Story by Geoff Stunkard

“Back in 1969, my dad took me to the Talladega race, and that was when I became interested in the Bobby Isaac Daytona; when that Dodge was going around the track, it just permanently became ingrained in my mind. I never dreamed that someday I would own the real car and drive it, especially not in Germany and at Goodwood and places like that.”

While many people know the Wellborn Musclecar Museum for the terrific collection of 1971 Hemi Chargers there, the aerodynamically-enhanced 'wing car' models from 1969 and 1970 have also been part of the collection since before it started. As Tim states, his attendance at that first race at Talladega played a huge role on his impressionable mind back in 1969; as a result, the car he drove in his high school years was a real Dodge Daytona. This car, Hemi Orange with a 440 and white interior, was his regular driver, but in 1979, it became an even larger tribute to the car Bobby Isaac had piloted back on that September on the high banks of Talladega.

“I found a 2100-mile ‘68 Hemi Road Runner that been totaled, and took the engine, K-member, wiring, everything, and just swapped it right into that Daytona. It all fit perfectly, I got everything needed for a B-Body Hemi, and my goal was to make this into a tribute to Bobby Isaac and the K&K car. So I decided to letter it up, and had the call-out letters, ‘Dodge’ lettered on the nose, and pinstripes painted on it.”

He drove the car for a couple of more years, but money was tight; when he made plans to get married, the Daytona was sold to a gentleman in Atlanta, and Tim lost track of it. As things became better economically, Tim wondered whatever happened to it. Ironically, it came back to him 22 years later.

“I’m getting ready to load up for Barrett-Jackson on a Wednesday night, and I get a phone call. It is the owner I had sold that car to,” he recalls. “I asked him some questions and he says, ‘do you want to buy it back?’ I said, ‘absolutely,’ and I drove straight to Atlanta that following Sunday afternoon when I returned, wrote him a check, and brought it home. It came back showing just 312 miles since the day I had sold it.” Talk about preserving history…

By now, Tim and Pam had already purchased a few other Daytonas and Superbirds. In fact, they were able to purchase the original K&K Insurance Daytona that had been part of the collection at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. This car had set records at Bonneville, and, through Tim’s efforts, got the very first 528” crate motor Hemi from Chrysler. Tim, licensed to drive at speed, then toured the car in exhibition races across Europe, driving it at 150+ mph speeds at places like Germany’s legendary Nürburgring and Goodwood’s Festival of Speed. This car has been on display in the new NASCAR Museum in Charlotte since the day that facility opened.

One car in particular does stand out. This was a Charger Daytona that Tim had found and bought from the owner’s ex-wife, and it has a story. The car was sold through the Lenox Dodge franchise in Atlanta; its origins of its ordering are lost; it was likely bought by the owner Tim found out about through Lenox’ used car department as a repo. CONTINUED

“This guy had been sent out to buy a refrigerator, and came back with this car. His wife was not very happy about that,” Tim laughs. “So, as you can imagine, that marriage didn’t last, and when they split up, she kept this car basically to spite him. Then it sat out under a tarp in her yard for a long time.”

Tim got a call from somebody who found out about the car, and soon made plans to go see it. It was rough; the car had been repainted Petty Blue and was showing a large amount of surface rust, though the substructure rust normally feared about was non-existent (great trunk, floor pans and cowl). Seeing the car initially, he was pretty skeptical at first glance, until he saw the 999 paint code on the fender tag. Then he pulled the back seat up to see if the build sheet was in it.

“When I saw that color, my heart jumped,” he says.

Omaha Orange was never a color offered by any of the major manufacturers; it was a color used for taxi cabs running around the Haight-Asbury and other San Francisco places at the time. To date, there is only one other Daytona painted that way, and its whereabouts are questionable. Tim gave the unrestored car to Roger Gibson, who spent a couple of years reworking it into one of the most accurate restorations of any wing car.

As built, the car got the special paint, the 440 Magnum, four speed transmission, and Dana 60 rear. It got deluxe bucket seats, console, and AM radio. Like the interior, the wing was black. Most of these cars were built as sales bank cars and very few got special ordered. This one is unique for all of those reasons. The car originally came with 15” body-color painted rims. While Gibson restored the original set, Tim has chosen to use a set of the rare 15” Kelsey Hayes wheels that were recalled almost immediately due to failures; they fit the car perfectly.

The museum also has other Daytonas beyond these two and the #71 racecar – one is a 6000-mile Hemi survivor and another that is 440 powered, now stored is among the ‘barn finds’ displayed in Alexander City. The Hemi with be at the upcoming Musclecar and Corvette Nationals in Chicago on Nov 16-18.

The following year, Plymouth used a similar group of changes to build a group of cars that helped bring Richard Petty back into the fold. These cars were modified from Road Runners and used sheetmetal pieces from the redesigned 1970 Dodge Coronet to get even more streamlined. The slippery pieces developed for the Dodge were reworked with some improvements and, unlike the 500 cars built by Dodge, NASCAR now required one for every two dealerships – over 1900 units.

As a result, the Plymouth wings are found in more variety and abundance than the Dodges. The museum has three Superbirds, one Hemi-powered, one Six Pack, and one using the 440 combination (those were the three engines available in the model). The unrestored Hemi Superbird will also make its first public appearance away from Alabama at MCACN.

