1971 Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona Wind Tunnel Tests

By Dave Ashton

Anybody who’s taking at least a passing glance at the Plymouth Superbird and the Dodge Daytona may think that nose cone and rear wing were slapped on for vanities sake, not having any practical use. On top of that, the cars really only raced and produced in the ’70 NASCAR season, as the rules were changed in 1971, banning wing cars. These videos hope to rectify these points giving insight into the car’s aerodynamics and potential ‘what if’ models as they may have been for the 1971 season.

These cars were built ‘based upon results from a secret wind tunnel test report Chrysler had conducted in early 1970 on the new 71 Dodge and Plymouth B-bodies.’ This along with Chryslers notes and data from the 3/8 model tests from the Wing Warriors Car Club by Chrysler producing hypothetical 1971 models of both the Superbird and Daytona. After being built they were tested at the AeroDyn & A2 windtunnel with Gary Romberg, one of the original aerodynamicists who worked on the wing cars at Chrysler.

The video is fascinating to watch for anybody who has even a slight interest in how these winged warriors actually worked aerodynamically.
The second video shows a test with the ‘air grabber’ open on the hood, with the other videos showing the airstream over the complete body and the rear wing. No wonder these cars are designed to run at 200 mph.

In some ways, it’s a shame all this information wasn’t available back in the day to the public. Winged Warrior sales were dreadful back in the day, being seen as way to out of the norm. even for the most ardent muscle car fan of the day. If we only knew how well the cars worked and their future worth, they would have been snapped up far quicker rather than being the oddities of the car sales lot.

Wind Tunnel Test: “43” 1971 Petty Superbird

71 Superbird concept car

1971 Dodge Daytona Tribute Car Wind Tunnel Test

You can find out more about the cars here – http://www.71wingcars.com/

More Muscle Cars For Sale – http://fastmusclecar.com/muscle-car-for-sale/

 

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