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Interesting project....

I was stationed in the fire rescue truck between turns 1&2 when the car was t-boned. Was 1st to arrive at scene & climbed into side window & saw my 1st dead person. PS- car was not on fire.
 
Very cool! Here is the text and a few pics from the ad.

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The car up for auction is the 1969 426 Hemi Dodge Charger Daytona, #48 originally owned, and driven by Jame Hylton, in the 1969 and 70 NASCAR Racing seasons.



Life for this car started at Nickels Engineering, just like all the race cars built for Chrysler in NASCAR competition. Ray Nickels received the cars from Chrysler as a "body in white", with no VIN or Serial numbers associated with them. From there they made all the racing modifications and built the 426 Race Hemi's form components received from Chrysler. All the Nickels Engineering Hemi's received a serial number, weather they were installed in cars or sold separately, and this engine is an original Serial numbered Nickels Hemi block. The Race Hemi's included a dry sump oiling system with 2 oil pumps, an internal and external, and a magnesium oil pan. The top of the motor has the NASCAR "bath tub" intake manifold and the Holley dominator carburetor with the "la-mans bowls".




Included with the car is a complete 426 Hemi race engine, carburetor to oil pan, including headers, and a race transmission, a prestolite ignition system and dual point tach drive distributor (the heads are unported and not original). A new floor pan, new fuel cell, and numerous miscellaneous parts.




All the race Daytona's had the nose cone welded to the front fenders as part of the racing modifications. Additionally the fender scoop openings in the fenders were enlarged to increase the air flow. The air box in front of the radiator ducted air to the radiator, and replaced the latch tray assembly. This original race nose cone was used in competition by Jack McCoy on his #7 west coast Daytona in 1969 and 1970, it still retains half of its original paint.

James Hylton, has had a long and distinguished career in NASCAR competition, including the prestigious rookie of the year in 1966 when he finished second in the points. He has 2 wins in the top tier NASCAR Cup Series, along with 140 top 5's and 301 top 10's in 601 races. Hylton was in the championship hunt many times in the 1960's and 70's, finishing an amazing second in points 3 times, and third in the points 4 times, between 66 and 75!





The car was discovered by Dean Yeargen in South Carolina. Dean, a long time friend of Cotton Owens, contacted him in hopes of identify the car, based on his extensive first hand knowledge of the Chrysler race cars. After Cotton Owens had inspected the car, he identified it as James Hylton's Daytona, based on the chassis, yellow paint, and the specific mounting holes for the race wing the Daytona's had. After this, James Hylton was contacted to authenticate, and confirm this, based on his first hand knowledge of the car. James was able to identify the car based on additional braces that he had added to this car. The early cars were prone to cracking in the second member, because of the increased G loads from the high down force of the added nose and wing of the Daytona's . It is precisely this brace that James Hylton added to his car, the yellow paint that Jame used on his cars, the holes in the trunk for the wing struts, and the location of the car, that has allowed Cotton Owens, and James Hylton to positively ID this specific car as James's 1969 Dodge Daytona. Of the approximately 40 race Daytona's built, this is only 1 of 6 known to have survived. 3 are in museums, and the other 3 are in private collections.




Sadly, this car has sat out in the South Carolina seasons, and has badly rusted. There is no point in posting photos of the underside of the car, it will only make you cry, just be advised that the bottom half of the car needs to be replaced.




The previous owner, who documented the car, was Bill Rossi, son of Mario Rossi, owner of the #22 Dodge Daytona driven by Bobby Allison in 1969 and 70 NASCAR competition. Included in the sale will be a signed statement of facts from James Hylton, Dean Yeargen, and Bill Rossi documenting the car. All of whom are still alive and able to answer questions concerning the car and races. For serious inquires, you may call me at 530-828-3156 for additional information (10am-10pm pacific time), you may need to leave a message, and I will call you back.




The record book shows that James drove the Daytona in three races in 1969 and 70 before selling the car to Talmage Prince 2 weeks before the 1970 Daytona qualifiers.




*October 12th 11th place Charlotte $1,675 winnings

*December 7th 4th place Texas $3,700 winnings

*January 18th **35th place Riverside $ 820 winnings




*Source: Greg Fielden; 40 years of Stock Car Racing

**Engine Failure




Tragicly, this is the only Daytona a driver was killed in. Talmadge Prince lost his life in an accident on the 19th lap of the second Daytona qualifier, on February 19th, 1970. Catastrophic failure of the Hemi engine allowed oil and debris to coat the race track, causing the car to begin sliding sideways, when he was struck broadside, and died of a broken neck. The car was credited with a 28th place finish.




After Pirnce's death, the car sat at the Prince dealership for 6 months, and was sold with the dealership, before being sent off for repairs. The drivers side roll bars and front hoop suffered major damage along with the front suspension which had to be replaced and upgraded.











On Dec-02-14 at 16:35:40 PST, seller added the following information:


My apologizes to the late Ray Nichels for misspelling his name. I wish I could edit the spelling.



On Dec-03-14 at 00:48:52 PST, seller added the following information:

To Quote Doug




"A wise old racer once said, "There is nothing more useless than yesterday's race car.""

"These cars were raced, repaired, rebodied, raced some more, rebodied again, kicked down the food chain to Goober and Gomer, raced some more, and THEN, if they were still around, pushed out to the field. That is why there are so few remaining speedway cars from the golden era. ""




I have had to answer a LOT of e-mails, because I forgot to answer the glaring question... Yes, the quarter panels, and roof were replaced at some point with 68 parts, and the car is missing the rear window plug. Sorry guys. The Daytona trunk lid is in the picture of the parts, along with a new floor pan, of course the car will need more parts than that.

The engine does in fact have the dry sump oil system, with the dual oil pumps, 1 internal, and 1 external, and the magnesium oil pan.
 

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There's been a long discussion on an Early Nascar History facebook group about the car as to some things that supposedly point away from being a real Nichels car, but could have been in line with repairs that would have been done to continue racing it. It's definitely had a rebody though as the back half of the car is definitely not Daytona. Then when the auction started getting a lot of attention it was randomely ended early. Pretty interesting
 
Where's the rear window plug? That thing looks wasted.
 
Thanks Meeps good read


It has 68 Rear quarters & roof lines, with the little round marker lights on the quarters
maybe it was a 68 that was updated with a front section fenders & nose
of a 69 Daytona possibly, what's there now isn't a Daytona,
it may have been raced but the body is completely suspect,
unless maybe it was an early mule,
I don't know the history without doing some investigating...

I think the K&K Insurance car was the early Mule car, top 2 photos
it was allegedly originally a 68 also, there are shots of testing in 1968
but it also had the rear window mod already done, no visible marker or tail lights ether
 

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