Driving A Daytona! A Brief History Of The 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Wing Car 

Growing up in Detroit, I would actually see those on the road occasionally. Those era Charger's sold as much with body style as drivetrain I think. Impossible not to gawk at one. The extra wind bling even more so.

It's cool to see that this car has never gone through a full restoration, so you can see exactly how crudely built these cars were. When I first saw this car from the front, the headlight do not fit well, and you can see that no amount of fiddling with them would make them fit well, the rear plug and trunk, the inside headliner were the old glass used to be, nothing fits well. I grew up in the 80's and owned a bunch of these cars back when they were stupid cheap. I was a Mopar guy and I was always amazed and how crudely built they were. In the 80's most of these cars were still all original, and you could see the misaligned body panels, the paint drips everywhere, especially inside the engine compartment, and in some parts of the door jambs and even on lower body panels, the misaligned decals, etc... People now look at these 100 point restored cars and just marvel at how great these car look, and they think that is how they were built, but nothing is further from the truth. I consider 1965-1972 the pinnacle of Detroit styling, but the quality control was pretty bad. I guess people back in the 80's and 90's remembered these cars as being quality built cars, but only because Detroit built such junk from the the mid 70's to the late 80's, that almost anything would have looked like a quality built automobile.

Richard Petty said what made these cars so bad ass on the race tracks were the vertical sides of the spoiler. He said that they worked like rutters and it was really hard to lose the rear in the turns and thats what made them so fast on the track.

The most bad ass mopar on the planet hands down.that center console is identical the one in my 66 plymouth sport fury.

When I was a kid and these cars came out I thought they were the most awesome thing ever. But rarely did we get to see one on the road.

And....she's beautiful. Thnx for taking the time to show her to us. And I too have heard crazy story's why the fender scoops are there. But yea, to let the air out of the wheel well is the correct answer. I hope everyone learned something from this episode, I know I did. Thnx buddy. Solid work as usual. 👍

Sweet jesus that's cool. The fact that the customer drives it makes him instantly cool in my book.

I had the honor of riding in a Super Bird once - then realized, from the inside, you cannot tell there's a nose nor wing.. nor are we going to go anywhere at 100 plus. I'm happy with my standard 69 charger. Hello from Wisconsin . Thanks for the wholesome entertainment

Daytonas and Superbirds are just infinitely cool. I see the subs are growing, onward and upward DDG!

Every time you look at it you can hear angels sing. it's a thing of beauty!

Very cool car. I've never seen a winged car in person and thank you for this video. I dig the hubcaps too. Usually the ones I see in magazines have the magnum 500's and the caps just look cool.

One of our club members has that Daytona (same color, AirTemp equipped). He put the reproduction "recall" rims on it. It's such a looker.

Great episode with a rare and yummy treat...especially for the Mopar lovers. These cars get attention like supermodels...and about the same percentage of reaction to one. Some love 'em, some envy, some wonder and some are oblivious to 'em...or are they?

For anyone curious the wing was NOT high for the trunk lid. This is like something that has been said at car meets for many decades. Jon Ponter was a rocket engineer that worked for Chrysler defense, he designed the aerodynamics. Its all very well documented. Books have also been written about the subject. Also the race cars sat much lower than the street cars as you ca see in all the photos, and the wheels were much closer to the fenders.

Man... Dream car drive. I hope I'll be so fortunate someday to drive one... Great video as always!

I followed him it around till the owner became, well, shall I put it a bit upset, to put it nicely.. Keep them coming Jamie.

Very interesting aerodynamics thanks for sharing another awesome charger 😁

People did NOT like the winged warriors when they were new. Chrysler Corporation was compelled to build a limited edition of the wing cars if they wanted to compete in NASCAR. Purpose of the wing and nose cone was to push the cars through the 200 MPH mark at the track. The Daytona did it in 1970. The record of 201 mph stood for 13 years. 503 Dodge Daytona's and 1935 Plymouth Superbirds were built. Go Mopar. 👍👍😃😃

Wow!, just Wow!. As a 10yo crossing guard, a green Superbird, probably fufilling the 5 year/50,000 mile warranty from the local Chrysler/Plymouth Dealership lit'em up & got me hooked on Mopars. In fact I'm pretty sure which employee it was. Anyway, thanks to the Owner, Tom, and you, Jamie for making this possible & sharing.

9 times out of ten, i agree with prudence.😂

Awesome content !

