Richard Petty's "Special" Textured Roof - 1968 Daytona 500 

as a european used to F1, WRC and WEC, the mix of low and high tech in Nascar is weird and fascinating

I remember reading about the dimpled roof in a book about Daytona cheaters. It said The roof was misdirection from all the illegal things they did to the rest of the car.

I remember that Mythbusters episode and Jamie said something like "can't wait to see all the NASCARs do this"

NASCAR rules for all touring series now ban textured paints (and textured vinyl wraps). The rule is typically worded in part as “[t]he type of paint used, whether it be flat, satin or high gloss finish, must provide a smooth surface. The paint or vinyl must not be textured.”

Hey, if there isn't anything in the rules then it's not cheating.. it's innovation 😂

Roger Penske said the vinyl roof on their 1969 Trans Am Camaro was for an aerodynamic reason ,comparing it to a golf ball , but it's said that the real reason was to stiffen up the acid dipped roof . Having seen how imaginative the Penske team had been in gaining any advantage they could ,the vinyl roof was probably to benefit them for both reasons.

I saw this race live over a black and white closed circuit TV feed in Greenville, SC. I believe there was live commentary. We were all under the belief that Petty’s car had a vinyl roof, a belief I held until watching this video. My dad was a Mercury dealer and this was the beginning of the short span 68-69 when Mercury Cyclones held some dominance in NASCAR. Naturally, being in that camp with Cale Yarborough and the Wood Brothers, we were LOAO at Petty’s dilemma that day thinking who would be so dumb to run a vinyl roof. Interesting video in busting the myth. Still glad the Mercury won. RIP Plymouth and Mercury.

Richard hopping on top of his car fixing it his damn self!! That’s why he’s the king 😂💯

The '87 America's Cup yacht race, Dennis Conner's boat Stars and Stripes was covered in a shark skin like film that was said to reduce drag, and he won going away.

As Richard Petty said recently, "When you cheated, you had to cheat neat. Maurice was very good at that because otherwise you would not even qualify half the time."

The white and blue petty car from july is insane and I love it

Very interesting. Surprised I haven’t heard more about this before now.

When Petty hammered on the roof, it looked like a waterbed. I bought a used car in the 70s that had a textured painted roof to mimic vinyl (and hide body work)..

I worked with a guy who was at that race. I remember talking with him about it around the mid to late 70's and he said the car whistled but after the roof damage it whistled even louder. Everybody cheated somehow back then and you can't help but wonder about all the other stuff going on. The Pettys cheated just like everyone else. Boy, those cars sure had a rake on them. Personally, I think the black roof was more visually appealing and the white car even more so.

I think the Team got the idea for the Textured Roof from Lee Petty myself, Lee was an avid golfer in addition to being a former NASCAR champion and would've understood the role aerodynamics played in both these sports.

Ford used the texture paint on their 'Dentside' pickup trucks in the early to mid 1970s. Its intent was to mimic a vinyl roof covering, and it worked. It was a not-often-seen option even when those trucks were new.

Years ago I talked to a guy who ported heads for several different types of race teams and vehicles. He was telling me how they were studying how some sharks go thru the water faster than others and the study turned to the surface texture of their skin. They were trying different surface treatments & textures in the ports & runners to see how it affected air-flow & velocity.

The 427 never made 600 horses, more like 550, but the fastback roof was a big advantage In '69 the Boss 429 finally made about 620 to 650hp

It's stories like this, teams flirting the line between the intent of regulations and the actual wording of them. It's why stories like this or the Brabham Fan Car from F1 makes me fascinated by the technical aspect of motorsport :)

Petty switched to Ford in 69…… but in 70 Plymouth had the Superbird and Petty was back and everything was right in the world again 😂

I was there for that race and I remember when the roof detached. At the time we all thought it was a vinyl roof that came loose at the front.

Boundary layer energizers are used on aircraft wing leading edges to create this effect, as a bonus, it helps break up ice formation (as well as being heated with bleed air or electrically).

After watching a documentary on "Golf Balls", specifically the dimpling on the cover of them, I instantly thought of a Cup car at Dega, sponsored by Titlist, with the roof and hood painted and dimpled like a golf ball. I would really like to see if it would make a difference. Certainly more effective than truck bed paint.

Love seeing these old races with King Petty! In my opinion the best race car driver ever.

Cale Yarborough my favorite driver of that era....Won Riverside and many other races in the early 70s.

I had a step father that was Black flagged at Daytona during qualifications. (1968) 167.86 mph lap speed, and 210 in the back stretch. They didn't believe he was running a 289, but a 427SJC instead. Pulled and teched the little motor and sho' nuff it was legal. 504hp @ 9000 rpm. Won mech of year. Ted Haywood drove his 67 Shelby GT350 with that little motor all season. He was a Smokey alumni. Smokey knew his stuff. Ted knew turbines from the USMC. He was a sharp man and I miss him.

I am reminded of Smokey Yunick and “Any loophole is big enough to drive a car through.”

