Earnhardt's 1975 Charger

[KiwiKid72]

I have an interest in stockcars from 1965 - 1972. Very specific because I like the style of these cars and the fact they were stock and could be purchased from dealerships by the average Joe.

I like 1966 - 1974 Chargers in general until they
t̶u̶r̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶u̶g̶l̶y̶ changed shape in 1975. My question is, why did Dale Earnhardt's 1975 Charger look like a '74 Charger? Google has not been my friend on this topic.

 

[Cranky]

Didn't even know he drove a Charger back then.....but I'm not a die hard fan of that racing series either.

 

[pnora]

Hard to say. 1975 was his first and only NASCAR race in 1975. It was a car built and owned by Ed Negre. Back then I doubt there was the sponsorship for that team so he most likely ran what was offered to him. So most likely it was a 1974.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Bodies were legal for I believe 3 years. 1975 would be okay with a '73,'74,'75

 

[#41]

Its a 73 or 74 body for sure, but lots of guys ran the 2-3 year old Charger bodies including Richard Petty through 76. Why? My guess is that it is a pretty slippery body compared to all the rectangular cars that started coming out in 1975. Petty himself has said that the last Charger-bodied cars were his favorite race cars of his career.

 

[Budnicks]

it's not a 75 above
a 75 Charger looks a lot like a Cordoba
here's a 1975 Charger in Daytona garb

 

[Budnicks]

10,00 RPM Speed Equipt. sponsors, in 1975

1974 Charger advert.

 

[Budnicks]

1973 Charger advert.

 

[KiwiKid72]

Thanks for the replies. The Internet (especially the die-cast and model cars) are calling the car itself a '75 Charger. Clearly we know better. As stated in this thread, it was not unusual to run cars that were a couple of years old.

 

[Photon440]

I have an interest in stockcars from 1965 - 1972. Very specific because I like the style of these cars and the fact they were stock and could be purchased from dealerships by the average Joe.

I like 1966 - 1974 Chargers in general until they
t̶u̶r̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶u̶g̶l̶y̶ changed shape in 1975. My question is, why did Dale Earnhardt's 1975 Charger look like a '74 Charger? Google has not been my friend on this topic.

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View attachment 1419420

Nascar allowed the old styles because nothing else was competitive from Chrysler. Richard Petty used the 1974 Charger through to the end of the 1977 season.

 

[YY1]

75 NASCAR season car but was a 74 body.

Agree Petty's 75 car was too.

 

[KiwiKid72]

Exactly. Petty knew there was no advantage in driving a 1975 car. The King knew a winning car when he drove one.

 

[Photon440]

Unfortunately, Richard never raced that (or any) Plymouth again after 1972.

 

[weedburner]

I have a mostly complete '71 383 Charger that my daughter recently bought me as a retirement project. My plans are to build it as a street legal, stock interior, bench seat cruiser with an outer mid '70's dirt track theme. Car sitting low with big tires and wide rims on all 4 corners with big radiused wheelwell openings. M&H dot drag radials look a lot like dirt track tires, might even install wide 5 spindles/hubs, 4w disc brakes, maybe an old quick change.

I am only semi-retired, still making my ClutchTamer and Hitmaster products for drag racers. I ran BB Mopar powered Outlaw Dirt Late Models with backwards mounted engines starting back in '85, so I stll have a soft spot for dirt track cars. Here's a pic of one of my backwards engine cars without the body installed...

The headers are a set of Tri-Ys made by my friend Hank Young, he was one of Doug Thorley's first employees and had made countless sets of Tri-Y headers. My homemade transmission was hung off the off the former "front" of the engine, I still have that little homemade bellhousing under a bench out in the shop. That transmission's input shaft plugged into a home-made coupler that bolted to the harmonic balancer. A couple extra "keys" were added between the balancer and crank, just simple holes drilled along the parting line with some dowels installed. The drivetrain was "reverse rotation" with the engine installed backwards, which required me to modify the QC rear to put the ring gear on the other side of the pinion. I always had more time than money, this car even featured widened steel wheels and home-made steel beadlocks.

As far as I know, it was the last BB Mopar to win a feature at my local speedway.

Here's a pic of the last Outlaw Dirt Latemodel i built back around '95, it was powered by 2 Mazda rotary engines bolted together...

