Daytona Charger's

1978 NYB

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Found this on FB. Cool picture of a lot of Daytona's. Possibly the only picture of so many of the dang cars in one place....probably never happen again. Less than 500 produced.

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Cool pic!
I think there are believed to be only around 800 that have survived today.:lol:
 
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There was a story of two superbirds that sat on a lot in Illinois or Iowa for several years in the early 70s but no one would buy them. The story went on to say that eventually the lot removed the wings and nose to sell them off as "regular" roadrunners. I had one chance to buy a wing car in high school in the 90s. It was pretty rough. Superbird. My friend's dad has passed away and left him the car. His mother was making him sell it to pay for college. $10,000. I regret not buying it! Or I should say, I regret not having the money to buy it! :D That would have been 92/93.
 
It's hard to describe to someone today the public reaction when the street wing cars came into the showrooms. It was mostly negative and, as everyone knows all too well now, sales dogs. Even the most devoted Mopar guys looked at the car then, the way you react today when you see a hyper-blinged Ricer tart. The owners were seen as attention whores with 2" male members.
Imagine someone driving around today with a 2017 Hellcat Challenger with a SEMA superbird body conversion. Same thing and same reaction.
WHY take a beautiful, perfectly good, Charger Hemi 4 spd and dress it up like a Thai Ladyboy?
 
I thought they made a minimum of them for production in order to be able to race them in Nascar.
 
I thought they made a minimum of them for production in order to be able to race them in Nascar.
Yes. That's why the stock wing cars ended up in showrooms.
To meet the NASCAR rules for "STOCK". Wing cars destined to the pros were something else.
 
I'm surprised they didn't put in /6's in them to get them out the door. They were only after the better aerodynamics that body style offered for Nascar racing.
 
Not /6's at Nascar the the ones pushed into the dealerships,,lol
 
I never could understand why they would make a column shift one. Skinny tires is a other.

Cheaper for them. They had a very different motive [Nascar] to offer the car to the public. The public wasn't a concern for them. They knew 500 guys would pick them up. But I guess it was a problem to sell them all. Punch them out,fill the quota, and use the body style in Nascar.
 
A 225 hyper pack Daytona might have been pretty fast on the high banks.
Na$car did have a six chlinder division for less than a year. The Valiants dominated so much it was discontinued.
IIRC they were running 145 in the original Valiants. Like pushing a brick.
 
don't mix the stuff up.

First they built the 69 Charger 500.

After that the Daytona came and they built slightly more than 500 of them. The Daytonas did sell well and were quickly sold out.

Rules got changed for 1970 and the minimum production was not 500 anymore. So they had to built nearly 2.000 Superbirds. Selling so many "special" cars wasn't easy. Those who loved them bought them quick but it was pretty hard for many dealers to get rid of them. As mentioned before some were trimmed back to look more like a Road Runner. Some got traded to other dealers who were better in selling them/having a reputation for Hi Performance cars. There are stories that the last Birds sold in 1972.

Mopar didn't care how well they sell. They just needed them for homologation
 
2000 Superbirds were made? I stand corrected.
 
I bought, (special ordered), my A12 Road Runner in march of 69. I was a serious supercar customer then and remember looking at new Daytona's on the dealer lots. Being into drag, (street), racing at the time, I couldn't justify the extra weight added to the car. That plus the odd appearance of them made it, (I thought), harder to pick a fight on the street. Which turned out to be true with the A12 and it's huge scooped hood also.
As for the column shift. My A12 was a bench seat, column shift coupe. The floor shifter required bucket seats and a console. added extra weight as did the H/T body.
It was a totally different mindset then, mostly function. I would choose bucket seats, console & a 4 speed now. But I was much more into function then.
 
I had a chance to buy a 'Bird back in 1976 about 6 months before I enlisted in the Army for $2500. I borrowed the money from my Grandma and someone beat me to buying the car. Less than 10,000 miles were on it.
 
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