Wind tunnel: '69 Charger vs. Charger Daytona vs. Hellcat Charger

[funknut]

Interesting comparison. Not much in terms of quantitative results but pretty interesting stuff.

 

[WileERobby]

The original 2nd gen Charger was not all that aerodynamic. That's why they kept altering it, aka the 500, Daytona, etc. The next gen Charger was a better aerodynamic car.

 

[kiwigtx]

I read somewhere years ago that the drag coefficient of the '69 Daytona was 0.29 .... a number that no other car came close to.

 

[WileERobby]

I read somewhere years ago that the drag coefficient of the '69 Daytona was 0.29 .... a number that no other car came close to.

Don't know where you got that from. From what I understand, they scrapped the Daytona for the Superbird so The King would have a competitive car. Petty himself said the next gen charger was the best car he drove on the speedways. ( But, in my mind the 68-70 was the best style for a Charger ever made. followed by the 71-72, then the 73-74. )

 

[kiwigtx]

Don't know where you got that from. From what I understand, they scrapped the Daytona for the Superbird so The King would have a competitive car. Petty himself said the next gen charger was the best car he drove on the speedways. ( But, in my mind the 68-70 was the best style for a Charger ever made. followed by the 71-72, then the 73-74. )

The drag coefficient on the Superbird was not as good as the Daytona. Petty drove the Superbird because he was lured back to Plymouth.....was nothing to do with how slippery the car was.

I wish I could find the source material....it was likely in one of those books from the 80's. Under the stairway cupboard I think.

 

[Budnicks]

thanks @funknut

pretty cool

 

[Budnicks]

The rear wing was a big/huge part
acted as a rudder, car could run extremely loose
the wing it's wasn't that big or huge downforce
But;
allegedly even with them hard *** crappy tires they had back then
the car was far harder to spin the wing uprights acted as rudders
just like a plane
(allegedly some of the teams played with the alignments of the uprights too)
or it was easier to keep the pedal down in corners, wind controlled the rear
where others had to lift

I imagine them noses helped in the draft too
back then not a lot of people knew all that much about the draft

the 'winged warriors' were still competitive
when they had been downsized to 5 liters 305cid
kept up with all the cars (with no wing or nose)
with 7+ ltrs 427-429cid

aero **** really worked,
they were over competitive
especially when they had full engine cids & full power

Ford & GM cried foul
NASCAR/USAC took action
like normal Chrysler Corp. got the shaft

 

[WileERobby]

The drag coefficient on the Superbird was not as good as the Daytona. Petty drove the Superbird because he was lured back to Plymouth.....was nothing to do with how slippery the car was.

I wish I could find the source material....it was likely in one of those books from the 80's. Under the stairway cupboard I think.

Yes ! you're correct. Allow me to elaborate (I re-read what I wrote, I can see why you would reply as such. ) I wanted to say I didn't know where you sourced that info, not that it was incorrect. I didn't mean to infer the Daytona was more aero, just that they scrapped it so Petty would get a car to compete against Ford. But I recall he liked the later Charger style the best. I seem to recall they had to work on the spoiler on the Bird for better stability. I wonder how the later Charger was aerodynamically, since Petty preferred it ?

 

[Richard Cranium]

aero **** really worked,
they were over competitive
especially when they had full engine cids & full power

Ford & GM cried foul
NASCAR/USAC took action
like normal Chrysler Corp. got the shaft

And when GM came out with their Pontiac & Chevy aero cars in the late 80's to go against the T-bird, which was kicking their ***, altered body styles was allowed to be fair again.

 

[Sixpactogo]

And when GM came out with their Pontiac & Chevy aero cars in the late 80's to go against the T-bird, which was kicking their ***, altered body styles was allowed to be fair again.

This was allowed because the France boys wanted Chevy to be dominant. If GM had come up with the Daytona /Superbird, it would have never been outlawed. I have never been able to understand how Chevy got to be so popular with Nascar and NHRA but they all want the Chevies to win. If a Mopar wins, they keep adding weight handicaps until they can no longer compete. Been doing that since the 60's. I remember Bill France making the statement on National TV saying. "I don't care of Ford or Dodge ever wins another race, Chevrolet needs to win." Bill France has been gone for many years but the mentality has stayed.

 

[Runcharger]

Yup: It has that look that maybe Chrysler put their money into engineering and not bribes.

 

[kiwigtx]

I read somewhere years ago that the drag coefficient of the '69 Daytona was 0.29 .... a number that no other car came close to.

Thanks to the thread about the DC-93 car at the Mecum Auction....here is the proof of what I had heard many years ago about this;

Obviously when I read the number 0.29, it must have been in reference to this car only, and not all Daytona's.
@DeltaV Thanks.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Obviously when I read the number 0.29, it must have been in reference to this car only, and not all Daytona's.

Plural would be Daytonas. Possessive gets the apostrophe.

That is all.

Signed,
Kern Dog

 

[Cranky]

Plural would be Daytonas. Possessive gets the apostrophe.

That is all.

Signed,
Kern Dog

 

[kiwigtx]

Plural would be Daytonas. Possessive gets the apostrophe.

That is all.

Signed,
Kern Dog

Well bugger me with a fish fork!

Signed,
General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett

 

[Kern Dog]

Plural would be Daytonas. Possessive gets the apostrophe.

That is all.

Signed,
Kern Dog

Punctuation is my weak point. The Wife has that covered since she dabbles in Book editing on the side.
A contraction also gets an apostrophe though....

 

[eldubb440]

Plural would be Daytonas. Possessive gets the apostrophe.

That is all.

Signed,
Kern Dog

Daytoni

 

[kiwigtx]

Daytoni

That there is just plain old splitting hairs.