Grant

 

[padam]

I have a mostly complete '71 383 Charger that my daughter recently bought me as a retirement project. My plans are to build it as a street legal, stock interior, bench seat cruiser with an outer mid '70's dirt track theme. Car sitting low with big tires and wide rims on all 4 corners with big radiused wheelwell openings. M&H dot drag radials look a lot like dirt track tires, might even install wide 5 spindles/hubs, 4w disc brakes, maybe an old quick change.

I am only semi-retired, still making my ClutchTamer and Hitmaster products for drag racers. I ran BB Mopar powered Outlaw Dirt Late Models with backwards mounted engines starting back in '85, so I stll have a soft spot for dirt track cars. Here's a pic of one of my backwards engine cars without the body installed...

View attachment 1420105

The headers are a set of Tri-Ys made by my friend Hank Young, he was one of Doug Thorley's first employees and had made countless sets of Tri-Y headers. My homemade transmission was hung off the off the former "front" of the engine, I still have that little homemade bellhousing under a bench out in the shop. That transmission's input shaft plugged into a home-made coupler that bolted to the harmonic balancer. A couple extra "keys" were added between the balancer and crank, just simple holes drilled along the parting line with some dowels installed. The drivetrain was "reverse rotation" with the engine installed backwards, which required me to modify the QC rear to put the ring gear on the other side of the pinion. I always had more time than money, this car even featured widened steel wheels and home-made steel beadlocks.

As far as I know, it was the last BB Mopar to win a feature at my local speedway.

Here's a pic of the last Outlaw Dirt Latemodel i built back around '95, it was powered by 2 Mazda rotary engines bolted together...

View attachment 1420116

View attachment 1420117

Grant

Can’t wait to see what you do with the Charger.
You are a very innovative guy.

 

[JR_Charger]

Its a 73 or 74 body for sure, but lots of guys ran the 2-3 year old Charger bodies including Richard Petty through 76. Why? My guess is that it is a pretty slippery body compared to all the rectangular cars that started coming out in 1975. Petty himself has said that the last Charger-bodied cars were his favorite race cars of his career.

The 3rd gen was his favorite, and I believe it was specifically the 74 - but if you look at his 74 car, the rear wheel openings are partially faired in and I suspect that modification is what made it the best.

The 4th gen Charger was the last rwd 2 door Charger. Apparently Petty never drove it, sticking with the 74 3rd gen; but he did make a try with this 78 Magnum and initially did well with it - although that car has a fun Petty quote associated with it too - "undriveable above 190 MPH."

That article says that the 74 Charger had become uncompetitive, but the 78 Magnum initially did well. My first thought was that Petty had to switch because the rules wouldn't allow the 3rd gen body to continue, but is it possible the Magnum had some advantage? What could it be, if the Magnum was undrivable above 190? The Magnum's front, with the covered head lights, might be slippier; but I've read that the most important area for aerodynamics is the transition from the roof to the rear deck. That area looks about as optimal as it could be on the 3rd gen (no doubt the engineers at Dodge were determined to get it right after the debacle with the 2nd gen Charger's rear window). The Magnum's formal roof line looks like it would be as bad as the 2nd gen Charger's recessed rear window.

It's certainly sad how bad Chrysler and Team Petty's finances were in 78. It's hard to believe they went from the mighty 426 HEMI to scrounging for junkyard 340's. Why is there never anyone who can stop the madness?

I have a mostly complete '71 383 Charger that my daughter recently bought me as a retirement project. My plans are to build it as a street legal, stock interior, bench seat cruiser with an outer mid '70's dirt track theme. Car sitting low with big tires and wide rims on all 4 corners with big radiused wheelwell openings. M&H dot drag radials look a lot like dirt track tires, might even install wide 5 spindles/hubs, 4w disc brakes, maybe an old quick change.

I am only semi-retired, still making my ClutchTamer and Hitmaster products for drag racers. I ran BB Mopar powered Outlaw Dirt Late Models with backwards mounted engines starting back in '85, so I stll have a soft spot for dirt track cars. Here's a pic of one of my backwards engine cars

Wait, what? For the uninitiated, why would you put the engine in backwards?

 

[DeltaV]

 

[Cheapsunglasses]

Didn't even know he drove a Charger back then.....but I'm not a die hard fan of that racing series either.

For some reason it’s not a well know fact, I guess the chevy guys don’t want people to know. Dale started his carrier as a test driver for direct connections dirt car kit car program.

 

[Some Car Guy]

You can watch the last race for that body style charger on youtube. I believe Neil bonnet won at Ontario ca.

 

[DeltaV]

November 20, 1977 - LA Times 500