Wow that was a fast car, strong motor !

Great to see footage of the 1968 #43 Plymouth, thanks!

I remember seeing those cars and thought, 'how dorky' to have granny's vinyl roof on a race car Never thought about the aircraft texture paint.

Every time I think you guys can't make a video about something I dont know, you do.

Great video, some awesome looking cars back then.

Makes me think of Cole Pearn and the Furniture Row #78 being painted flat black at most tracks, but would be glossy for plate races.

Best explanation of golf boll dimples I’ve heard.

Look at the way the roof moves when Richard is beating on it! 😂 I think acid dipping is the answer!

Wow! I just learned something about sales. Brilliant!

love your stuff man

Very interesting! Thanks for making this video

I watched this race on closed circuit TV ( in a theater. ). If the 43 was cheating it sure backfired! This race introduced the world to Duct tape 😊

I was there in the Petersen suite with the new CEO of Pennzoil. Purolator had just recently been acquired by Pennzoil. On the Corp plane back to Houston there was talk of possibility a joint sponsorship.

The way the roof bent when he was trying to make holes in it with the scratch awl sure made it look pretty thin

Fellow fans, don't forget to rewatch the 1992 Hooters 500 raceday stream.

Do something on Smokey Yunick who once bragged " half the rules in NASCAR are because of me " And acid dipping the body panels was common for a while, just thick enough to hold it's shape in the wind blast.

This video reminds me of my old racing buddy Mayhew. REST IN PEACE OLD MAN!

In 1969 Roger Penske built a Camaro for the Trans-Am series with a vinyl roof. Was he following Petty's lead?

Even if it did or didn't work it made the paint job look better.

I remember something from long ago, maybe around the late 60s, that demonstrated that smooth surfaces have lower drag up to about 150mph, then textured surface are better. However, we all know how to make a smooth surface, getting the texture right is a different story.

If stock cars still looked something like this, hell, even I would watch it (British Dude)

Can you make a video about USAC stock car. That series very confused me.

n 74 i had a 67 ex state patrol car that had the same kind of spray on top after it was retired. the spray on roof looked pretty good even up close.

The king 👑 of NASCAR!

At first i figured the sun would heat the black roof and create a thin layer of hot air that reduced drag. .

I heard a different story. Guy claiming to have been with pettys at time claim The hold car had been acid dip to cut weight. The roof came out ruff so they use the texture paint to cover it up. While everyone was looking at texture paint they missed other things.

Ultimately he was trying to divert air before it was going to hit the occupant blister. Looking at the wing shape, I can see why some favored the mid-engine exotic design along with aerodynamics if you looked at the wing backwards. To bad they didn't know about composite materials back then, as we know today. They could have cut more fat off that car without Jeopardizing safety and structural integrity.

Legend!

what an increadable time to have been involved in motor sport. The level of inovation at that time was amazing. With mavericks like Tom Petty leading the way.

First time I heard about those roofs. My 68 satellite sport had a black vinyl roof.

The whistle is due to laminar turbulent boundary layer transition noise, a phenomenon occurring on modern road car mirrors. The onset creates a tonal noise.

There is a Guardian Angel for everyone you Know!!! King Richard has had a GOOD ONE through the years !!!!

It's not mentioned a lot but Dale Armstrong put what he called "vortex generators" on the roof of Kenny Bernstein's Budweiser King Funny Car in 1984 or 1985, and it was for the same reasons mentioned here (aerodynamics). FWIW.

dont know if it works the same but I sanded the rear 4 feet of my bass boat with 80gr and picked up almost 10mph, same principal

All textured surfaces aside, Car Craft did an article on Richard's 68. It said there was no mention of the sudo aero panels under the rear of his car. Wish they had gone into more detail about that.

There was a time when a lot of research went into the scales on a fish or the layers that feathers make at their tips. The acid-dipped Penske cars of the Trams Am era used leather tops to hide their secret.

Most people think their boat runs its fastest on glass water...but it doesn't it only runs about 85% of its fastest speed. It runs its fastest speed on smooth water with just a lil bit of chop...

When tiger Tom piston saw this tiger sprayed a whole car. After that I can't remember the story. It was of course for airo effects ie: just like a golf ball, I was the areo designer for DW's wonda and Bertha, the gray ghost barker #28, Freddie lorenzen, and my favorite Robbie Morroso, plus 12's more. Tiger had the right idea but lacked the HP to get it up to speed

My dad's factory ordered 68 sport fury had this applied instead of the vinyl!!! It lasted well into the 80's

That's why golf balls are dimpled. Mythbusters did it to a car to see if it work the same way. The dimples create a small vortex creating a barrier from the wind. Just like leaving your pickup truck tailgate UP.

amazing.

I remember reading about the old coast down aero tunnels, and one of the main things they were testing was textured decals. Didnt take long for NASCAR to make that illegal, and mandate smooth decals. But even in F1 RedBull has run with matte surface paint, and teams have used textured decals, and textured carbon fiber weaves. Dimples and Bulges have also been used to great effect in LeMans, with a couple cars sporting a "bubbled" gurney flap at the trailing edge of the body to reduce the drag wake.

