It also was the race that ended the career of Jim Cook, when he hit the unprotected end of the wall at the entrance to turn 9. I've seen pictures of the car afterward and he really shouldn't have survived the wreck, but he was wheelchair-bound the rest of his life.
The only thing stock about these cars is the shell. If you think you could walk into a Plymouth dealership and drive out in a full tube chassis with a Ford 9 inch and a Muncie transmission, then you're dead wrong man!
Funny reading posts saying wing cars were not fast enough. 1971 Daytona 500 with a Mario Rossi Dodge Daytona, 305 engine compared to the big block engines in other cars, lead a lap in the race and would have finished in top 5 if not for the accident. Those are facts!
Pretty sure this race also contained a second "near deadly" crash , this time it was popular west coast star Jim Cook piling head-on into an abutment at top speed after being hit by David Pearson (who later got relief from Bobby Isaac). Cook was paralyzed waist down for life from his injuries.
Cool race. I have no idea what Chrysler was thinking putting the winged cars on a road course like Riverside. the Charger 500 and Regular Roadrunner would've been a much better choice and more suited for the corners, while the Daytona and Superbird stuck to the super speed ways. great footage either way.
they had visions of fairy tales in their heads.......they had managed to hire Gurney away from Ford, Gurney ended up on the pole but never led a lap. The Winged car debut was certainly not what they hoped. The next race at Daytona would even be worse where Talmadge Prince spun his Daytona due to overheating and blowing the oil cooler.......Prince was killed.
@@davidthayer6969 Agreed. It for sure wasn't a "dream come true" for Chrysler like you rightfully stated, but I'm just glad the aero wars ended on a more neutral note, especially after the tragedy of Prince.
Can someone explain why the Mopar guys raced the winged warriors? Three of the top 5 were new 70 Torinos, Parnellis new 70 Merc was only stoped by a broken clutch and Pearson had transmission problems
Plymouth pulled of a dramatic coup.......they hired Gurney who at the time was the Riverside king, having one 5 NASCAR events there. Plymouth hired him away from Ford to drive the debut of the superbird at Riverside........Gurney put it on the pole but then never lead a lap. So riverside was supposed to be a BIG deal for Plymouth introducing the Superbird with certainty that Gurner would win..........it didnt work.
@@davidthayer6969 yes I know the story of Gurney, but it still wasn't enough. If Parnelli and Pearson hadn't have technical problems, there would have been no Bird in the top5
@@goldenltd1970 Yes and when the went to Daytona it was even worse, the MOPAR guys thought the winged cars would dominate........there were nothing but long faces in the mopar camp when Cale set a record of 194+ putting his mercury on the pole and the Fords were certainly much faster than the winged cars........in reality the winged mopars only raced head to head with the droop nosed fords in 12 events with the Fords winning 9 of those.
@@davidthayer6969 if Pearson did not slide 2 laps to go in Daytona he would have catched the bird for sure, he was so much faster Its such a shame that Ford dropped out that year, one can only imagine what the King Cobra would have been capable of
