gmack@cisden.UUCP (Gregg Mackenzie) (01/18/86)
In article <2800@ut-ngp.UUCP> mberns@ut-ngp.UUCP (Mark Bernstein) writes: >> 1970 Plymouth Superbird. > >What on earth is a Plymouth Superbird? :-) (I really don't know!) >And why is (was) it so wonderful? Basically it was a Road Runner, hence the name. The Superbird (and it's predecessor the '69 Dodge Daytona) was the result of some of the earliest serious aerodynamics studies performed by the major car companies throughout the mid- to late-sixties. The studies showed that a wedge-shaped, wind-cheating nose was required to cut resistance around the front of the car. They then found that the special nose made it hard to keep the rear end on the ground, so a special stabilizer was added to the rear. It rose 2-1/2 ft from the rear deck (in later tests they discovered that the hight of the stabilizer didn't make much difference as long as the horizontal bar was parallel to the ground). All of this was done for pure functionality without any regard to styling. However, the effect was that the car looked like it was doing +100-mph sitting in the showroom. The influence of these cars can still be seen 15 years later in your sporty cars with their sleek front ends and rear-deck spoilers. There were ~1900 Superbirds built and they came in various configurations of 440 AT with 4-bbls and 6-packs, and 426 Hemi with 4-spd. The wimpy model produced a mere 425 hp. Pure, American muscle. I don't remember, but I think they only built about 700 Daytonas. The Hemi models were capable of *+180mph* speeds...as is!...right off the showroom floor! And they were perfectly street legal. The effect was that you could buy a genuine race car for $4700 from your local car dealer. Why anyone would ever want to go that fast on the street, I'll never know. Gregg Mackenzie cisden!gmack
rdz@ccice6.UUCP (Robert D. Zarcone) (01/22/86)
I would like to add just one thing to your excellent review. Both of these cars were sold really only so Chrysler could be more competitive in NASCAR racing. Ford was beating their pants off and NASCAR had (has?) a rule that a car could not compete as a Grand National "stock" car unless the manufacturer produced at least 500 of that body style (and engine configuration?) per year. If I remeber correctly, Chrysler was quite succesful in racing with this design. I believe it was dropped because of Ford's withdrawl from racing and nose diving muscle car sales in general.