Don't think these men were simple just because they grew up in a simple era

Textured top would spoil lift, smooth belly pan would increase downforce, like a aircraft wing upside down.

The first, and cheapest, thing you do to win a championship is to read the regulations then think up ways to get round them.

Teams making OSS-optimized wraps: **looks around nervously**

No, the Ford engines didn't have a 50 hp advantage over the Hemi. No way.

My dad told me recently that he had an uncle that worked on one of the NASCAR teams (he didn’t say which team sadly because he doesn’t remember) and told us about the time drivers and the teams had to experience during that time. Back when Motorsport racing in NASCAR we’re still good!

I believe that they were experimenting with what's called "laminar flow", an aerodynamic term.

Now you should do a video on the trick belly pan this car had. 😉

Great content 👌 all your videos are awesome honestly

Weren't Cup teams using an unusual paint on the side skirts of their cars a few years ago?

I love that "Plymouth" "By Petty" on the back. It could be argued that it was true though.

It's INSANE that those boxy old cars could do 189mph !

Back when cars were actually different and manufacturer rivalries made sense...

From everything I've heard, its definitely a symptom of acid dipping the chassis. That was the prime era for that trick and would perfectly account for the 6mph top speed increase over the next Chrysler IMHO. I'm not a NASCAR driver, only a fan, so who knows what really happened...

So, you mentioned that the Chryslers were under a horsepower disadvantage.. Um, from one who drove a '69 Plymouth road runner in high school I feel you might be missing some context here. if memory serves me correct I believe due to a cubic inch size technicality they were required to use restrictor plates. (I'm not an expert but I'm pretty confident Nascar restrictor plated all the hemi's). Now, back when Nascar actually meant 'Stock car' (win on Sunday sell on Monday) "and not 'same car 'Chrysler was trying some cool stuff in this era not mentioned in this video. These are big cars punching big holes in the air so they started wind tunnel testing leading to the Charger 500 (ditching the open charger tunnel grill to a Coronet flat front grill and ditching the tunnel rear window for a smooth rear window) in 69. Since it was 'stock car' racing there was a requirement to sell 500 to the public of the car to qualify to run it. So the street version of the charger 500 is pretty rare who's VIN numbers start 'XX23' instead of the usual "RM23" But that wasn't good enough, this lead to the Charger Daytona (Dodge Charger with Coronet fenders, aero nose, once again smooth back window, and the most distinguishable 'towel rack spoiler on the rear) and the Plymouth Superbird (version based on Road Runner platform). Apparently, people got sick of seeing the aero birds win mixed with other manufacturers complaints these cars were banned from NASCAR. -After typing this all up I question myself ... why did I? since nobody probably cares. I guess I probably would have liked mention even though it's a completely different story. - Thanks for the clip. All this history is being lost in the current generations that don't care... For this Gearhead Genx'r its sad. that they ae telling us... like 'samecar', buy an EV, and STFU. wow, ok.. its becoming a Rant.. sorry.

A lot of focus on the texture but did you see how light it was when hit with a tool? My guess is mis-direction hidden in plain sight. A super light roof to help reduce the COG for better handling

The floor of the rb19 has vortex generators which allows them to run a more aggressive diffuser

What a story!

3:49 “It’s why dimpled golf balls travel as far as smooth golf balls”. Smooth golf balls travel even less than what they do already? Oh man, that means if I hit a smooth golf ball it would hardly move 😢

Did Petty only run with that odd-looking tail-high stance at Daytona? It seems like that could have the opposite effect of enlarging the low pressure zone in the rear but apparently not.

I don’t know if it’s been posted already about textured paint in later years. It was still a thing as late as the 90’s and early 2000’s. It wasn’t so obvious though. The painters were instructed to make the clear coat do what is called “Orange Peal” and that would be their dimpling effect. If this still exists today, I’m sure it does in some capacity.

Never seen a (mostly) correct explanation of a golf ball until here. Congrats! But I suspect the air flowing over the roof was already turbulated, making the texture irrelevant.

As I recall, Stars and stripes, the 1987 America's Cup winner, use a similar plastic skin.

It wasn't cheating, they just didn't have a rule for it yet.

You can stand on the podium for a minute, or be in the rule book forever.

Love that dinoco blue

Doesn't Petty's Plymouth still exist, somewhere, to get measurements of the roof (thickness)?

What's with the extreme rake though? Would think it would handle fuct up like that.

There is definitely something to that theory, as that was a reason that Red Bull gave to why they started using a matte finish on their F1 cars, funny to think a NASCAR team was near on 50 years ahead on what it supposed as the most developed racing car series in the world.

The kick has been flipped 👍

Could it be that the vinyl bowed upwards slightly at speed making the roof curved instead of flat, which smoothed the air flow from windscreen over the top of the car and especially as it then moved down over the rear window?