Jacksonville owner’s garage. Both wear the wing and nosecone combination that solved a real aerodynamic problem at 120-plus miles per hour, not just a styling flourish. Find out which one the owner says deserves the edge.
To legally race its wing-nosed Charger on NASCAR’s superspeedways in 1969, Dodge had to build at least 500 street-legal versions first, whether buyers wanted one or not. This Daytona is one of just 503 built to satisfy that rule, and one of 433 fitted with a 440 instead of the Hemi. Some viewers say it is more than any ordinary muscle car deserves to be called. Here is why the rule that created it still matters.
Owner Tom Lembeck has something almost no other collector can claim: a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona in Spring Green Metallic and a 1970 Plymouth Superbird in Vitamin C Orange, both factory 426 Hemi cars, parked side by side in the same collection. Host Lou Costabile walks through exactly what separates NASCAR’s two winged Mopars once you see them together. Watch to see both aero legends compared directly, nose cone to nose cone.