The museum’s Charger 500, the first aero-styled redesign that preceded the ‘nuclear option’ Dodge Daytona release, will also be at the Illinois event; it too is Hemi powered.    ]]> http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2012/11/12/wings-over-alex-city/feed/ 0 http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2011/03/19/right-mover-the-age-of-aquarius-came-alive-with-panther-pink-in-1970/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=right-mover-the-age-of-aquarius-came-alive-with-panther-pink-in-1970 http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/index.php/2011/03/19/right-mover-the-age-of-aquarius-came-alive-with-panther-pink-in-1970/#comments Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:20:00 +0000 QMPEditor http://wellbornmusclecarmuseum.com/?p=377

Pam on the road in the FM3 1970 Charger; like most of the cars in the Wellborn Museum, the car can be driven, and is…

Museum Masterpieces by Geoff Stunkard

VEHICLE: 1970 Dodge Charger R/T

Restored by: Dale Gyorvary

Engine: Dodge 440 Six Pack Magnum

Transmission: 727 Torqueflite

Rearend: 8.75 banjo-type with 3.23

SureGrip Interior:  black hound’s-tooth/white insets

Wheels: Magnum 500

Tires: Goodyear Polyglas G70-14

Special Parts: FM3 Panther Pink paint plus standard equipment for R/T package (believed to be one of two FM3 440-6 Charger R/Ts built).

Owned by The Wellborn Musclecar Museum

Musclecar paint schemes grew more and more crazy in the late 1960s, and Chrysler’s legendary foray into the world of HIP (High Impact Paint) began in 1969, when five special paint colors debuted. These paint hues were actually an extra cost option, so such colors can add to a car’s collector value today. Things got even more extreme in 1970; the Charger here is painted code FM3, known as Panther Pink.

Other Dodge HIP colors in 1970 were EK2 Go-Mango (yellow-orange), EV2 Hemi Orange (or red-orange), FC7 Plum Crazy (purple), FJ5 Sublime (light-green), and FY1 Top Banana (yellow), with FM3 Panther Pink and FJ6 Green-Go (a deeper green than Sub Lime) both added at mid-year. For Plymouth, the corresponding colors were EK2 Vitamin C Orange, EV2 Tor-Red, FC7 In-Violet Metallic, FJ5 Limelight, FY1 Lemon Twist, with FM3 Moulin Rouge and FJ6 Sassy Grass Green added later.

Indeed, it appeared that all of Detroit had gone psychedelic by then; colors plus wild graphics and styling options abounded from the Big Three – scoops, blisters, wheels and wings. And the displacement wars were waging – the 440 was joined in 7+ liter territory with GMs 454” and 455” inch plants in the midsize body range that year. Chrysler did not add cubes for 1970, choosing instead to add more carbs, a package Dodge called the Six Pack.

After showing up in a handful of Road Runners and Super Bees in 1969, the 440 Six Pack was the newest mill for the Dodge line-up in 1970, available in the B-Body and E-Body performance lines and rated at 390 horses. It featured heavy-duty internals and the trio of Holley two-barrels just like the 1969 version, and its main benefit was more fuel throughout the RPM range. Indeed, it was a better street choice for many than the Hemi, since it achieved quicker peak horsepower on a lower torque curve than the 426 ‘elephant’ did. The Six Pack in this Charger R/T is coupled to a Torqueflite and a highway happy 3.23 SureGrip 8 ¾ differential.

Outside, this particular car was optioned with the white vinyl top and the longitudinal sport stripes that were new for 1970 (you could still get the Scat Pack rear-wrap stripe as well). Though it was an R/T model, it did not get a deck wing, and there was no ‘sport hood’ available yet for the Charger (that year’s Road Runners, GTXs and Coronet R/Ts, on the other hand, offered several variations). It also left the St. Louis assembly line with both left and right outside sport mirrors, tinted windshield, and front and rear bumper guards. Magnum 500 road wheels (code W23) and Goodyear Polyglas tires were part of the mix as well. . The F70 tire was the largest available from the factory on this model, but this example now uses the wider G70-14 replacements.

Inside, our Charger came with the scarce hounds-tooth buckets, covered with black vinyl featuring white cloth insets, plus the console with floor mount, woodgrain appliqué  dash with the standard Rallye cluster design (but no clock or tach), AM radio, and the black steering wheel with lower ½ horn ring.

So, who ordered it that way? Believe it or not, this was a sales bank car. These were models built by the factory for general distribution, and sales bank cars helped keep the assembly line busy and helped assure that a ready supply of cars was on hand for the dealerships. It was built very late in the 1970 year, July 10 being the scheduled production date, and may well have been done to help clean up what was laying around the plant since the Charger would undergo some serious restyling the following model year (which would actually begin a little more than a month later).

Tim and Pam Wellborn spotted it at the Mopar Nationals in 2004, and Pam knew it fit her outlook on life to a ‘T.’ Owner Dale Gyorvary had decided to sell it, and it is believed to be one of just two FM3 Six Pack Chargers built that year; the price was reasonable and Pam wanted something that could be driven around. The Six Pack fit that final requirement perfectly.

“What I like best is the color obviously, and I love ‘70 Chargers, unlike my husband, who’s crazy about the ‘71s,” she says with a grin. “The car was done, we didn’t have it do anything to it, and the white accents make this car a standout. It also has that hounds-tooth interior, and it was the only 440 Six Pack in our collection at the time. Those are all the reasons I gave Tim when I said ‘we need this car!’ that day.”

There was one other important reason: she and Tim had first dated in a 1970 440 Charger many moons ago. That car, unrestored and painted Jamaica Blue, is still in their collection as well.

This car has been featured in Musclecar Review and Old Cars Weekly magazines