The Reason NASCAR Banned The Legendary Dodge Charger Daytona

In 2022, the Dodge Charger Daytona is a destiny EV. In 1969, it become some thing else entirely. That Charger Daytona become a supercar many years earlier than that phrase got here into the cutting-edge lexicon. It become made to do one thing: win at NASCAR races.

NASCAR of the Sixties is wildly exceptional than the mega spectacle it's miles today. For one, inventory automobiles had been ones everybody may want to exit and purchase. They had been changed for protection and tuned for racing however had been greater or much less the equal automobiles you can locate in a dealership. NASCAR rules on the time stipulated that any vehicle utilized in a race needed to be mass produced and to be had for sale. 

Dodge had the concept to take a 1969 Dodge Charger, an already extraordinarily succesful muscle vehicle, and squeeze each feasible ounce of overall performance out of it. It become ready with the mythical 426 cubic inch "Hemi" V8 or 440 cubic inch V8 and given aerodynamic improvements that could make a Cessna jealous (through MotorBiscuit).

A winged terror

From Talladega to Daytona, the Charger Daytona become a monster for everybody racing towards it. It become the primary inventory vehicle to hit 200mph on a tune. 

Over the 1969 and 1970 seasons, the aerodynamic Charger received six races. It`s cousin from Plymouth, the Superbird, received 8 races (through Motortrend). Ford tried to comply with up with its very own automobiles, the Ford Torino Talladega and the much less-subtly named Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II. These vehicles, with their wild aerodynamics had been dubbed the "Aero Cars." And NASCAR failed to like them one bit. 

NASCAR banned the ludicrous wings and nostril cones after only a year. The Daytona become simply too exact at racing. 

Overall, Dodge made simply 503 Charger Daytonas earlier than placing its attractions on greater pedestrian automobiles. Nowadays, Charger Daytonas are noticeably rare, and seeing one in character is special. Surviving examples promote for absurd amounts. Even dilapidated barn unearths call for large costs at auction. 

Over 50 years later, the Charger Daytona is remembered as a high instance of feature over form. It seemed wild and raced find it irresistible too. 

An aerodynamic marvel

Part of the name of the game to the Daytona's fulfillment become its large rear spoiler because it looks as if designers took styling cues from plane instead of different racecars. The wing become for greater than simply displaying off because it furnished an incredible quantity of downforce to hold the automobile planted at the tune while racing. At nearly two hundred miles in keeping with hour, any quantity of downforce the automobile can offer makes a large distinction in now no longer handiest managing traits however additionally prevents the automobile from actually lifting off the ground. It additionally gave the automobile a higher drag coefficient than supercars just like the McLaren F1 (through Silodrome). 

It's no mystery that the Dodge Charger the Daytona become primarily based totally on become a very famous vehicle. Several many years later, the automobile remains iconic. But regardless of the fame, it wasn't a competitor while it got here to racing. According to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, the 1968 Dodge Charger's the front grille and rear window made the automobile's aerodynamic residences greater corresponding to that of a brick than a severe racecar. The Dodge Charger Daytona all however removed the ones problems with a then bizarre-searching nostril cone and its now mythical rear spoiler. Those improvements did the trick as 4 Charger Daytonas crowned the leaderboards withinside the model's debut race in Alabama in 1969. 

The stop of the aero automobiles

Entries from Chrysler had been so dominant in racing on the time that by the point the 1970 Daytona 500 rolled round 23 of the forty automobiles at the tune had been Dodge Charger Daytonas, or its comparable cousin, the Plymouth Superbird (through NASCAR Hall of Fame). William France Sr. additionally regarded as "Big Bill" and the founding father of NASCAR become the only to position a lid on now no longer handiest the aerodynamic marvel automobiles from Dodge and Plymouth however each automaker in 1971. 

Along with policies banning the Dodge Charger Daytona's precise logo of aerodynamic wackiness, NASCAR banned using big displacement engines. New policies saved the dimensions constrained to simply 305 cubic inches, drastically smaller than the Daytona's 426-cubic-inch and 440 cubic-inch engine options. With the NASCAR rule adjustments and Dodge's winged marvel leaving for exact, it positioned an stop to the technology in which a person may want to purchase nearly the precise vehicle they noticed racing on Sunday.

The Charger Daytona done precisely what it become got down to and stands as one of the few automobiles in records that had been so loopy and unconventional that it took portions of motorsport law to forestall it.