Petty v Baker 1973 Daytona 500 - Check out the fender tweaking!!

[odcics2]

The Baker fender looks stock. The Petty fenders have been modified. Look at that curve!

From this angle, the Petty fender either droops downward or inward - narrowing the front end. (or a combination of both)

What do you think??

An inch here or there adds up at Daytona.

 

[Charger72]

Are they both the same year? The Petty fender at the wheel opening looks different to me unless it's the angle.

 

[#41]

Yes the Petty cars did exactly that. The hood and fender leading edges were also flattened to match the bumper upper profile to eliminate the gap that exists on stock versions of 3rd gen Chargers. By 73 there were tons a subtle changes being incorporated into "stock" car builds. The game was rapidly changing.

 

[Photon440]

Quarter windows are different, so maybe they're different years. Wheel openings were larger on the 73-74 versions.

 

[j-c-c-62]

Buddy Baker, favorite memory of Buddy was at 66? Daytona he was driving a white Dodge and mid race he finally had gained the lead. He not long after needed to make a pit stop. I happened to be in the pits not far from his pit stall. Next thing I saw was Buddy coming down pit lane bypassing his pit at 100mph?, backwards.

 

[496 polara]

#71 car is a 71/2 and #43 is a 73/74 IMO.

 

[70 sublime]

The 1971 72 Chargers have the side window swoop up to the top of the roof vs the 73 74 Chargers where the window is longer at the bottom
Also on the 71 72 cars the doors are taller on the back edge to meet the shape of the window so 71 72 doors will not fit 73 74 cars

 

[RTDaddy]

Harry Hyde ran the 71/72 Charger body due to the smaller rear quarter window allowing less air into the car. Also note how wide the panel is from the interior to the window to try to prevent air from entering the car. Things like that lead to a NASCAR rule limiting the width of panels to the interior. The 71-72 superspeedway car got wiped out in the "big one" at the 73 Winston 500. after sitting out a lot of the 74 season (when Baker left K & K) due to rules that killed the Hemi, Harry came back with a 74 Charger that had the "opera" window quarter windows to limit the air entering the interior. Rpbert Gee (Dale Earnhardt's former Father-in-law) was the bodyman for K & K, and a lot of his "metal massaging" is not as noticeable as others.

 

[j-c-c-62]

I always wondered if the hood pins at the leading edge of the cars in that era where effectively hillbilly "vortex generators". Aero wise it's a horrible place it would seem to place hood pins.
While we are looking back, the first spoiler in Nascar appeared on Sam McQuagg's White Charger at Daytona 400 in 1966. Seeing it in myself person as a small strip of metal, it could not have stood up more than 1/2"?

 

[RemCharger]

I always wondered if the hood pins at the leading edge of the cars in that era where effectively hillbilly "vortex generators". Aero wise it's a horrible place it would seem to place hood pins.
While we are looking back, the first spoiler in Nascar appeared on Sam McQuagg's White Charger at Daytona 400 in 1966. Seeing it in myself person as a small strip of metal, it could not have stood up more than 1/2"?

An inch and 3/4 for the production one

 

[odcics2]

The #71 is a reskinned Nichels built 69 Daytona or 500.
Notice the filler pieces by the "A" pillars to the cage that #43 does not have, being it was a new ground up build.

Same reason the aluminum piece on the door top to main hoop of the #71 1969 cage is wider than that of the #43.
The 1971 and later Chargers are a lot wider than the 68-70 Chargers.

Nascar rules stated that hood pins be used on the leading edge of the hood. They did cause drag and sometimes you'd see teams' tape over them.

 

[j-c-c-62]

An inch and 3/4 for the production oneView attachment 1882140

That looks nothing like the strip I saw on the 66 Charger in the pits before the race. It was no more than a flat strip of alum painted white screwed onto the trunk lid and was given a Mopar part number that Nascar supposedly asked for at the local Dodge dealer to verify it was stock offered part, that was concocted up I believe at the race track that week to reduce the fastback lift issues on the Charger at speed.

The first spoiler I ever saw on a race car was on Ferrari's 1961 at Sebring, seemed like at that time they were called "duck tails"? Spoiler was not part of the lexicon yet.
They made no sense to me at the time other than to create drag, but the point here is they were the full width of the car and likely 4" tall, and why the Charger spoiler in 1966 seemed so odd and noticeably small.

 

[roadrunnerh]

Petty's Charger looks like a 73-74, and Baker's Charger looks like a 71-72,
just judging by the side window frame/profile.

 

[autoxcuda]

I have head flow test and interoffices documentation from Bob Tarozzi who ran a Chrysler funded engineering lab in early-mid 70's. Correspondence from Tom Hoover, Maxwell, Wehrly, SVI,

There are heads sent to him that say "good Petty castings" Petty got select parts and engineering from Chrysler that other teams did not.

 

[RemCharger]

That looks nothing like the strip I saw on the 66 Charger in the pits before the race. It was no more than a flat strip of alum painted white screwed onto the trunk lid and was given a Mopar part number that Nascar supposedly asked for at the local Dodge dealer to verify it was stock offered part, that was concocted up I believe at the race track that week to reduce the fastback lift issues on the Charger at speed.

The first spoiler I ever saw on a race car was on Ferrari's 1961 at Sebring, seemed like at that time they were called "duck tails"? Spoiler was not part of the lexicon yet.
They made no sense to me at the time other than to create drag, but the point here is they were the full width of the car and likely 4" tall, and why the Charger spoiler in 1966 seemed so odd and noticeably small.

And from the grandfather of aerocars,, the baby Daytona was born

 

[odcics2]

I have head flow test and interoffices documentation from Bob Tarozzi who ran a Chrysler funded engineering lab in early-mid 70's. Correspondence from Tom Hoover, Maxwell, Wehrly, SVI,

There are heads sent to him that say "good Petty castings" Petty got select parts and engineering from Chrysler that other teams did not.

That would make a great thread, posting some info.

 

[Charlie71rt]

Petty Brothers YouTube channel restored one of the Chargers I think a ‘74, they talked to some of the guys that were there when it was built and one guy mentioned cutting and narrowing the front bumper and getting it rechromed.

 

[RTDaddy]

NASCAR only used the "long template" (front of nose to back of rear decklid) until about 1975. The split seen in the center of the decklid spoilers (usually covered with super tape) in this era was clearance to allow the long template to sit on the decklid. The width templates came into play after the 1975 Permatex 300 (Busch now Xfinity series), when one of the Chevelle Lagunas showed up with an obviously narrowed front end. They used to move the front of the fenders in, then tapered the hood width to fit. Then they had to split the nose/grille to make the width match. Only one team got in a hurry and instead of narrowing the grille opening and keeping the headlight openings relatively stock, they did all of the narrowing in the headlight openings, which then looked like cat eyes, and nobody was going to miss that one. A lot of cars started that race with strips of metal riveted onto the sides of the hoods and with vertical strips on the grilles/headlight doors when NASCAR measured all of the cars and they had to be widened. Like Richard says, "You gotta cheat neat."

 

[j-c-c-62]

So, when did the longitudinal templates first get used in Nascar?

 

[odcics2]

In 68, Petty had the front bumper pulled forward to get more air over the car and beat the template that went to the edge of the hood. Easily seen in this photo!