(tires screeching) - What the heck was that? It came like that! You're eight years old,
exploring Dead Man's Creek behind Old Man Spankenburg's house. Everyone knows you don't go into that old red barn, but somethin' catches your eye, in the
corner you notice a shape under a fraying canvas tarp. You pull the sheet and as the dust settles, you discover the most beautifully weird car you've ever friggin' seen. What is this, how did it get here? This is everything you need to know to get up to speed on the Dodge Daytona, and the Plymouth Superbird. In 1968 Nascar was a big deal, and Dodge was gettin' their butt kicked by Ford and struggling to keep up with their sister company, Plymouth. It was pretty embarrassing. - It's completely humiliating. - So, the order came from the very top, build a car that can win
and do whatever it takes. The first try was a modified Charger. The '68 Charger is an icon, probably top five best looking American cars ever, but it was a crummy race car. The wide ass grill trapped in a bunch of air and the flying buttresses created a vacuum that sucked the car upward, making it impossible to
drive at high speeds. To fix this, Dodge fitted
the Charger with the grill from the Coronet and made the rear window flush with the b-pillars. The result was the Charger 500, a much smoother car that could
actually handle at high speed But it wasn't enough to win as
Ford had also been perfecting their own stock car, the Gran Torino, named after Clint Eastwood. When the Charger and
Torino met at Daytona, Ford went home with the win. Dodge was fucking pissed. And to add insult to injury, Plymouth's star driver Richard Petty was tired of driving such a crummy
race car and left for Ford, promptly winning the first race of 1969. The pressure was on Dodge to save face and lure Petty back to the team. Dodge engineers whipped up a radical concept with a pointy
nose and a big ass wing. They sent the sketch to Dodge
general manager, Rob McCurry. And he said it was the
ugliest car he had ever seen. But, he followed it up
with, will it win races, I gotta win Nascar or I'm
gonna get friggin' fired. The Charger Daytona was a go. Dodge even brought in a
guy from Chrysler's missile division to work on the Daytona project. Wait, what, Chrysler had a
missile division, what the frick? Yeah, dude, Chrysler built
ballistic missiles for the government, missiles
designed by Nazi scientists that we brought over
here after World War II. It was called Operation Paperclip, it's a real thing. Happened, Google it. Back to the car, John
Pointer was a literal rocket scientist. Chrysler thought that
building the Daytona was more than the Cold War, that's what I call having your priorities in order. Dodge took their winged beast to the Chelsea Proving
Grounds for some testing. But, when the drivers got to the track, the Dodge engineers gave them specific instructions not to go
over 190 miles per hour. Here's why they couldn't do that, Ford had spy planes circling the track, this is weird, right? Chrysler had a missile division
and Ford had spy planes. What a time to be alive! Dodge driver Charlie
Glotzbach drove the Daytona to 204 miles an hour, the first Nascar to break the 200 mile an hour mark. The team kept the top speed a secret, no one outside of Chrysler's engineering staff or upper management knew how fast their car really was. The Daytona made its public debut on September 14th, 1969 at the Alabama International
Speedway, AKA, the house that Ricky Bobby built. - Well Jack, here's the
deal, I'm the best there is, plain and simple, I mean I wake up in the morning and I piss excellence - The Daytona took pole position with ease and claimed victory the next day. Ford and Chevy had no idea what hit them. What just hit us? Dude I have no idea what just hit us! Why have we been fighting this whole time? You're actually pretty cool. Nah, but we're rivals. And then they pretended
to hate each other. The Daytona then won seven out of the last 10 races of the 1969 season. It was clear, their
hard work had paid off. The pointy nose cut through the air better than anything else on the track. And that insane wing gave it insane grip. And those little scoops on the fenders weren't just for looks babe. Dodge told Nascar they were for wheel clearance at high speeds. But what the vents really did was relieve air pressure that built up under the car, keeping
it glued to the track. Oh, and about that wing,
the wing was so big, because it needed to be in the clean air. John Pointer, our rocket
scientist from before, remember? He knew that the already swirling air just above the tail would have
less contrasting forces, so he put the wing up high where it could produce significantly more
downforce to the rear wheels. Also, for the Daytona to be legal to race, Dodge had to build 500 production models for the public to buy. On Sunday you could watch
the craziest looking race cat ever destroy the competition, then go buy the same car on Monday. That's marketing, baby,
but it really didn't work. Dealers had a really, really
hard time selling the Daytona. It was weird looking, and the nose made engine overheating a real problem. It got even harder the
next year when Nascar rules said 1,500 cars had to
be delivered to dealers. That's three times as many. The next season, Plymouth brought to life a winged car of their own, the Superbird. (tires screeching) And even though both the
'tona and the bird looked pretty similar, there are some subtle differences betwixt them. You gotta be a real connoisseur
of winged, pointy nosed Nascar cars to know. For one, Plymouth designers
really didn't like the idea of putting a big nose on their prized Roadrunner,
and only agreed to do it if they could make it look better. The nose was reshaped
and the wing was placed further up on the trunk. These changes made the Superbird around three miles per hour slower than the Daytona, and after two hundred laps, I gotta be honest with you, that makes a pretty big difference. But that didn't stop Richard Petty from returning to Plymouth for the 1970 season. In his signature Petty blue paint scheme. Well, well, well, we
finally have a good car and now suddenly Richie's interested? I see how it is, dick. Now, we have two race
cars with giant wings that people would buy at the dealership. Am I the only one who sees how fucking crazy this is? Chrysler wanted to win Nascar so bad that they made 3,000 cars that will only be sold to two guys, Joe Dirt, and Matthew McConaughey
in Dazed and Confused. Actually, if you think about it, I'm sort of a mix between Joe Dirt and Matthew McConaughey from
Dazed and Confused, Dads? They 1970 season was friggin' dominated by Chrysler's aero car,
the Daytona and Superbird won 33 out of 48 races that season. But, their supremacy was short lived. For the 1971 season, Nascar rules mandated that any aero car couldn't have an engine bigger than 300 cubic inches, the fuck? The rule killed the Daytona
and Superbird over night. Nascar officials said they were concerned with the crazy high speeds
these cars could achieve. Oh, come on, Nascar, I thought
that we were here to race. That's not the real reason, how about you be honest. No, no, I'm good, I've only had one drink. Today, the Daytona and Superbird live on as legendary muscle cars. Outlandish survivors from a time before stock cars became shapeless blobs with painted on headlights. Maybe someday Nascar will put the stock back in stock car racing, but until then I'll be fantasizing about having a Daytona of my own. Oh, and if anyone from Nascar is watching, please add more road courses
to the calendar, thanks. So, there it is,
everything you need to know to get up to speed on the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird. We're gonna move beyond cars, we're gonna start doing track,
rivalries, racing series, designers, drivers, et cetera. What do you want to see on
future episodes of Up to Speed? Donut is a family, Donut
is a channel, Donut wants the support of its fans
on every show that we do. Please help us be a success,
you guys are the best. As always, like,
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