The difference between hot rodders and restorers generally comes down to this: Hot rodders seek to impose their egos on their cars, while restorers prefer to recreate the past. Is one better than the other? No way. Both are equally important to the big picture. But when these two schools are in session simultaneously, you get a funky revisionist-history lesson that's likely to make your head spin. You get a "phantom."
Such is the case with this trio of never-was '71 Dodge and Plymouth phantom wing cars. Dubbed the G-Series, after Chrysler's alphabetic designation for the '71 model year, they're the work of Gary and Pam Beineke and Mike Goyette of Dayclona Enterprises in Sharon, Massachusetts. These amazing winged wonders pick up where the '69 Charger Daytona and '70 Road Runner SuperBird left off. You see, Chrysler had every intention of continuing the wing-car stock car racing program into the '70s until it was stymied by NASCAR. But that didn't stop the Dayclona crew from mixing the hot rodder's ego with the restorer's eye for history.
The events leading to the creation of these amazing winged warriors began in 1968. Chrysler became aware that the forthcoming Ford Boss 429 had the potential to surpass the output of its 426 Hemi in NASCAR superspeedway competition. To maintain a competitive edge, a team of Chrysler engineers, including aerodynamicists from the Chrysler Corporation Defense and Space Division in Huntsville, Alabama, launched a campaign to make up for the horsepower deficit via improved vehicle aerodynamics.
The goal was to find a 5-mph increase in lap speed on superspeedways like Daytona and the soon-to-be-completed Talladega. The team calculated that the 585hp Hemi would need an additional 85 hp to reach the goal, an impossible stretch under the existing rules and durability requirements. However, further study revealed that the same result could be obtained by reducing vehicle drag by 15 percent.
In a crash program to clean up the standard Dodge Charger's aerodynamics, the team gained access to the Lockheed-Georgia and Wichita State University wind tunnels, and in short order, the Charger grew wings-and a beak. Similar testing and development of the Plymouth Road Runner ensued, and the resulting '69 Dodge Charger Daytona and '70 Plymouth SuperBird wing cars kept the Fords at bay throughout the 1969 and 1970 race seasons. That is until NASCAR President Bill France stepped in with new rules for 1971 that stated: "Special cars, including the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler, Ford Talladega, Dodge Daytona, Dodge Charger 500, and Plymouth SuperBird shall be limited to a maximum engine size of 305 ci."
Despite a promising performance at the '71 Daytona 500 by Dick Brooks' 305 small-block-powered No. 22 Charger Daytona (he finished in Seventh Place and led for five laps), wing-car race teams shed their feathers and went back to Hemi-powered bricks. Plymouth superstar Richard Petty summed it up like this: "We looked at the horsepower of the 305 engine and the horsepower of the 426, and I said, Hey, I don't care how good that body is, it can't overcome that." Incidentally, Petty won the '71 Daytona 500 in a conventional '71 Road Runner, Hemi powered, of course. Chrysler aerodynamicist Gary Romberg recounts: "If we could have won with that car [Brooks' small-block Daytona] they probably would have put a 105ci limit on it! The message from NASCAR was 'Take those cars off the track.'"
Suddenly the wing-car program was over. Or was it? Though the Dodge and Plymouth B-body intermediates were thoroughly redesigned for 1971 with "fuselage" styling, proof exists that Chrysler had special winged versions of both models under development before Bill France dropped the axe. The trio of G-Series '71 wing cars featured here offers a glimpse of what the road-going, showroom-stock homologation versions might have looked like had the factory wars continued unabated.
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