Was The Plymouth Superbird Slower than the Dodge Charger Daytona?

By Dave Ashton

The Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Charger Daytona Winged Warrior cars were some of the most outlandish designs of the muscle car era. Dodge built roughly 503 Daytonas, while Plymouth sold 1935 Superbirds to comply with NASCAR ruling.

The Superbirds outsold the Daytonas, but the Charger Daytona was a more focused program by Chrysler, who employed aerodynamicists and the like to simply win at NASCAR. The Superbird in comparison was mainly built to lure Richard Petty back from Ford after the 1969 season. The Superbird didn’t sell very well at the time and only competed for half a season, but this hasn’t diminished its long-term spot in muscle car history.

As the nose cone and wing were more an aesthetic on the Plymouth, the aerodynamics people at Plymouth argued that the changes actually made the car 1-3 mph slower than the Daytona. This could be significant over qualifying and longer races, but it didn’t stop the Superbird, winning many times in 1970.

So, the Plymouth Superbird arguably adopted the nose and rear wing to make it more visually pleasing, while the Charger Daytona was more aerodynamically crafted.

If you want to read more about the construction and aerodynamic testing of both vehicles, you can find plenty of information here.

Common below with your thoughts on both the Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona.

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