I'm pretty blasé about exotic cars on the whole.
Between living in Buckhead and Virginia Highlands in the ATL, Farragut in Knoxville, and now Broad Ripple in Indy, I'm largely inured to the heavy iron. I've parked next to Lambos at Lowe's, nearly been run off the road by Ferraris on Northshore, and had a Viper GTS filling my rear-view on College Avenue as recently as this past Sunday afternoon.
However, rolling down 54th Street this afternoon and seeing a lemon yellow '69 Charger Daytona waiting to pull out into traffic nearly caused me to drive into someone's yard. I can't remember the last time I saw one of the old winged warriors loose in the wild. I pulled over onto the first side street and watched it go by like a kid at a parade with real live heffalumps.
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When my uncle Jimmy came home on leave from the army he did two cool things.He taught me how to consistently hit pennies thrown in the air using my Daisy BB gun,and took me for a 140MPH ride in his brand spankin' new Plymouth Superbird.Awesome ride then and now.
hootie11bravo
Back when stock cars were actually STOCK cars...
Winged Wonder indeed! Returning in '69 from a few years overseas to see such a thing, or a Shelby Cobra GT500 was a ticklish delight - even after all those euro Miuras, Lotus Europas, Opel GT coupes, and other Bertone-body DeTomaso Mangusta things.
Dinoco Blue!
The older I get, the less I find the post 1970 mid-engined Italian wonder wedges (and clones) appealing. Sadly, science and aerodynamics ruined sports cars. Compare any D-Jag or 1960 Ferrai Testa Rossa to any sports racer of today.
Daytonas and Superbirds, on the other hand... mmmmmm.
WV- malown: "You kids with your aerodynamic racers and cars of tomorrows! Bah! Now get off malown!"
Those were/are sweeet rides. In high school, the mother of one of my buddy's had a Hemi-powered 'Cuda. We never could get her to let us borrow it...
daytona chargers!!, Challangers!!,Hemi Cudas, GTX Judges!! OH when the musle car was KING!!! I just drool when i see one now. Too bad these bad ass wheels are so rare now.
So this 1971 Mustang is chopped liver? One owner (as far as my father knows)!
http://keads-anotherday.blogspot.com/2010/04/retro-sunday_25.html
I am hurt!
I've only seen one Daytona, and that was at a car zoo, where petting was discouraged. Never seen one in the wild....
Yeah, man and God both cranked out some pretty sharp birds in '69... ;O)
AT
There's no replacement for displacement.
The photo you link to is of a car at The National Automobile and Truck Museum of the U.S. in Auburn, Indiana. It is adjacent to the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum. Nirvana for gear heads.
w/v= "moder" Honking big moder you got under that hood.
Oh, super cars aren't that bad. Had Larry Nance follow me up a Valley Road back in the 90's in a Ferrari. When I looked in the review mirror, I smiled, hit the turn signal, pulled off the side and waived him passed. When I got to the traffic light a few miles down the road. He'd had pulled over and waved me down. I leaned out the window and he said, "why'd you do that, letting me pass you?" I replied, "well, for once, I'd like to see a Ferrari get out of Second around this town". He laughed, and we went our separate ways.
Actually preferred the lines on the Plymouth Road Runners more than the Chargers, myself. And all the GM cars just looked Fat.
Too bad those days are gone.
Hemis, Camaros and Ponys, oh my! Hemis, Camaros and Ponys, oh my!
While I agree entirely and heartily with the sentiment (I mayhaps have recently slammed the brakes and dropped into slow crawl mode to check out a parked '69 camaro SS parked on the side of the street on the way to the grocery store), but for just a split second when I read the title I stopped to question just what the hell I did get up to the last time I got really truly liquored up.
It's classic pick-ups that do it for me.
Ya'Know, I've seen a few Classic Car Dream Cruise events in the MoTown region.
But I don't remember seeing a Dodge Charger Daytona in the wild, as it were.
(As far as classic cars go, I do love them curves on the late-60's Corvettes...)
I was tooling to town with my 67 Fairlane GT 390 at a rather high rate when a Superbird blew by like I was standing still. This was in the mid 70s. I found out the guy's name and when I talked to him this summer, I found out he still has it. I bought my 71 Road Runner from his brother.
A former co-worker of mine has the GTX he bought with his second military pay-check, along with all the accessories, papers, manuals et cetera. He has a source for "real gas" and while his boys were teenagers, he would remove bits of the engine when he wasn't driving it. "Cheap insurance," he called it.
LittleRed1
ever been to allpar.com ? I think you'd enjoy it... set aside a couple hours though, it might grab you.
"Back when stock cars were actually STOCK cars..."
Not really .... that one had both ends designed by NASA.... REAL stock car racing was born of Moonshiners taking actual "stock" used cars and removing everthing not necessary to transporting tax-free booze at whatever speed necessary to evade Johnny Law... When the Fedgov and Chrysler are the parents of a special order street legal racecar .... the "stock" is pretty meaningless....
