1969 Dodge Charger Daytona (A-Model platform)

Concept: The original Charger platform is on the “B” model Chrysler platform and had a 118-inch wheelbase. I thought these just looked too long and stretched out. The “A” model platform from the Dodge Challenger was a 110-inch wheelbase. I always wondered what the Daytona Charger would have looked like if built on the shorter Challenger wheelbase and perhaps for Trans-Am racing as well as the banked ovals it was originally intended.

Modifications: The nose is shortened 7-inches between the wheel opening and the nose clip. Nose clip is slightly modified to make it work. The doors, cowl, DLO opening is factory OEM! An 8-inch cut between the rear of the door pillar and the rear wheel opening (below the beltline) and another slice on the diagonal through the C-pillar itself — and everything is slid forward. (thus 8-inch wheelbase reduction) Additional changes are enlarged front and rear wheel openings that are raised up higher on the body. Fix the funky crease on the top of the doors. Wheels are 2017 Ford GT size 20×8.5 front and 20×11.5 rear!

Of course killing an original Daytona Charger to build this would be asinine… but there are aftermarket fiberglass parts to replicate the Daytona additions (and rear window) and there are some Chargers out there that the restorers want nothing to do with.

note: Why a Daytona? I remember as very young kid in the early 1970s near the McChord Airbase (Air Force) in Tacoma there was a faded lime green Plymouth Superbird on a used car lot near 112th and South Tacoma Way. What made it so memorable was seeing these wedge shaped wonders on ABC’s Wide World of Sports on the television being raced! This Superbird at the used car lot wasn’t a true racer but it did have a unique feature — it has flower stickers (hippie stuff) plastered all over it! I convinced my folks one day to stop and take a look at it and apparently it had a lot of mechanical issues as well. No clue what happened to it but it sat on that dealership lot for several years at least and I eyeballed each time with wanderlust as we went by.

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