Race Card #52-This won't happen again.

[LUKE'57]

Do you think that any of the car companies would tool up and build a special car just for one driver today? Say what you will, but it happened in 1970. In the late '60's there was a lot of interest in the newly emerging science of aerodynamics on the stock car circuit that resulted in some very different looks. First there was the Charger 500 (the name reflected the number built, but more on that later)to counter the newly introduced Torino and Cyclone from FoMoCo. Consisting of a slight "cleaning up" in the grill and backlight area, it's success prompted Ford to retaliate with the new extended front end sheet metal and bumpers of Ford's Talladega and Mercury's Spoiler II. The gloves really came off with the debut of the Charger Daytona and its way out nose and huge rear wing. It looked to be so superior on the big ovals that "King Richard" Petty decided he had to have one. Chrysler said,"No, we have Dodge Teams and Plymouth teams and you're on the Plymouth team."

Well, in one of the most startling announcements in racing till then, Petty countered with,"Not anymore. I'm Ford's newest driver." You had to be there to even imagine the uproar that caused with the fans, not to mention the Mopar brass. And when Petty won his first race in a Ford at the Riverside 500 it only got worse.

Chrysler brass watched the Petty Ford as long as they could stand it until the decision was made to get "our driver" back in '70. What it took was a model run that no matter how you look at it was done just to get Richard back. Chrysler fed their little Roadrunner some radioactive isotopes and probably gave it an injection of rabies and distemper and came up with the Superbird.

Well, there was good news and there was bad news. The good news was that Petty came back "home" to Mopar but the bad news was a little surprise Nascar had for the manufacturers. The "500 count production run for special vehicles" had been replaced by one requiring one car for every two dealers in the country. That meant that instead of just letting Petty have the Daytona in '69 and probably winning more races than they did, they had to build over twice as many Superbirds as they did Daytonas just to get the car qualified for competition.

I guess it all ended well since the new Plymouth went to victory lane in that year's Daytona 500 and didn'y even need the King to take it there. Petty's team mate, relative newcomer Pete Hamilton beat the veteran Ford driver, David Pearson, in a rousing tire smoking last lap duel to put Plymouth's newest feathered speedster in victory lane.

[Honoturtle]

I enjoyed reading the history! The car looks great.