.... and Hypnogogue beat me to it!
"Dinoco Blue?"
Oh, what a beauty! Of note is the blasphemous nature of the "modern" Charger Daytona daring to grace the same Wiki article.
But the '69? What a car. I'da been snapping pictures with my phone at every stop sign and red light.
tweaker
"I'da been snapping pictures with my phone at every stop sign and red light."
Snapping what with my what?
Didn't even NASCAR outlaw the Daytona and Superbirds after just a couple of races? I know the NRHA did.
When you scare the mega motorheads you have really made a car!
Gerry
Should be NHRA. sorry.
Gerry
Kudos for titling with the pinnacle...the top, the Colosseum, the Louvre Museum, of non-instrumental surf music.
I actually drove a shiny red 1956 Corvette sting ray across Nashville.
I could hear the snapping necks over the engine noise.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0gX-bipodU
Yeah, I love those cars. Both the Daytona and the Superbird. They're just so outrageous. :)
"...Actually preferred the lines on the Plymouth Road Runners more than the Chargers, myself. And all the GM cars just looked Fat...."
I find that I have the same reaction to a lot of the cars of the mid 70's that are, somehow, often referred to as musclecars these days.
Examples: 1974 Plymouth Satellite (How big does a car have to get before it gets it's own zip code?), 1972-6 Gran Torino (Ugh...and I'm a Ford guy), and the 73-77(?) Chevelle (Oh, how wayward GM got!).
Anyone else have any nominees for biganduglyfromtheseventies?
You were a resident of East Tennessee and lived in ... Farragut!?
That's like being Michael Collins on Apollo Eleven.
"Yeah, I went to the moon. Well, I didn't actually stand on the moon; I just got really close."
If you move back: Blount County.
;)
I own 2 vehicles, a 2000 Chevy Silverado with a 5.3 liter V-8 and a '68 Charger R/T with a 440. Guess which is my favorite to drive ?
The whole experience of driving the Charger is different, the feel, the sound, even the smell. Besides, when you're neighbor comes out to see what was shaking her china after you start the car you just HAVE to smile.
Damn, don't want to to get on Tam's bad side ... I meant YOUR neighbor
Thanks bunches, Tam. Not only have I discovered that I know all the lyrics to "Deadman's Curve" by heart, the little soundtrack in my head categorically refuses to stop playing it.
WON'T COME BACK FROM DEADMAN'S CURVE
Cool, I learned to drive a stick in a '69 Charger, not a Daytona though. The one we had only had a 383 and a four barrel carburetor. Not quite sure what possessed my dad to bring home a car like that with four boys in the house, all either learning to drive or soon to be.
Before it went belly-up, Moothart Chrysler-Plymouth had a Road Runner in the showroom, in lime. Now, THAT'S a car! And, the aerodynamics allowed a drag coefficient (cd) of just 0.28(Read more at http://www.allpar.com/model/superbird.html?ktrack=kcplink)
Alas that it's too much for my budget right now! :(
But, I do have a Reliant that could, I speak hypothetically, do enough over the limit to get me arrested. Don't ask for my empirical data on it, though. :)
Ulises from CA
LabRat,
Bonus points for "Shutdown" or "Little Deuce Coupe". :D
(I once had a Dodge Coronet 440 with an 8 Track; among the glove box full of tapes it came with was Car Songs, by the Beach Boys. It's amazing how some of those lyrics are still glued in my head 20-some-odd years later... :o )
"Shutdown", no, "Little Deuce Coupe", yes.
Other all-time dominating earworm of the family for me is "Little Old Lady From Pasadena".
If you see her on the street don't try to choose her.
But "Shutdown" has a Stingray in it! ;)
Stretch said...There's no replacement for displacement.
Amen and preach it. Long about 1973, a buddy of mine bought a fully restored 1965 t-bird. He was on a trip from Philadelphia to Wildwood, NJ one afternoon when a new Porsche decided to play games with him, whipping in and out of traffic and making a general nuisance.
Until they got to the Atlantic City Expressway, a long STRAIGHTAWAY.
My friend put his foot down, the 4-barrel opened up, the dual exhaust started making that moaning sound and it was adios, Porsche.
I, however, have no such victory stories.
Exhibit A: me in a '65 Galaxie(352 w/ a 4-barrel) vs a '66 Fairlane. Didn't see the emblem on the fender... GT-A. Needlass to say, I did not win.
Exhibit B: Same Galaxie vs a '59 Chrysler. I was maxed out at 115 and it was pulling away. I mentioned it to my dad, who enlightened me on Mopars.
Exhibit C: me in a '67 Delta 88. A small, aerodynamic looking thing buzzed by. I thought it was a VW with a kit body, so I throttled up to pass. I got close enough to see the emblem over the license plate, and he went to warp drive.
The emblem said Dino. As in Ferrari.
I saw the car later. It belonged to my dad's cardiologist. When he stopped laughing, my dad suggested I quit trying to race, since I never learned how to fight in my own weight class.
Stay safe
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