I need some help

[Mr. Moparman]

I am planning on restoring a old Revell '69 Charger Daytona to a privateer Nascar racer owned by my racing crew "Henderson & Clark Racing". I know not a thing about Nascars except this thig will keep most of it's stock workings. Any help is appreciated.

[Junkman]

Do you have access to the real car?

By the late Sixties, there was already hardly anything stock on a stockcar. They even toyed around with the shape of the bodies. What they did is build the cage on the floorplate, then clad the whole thing with repair panels, but line those up ever so slightly wedged so they just about meet the NASCAR template clearances.

With the winged Chargers, I have the impression, that they took 1/2 - 1 inch out of the A-pillars, too. If you study old photos, you will also notice, that they seriously tampered with the side window channels, they were closed off with shaped sheetmetal tapering outboard. The front wheelarches are scientifically cut out and shaped, which makes for a very particular position of the front wheels appearance-wise.

The late Sixties were technology hip to the brim, just remember the space race, for example. The sky was by no means considered the limit and NASCAR was no exception. This made for no-holds-barred racing with cars built for ever higher speeds, and safety really took a back seat. The rules were stretched to the limit - and often beyond via clever 'interpretation' (aka 'cheating').

If you compare below two photos, you will notice that the two cars have only a rather passing similarity:

- Note for example, how tapered the front fender tops of the race car are, whereas they are nearly horizontal on the standard car. This is repeated where the quarter panes meet the C-pillar.

- The A-pillar stainless trim (obviously stock pieces bolted to the cage legs) of the race car reaches above the rain gutter line. On the standard car, it ends a tad below it. This makes me believe that they did pull down the front of the roof an inch or so.

- The side window openings are completely different.

- I have the impression, that the entire front clip of the race car is 'kicked-up' in the front, i.e. the body appears to be 'sagging' in the cowl area.

Needless to say, that from an aerodynamic point of view, all those mods make perfect sense.

Edited July 24, 2011 by Junkman

[Harry P.]

I am planning on restoring a old Revell '69 Charger Daytona to a privateer Nascar racer owned by my racing crew "Henderson & Clark Racing". I know not a thing about Nascars except this thig will keep most of it's stock workings.

In that case it won't be a very accurate NASCAR replica.

As Junkman said, there is almost nothing in common between the factory-stock car and the "stock" race car.