Petty at 1977 Daytona 500, NO stripes between the blue and red

[odcics2]

Not that many pics of the 77 Petty Charger Daytona 500 paint scheme out there.
Check out those 9 hole chrome wheels.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Is there any spoiler on that car?

 

[odcics2]

 

[Rishi]

looks like the coveted phantom spoiler. that has been spoiling week-old leftover for decades.

 

[odcics2]

Same as this, most likely.

 

[Rishi]

I'm always been a big fan of Richard Petty. He and his crew pioneered many things, and Nascar made/changed many rules as a result of his wins.

one of my favorite stories: the Richard Petty team got the idea to wrap insulation around the header pipe from cylinder head all the way back to the exhaust tip. it was standard physics knowledge that hot air flows faster than cold air. I presume they did this in an effort to improve power/efficiency with faster flowing exhaust. I don't know when or which race it was, but this mod lasted one race, before Nascar changed the rules outlawing the practice. During the race, anytime another car would attempt to draft behind Richard Petty, the hot air from his exhaust was so hot, it caused the solder to melt in the radiator of the car behind Petty, which then resulted in rapid spillage of coolant causing cars to either pit falling out of the race, or lose traction and spin out into the wall. Petty won that race.

 

[odcics2]

Hmm, what’s your source of this information?

 

[j-c-c-62]

That is a neat story, and that is all it is, with a couple of facts thrown in, like RP was driving, other cars followed/drafted him, and he won the race.
Little else is true however.

 

[Rishi]

Hmm, what’s your source of this information?

hearsay, as most stories are.

edit: maybe even "car show hearsay" which is of dubious authenticity.