Excellent video, Jamie. Spot on the history and aerodynamics and why they did the car. Yes, it was banded from Nascar do it it's unfair advantage. Also, they had hemis and six pack models. The Nascar hemis would exceed 200mph easy. I had the opportunity to become friends with Richard petty and own one of his hemi motors you saw in my 70 charger. Built by his mechanic, Jim hale. They were and are iconic cars. When I was 16, I saw one on the side of the road here. Down the road, there was a guy walking, so I stopped and asked if that was his, and he said ya. I am out of gas lol I gave him a ride later, and he came over and gave me a ride. First ride in a hemi car. He got on the interstate and nailed it, and the speedo was straight down. You could feel the car squat. My guess is close to 200 mph. It was a rush. And stupid. We went pasted cars like they were parked. On bias ply tires, no less. Ya, those undies didn't come clean lol but young and dumb. You drove a piece of history, my friend.

Looks like a ironing board on the rear

Awesome car!

Nice!!!

I love your videos, I was waiting for a car like this to come to you ha ha, but it was said that this wing was this tall not for opening the trunk, but so it get his own airflow to make the down force they wanted, also the "tire clearance" was only on the racing versions of the Daytona, on the street versions it was only decoration.

You're absolutely wrong about the rare spoiler they didn't do it for declared Clarence they did it because those 2 uprights and a lot of lateral stability coming out of a turned like an aircraft tail wood and that's the reason it's there thank you

Yep that's my dream car I love every Dodge everbilt but that one is my favorite

If possible can you do a video on a full setup of the Carter AVS?

Very Interesting. Just before you mentioned there were burn outs on the street the car was filled with smoke.. Hmmm..

Now I would NEVER disagree with you, DDG, but I heard the wing being tall to clear the deck lid was just a myth that's been repeated so much through the years, it has just been accepted as truth; however, I found a video about how the actual wind-tunnel testing dictated its height. Also, the NASCAR versions of this car were so low, the front tire did enter the upper fender flares, which were cutout, not like on the street version, but of course it had to be simulated to look the part. Oh, and never seen a Charger on the street with no nose cone, but with a plug. That's what you would see if they removed the front nose cone, plus other evidence of its "Daytona" ness. Why would they go through all the effort to remove the rear plug and put the stock rear window back in? I mean, not saying they didn't, but seems more trouble than it's worth. EDIT: Okay, not sure if the tire actually entered the fender flare, but it WAS open and air did flow from the wheel well out through the scoop.

I have always felt the Charger in the 'Dukes of Hazzard' to be a bit 'plain'. I felt that a Daytona would have been a tad more epic and unique. Fortunately for history's sake, the studio didn't feel the same way! On a side note, the ONLY winged car I have EVER seen in person was in my senior year of high school ('86-'87) during my morning commute with a couple of underclassmen who paid me for rides. We used to see a '70 Superbird most mornings (we also used to see a guy riding a unicycle--yes really). I had been reading Hot Rod magazine for a few years by my senior year, so was familiar with them, whereas the kids I drove had no idea what the heck a Superbird was, let alone a Roadrunner (keep in mind, L.A. in the later 80s did not have a lot of old Mopars running around; we mostly had 60s Camaros and Mustangs, as well as Chevelles and some really ugly Fords e.g. Torinos). I mentioned the Superbird in a comment following a Jay Leno video a couple years back, and someone else who grew up in the area remembered that same car and mentioned it in the comments--the guy worked at a grocery store and lived in the area near him.

God im so jealous man

Doesn't the engine overheat? I guess at 200Mph cooling works but what about normal speeds? The grill is really small both on Dodge Daytonas and Plymouth Superbirds...

Only downfall is not a 4 speed.

👍🏻💯🇦🇺

NASCAR never banned the Daytona. They did however limit Wing cars to having no more than 305 cubic inch engines which of course made them uncompetitive, but not banned.

Yeah but the 68 look really cool with the window sunk into had the two fins on the back Miyagi to do is put a really small spoiler on the back of the car and it fixes it but the look of the car just sexy man all Chargers from 72 back are just some of the sexiest cars ever built

I don't care if it's numbers-matching or not if it's a rust-free Daytona I'd pay million dollars for that car all day long that's how much I love that car I don't even care if I had the Hemi in it or not I love the 69 and 70 Chargers but there's just a special place in my heart for the Daytona

Is any car ever perfect

If I seen that in my rearview mirror be jealousy because I know what that car is and I know unfortunately I'll probably never own one

The wing car was designed to do one thing beat the 200 Mi an hour Club it would have took 60 more horse tons of man-hours in engineering to get 60 more horsepower out of an engine in order to get past 200 miles an hour we're all they needed to do was create aerodynamics on the car to get the same effect as you would to try and get 60 more horsepower out of an engine and I'm glad they did because it is my favorite charger in the whole world and it's my dream car not the Superbird the Dodge Daytona Superbird School the Dodge Daytona was the only vehicle ever built by Dodge to where you could buy one on Sunday and go to the track on Monday and it would be the exact same car the guys are running on the tracks not to mention it's probably one of the coolest cars ever seen I would take that over a Ferrari any day