Salt Flats Daytona article

[TiMopar]

Please forgive me if posted previously... http://www.superfly-autos.com/features/1969-dodge-charger-daytona-bonneville/#disqus_thread

[Dave Kanofsky]

I met the owner at our hotel parking lot in Alexander City last year, he is a great guy!
We spent the better part of an evening hearing the history of the car and his commitment for getting it road worthy and getting it to the Reunion.
Glad to see he is still enjoying it.

[white]

Love the article. Thanks for posting it.

[tan top]

  thanks for sharing 

[Mopar John]

Just curious if this was a "known" Daytona with the long term storage?
I really like the color combo!
MJ

[500Jon]

Great find Tim!

My favourite color on my favourite car!!!

I can understand keeping it original BUT...even a non-car sorta person would find some blue paint.

I find the $5400 loan to a guy with a bicycle hard to believe, I couldn't get a loan on a ten year Cortina for £500 in 1978...

Even so, why put it on the SALT?
I have NIGHTMARES about Canadian Salt...
Its what wrecked my GTX, oh yeah and storing her in an English field did't help either lol...

5J

[500Jon]

I just checked NEW Ford Cortina prices in 1978.
1300 cc two door base model was £2,520.
Top of the range 2300cc Ghia Station-W. was £4800...wow thats a lot for a Ford, lol...
My friend had one and said it was real pricey...he was right.

So, $5400 on an 9 year old 'ratty' Daytona was a FORTUNE!!!
My Moparmate saw a mint Orange-Superbird at a US-dealers in 1981 for $5000.

We live and learn...

I just re-read the article and it reminded me of my oil-well friend in the North-Sea Oilfields.
He just got his first job from University in 1982 and went out and bought a new Volkswagen GTI...£5,750.
(I was sooo jealous, all I had at the time was a Morris Marina 1300cc deffo no muscle car).
I had just bought my first house and that was £30,000...
That same year I was offered a 1970 Plymouth Cuda convert for £25,000.
Shipped NEW into the UK by Warwick Wright Chiswick, where I used to work in the 90's, no Cuda's there then HaHa, only French cars...

I thought the guy was having a joke with me, Yep, its the one that Craig Jackson now owns.

[wingcarenvy]

So many people are going this route lately. Why let them sit when you could be enjoying them. I think it's s cool movement. Thanks for sharing the article.

[djcarguy]

 

[TiMopar]

Hey John, being friends of the then owners, I too had an opportunity to buy that Cuda in the 80's for £15,000. However, that was when a very 'expensive' big block Mopar could be bought over here for £5,000. If I had sold everything I had at the time and loaned some money, I could have just stretched to it, but being honest with myself I am not keen on convertibles, automatics or that colour, so passed despite being well aware of it's 'value'. Had I been that wealthy I would have bought a Daytona anyway, but they have always been beyond my financial reach, even back in the 70's.
                I have dug out a copy of the original Customs & Excise import document for the Cuda. It came to England in November 1971, imported by a private address in London W14. Curiously, it came into the country via the port of Dover. Back then, imports from North America typically came in via Liverpool or Southampton, which suggests to me that it may have come from continental Europe, probably France....

[500Jon]

Thanx for the reply Tim.
The reason I remember the price in the early 80's for the Cuda ragtop is because I had just taken out a £25,000 mortgage!
Buy a house or buy a Cuda???
I probably made the wrong choice...

I also remember very well, the day we met up at the Hickstead Show near the South Coast of England.(circa-1990)
You told me that the Petty Blue (ex Big-John) Superbird was up for grabs at a never to be repeated price!
I ran around the Show looking for the Guy selling, now its gonna be my day to buy a Wingcar...sadly NOT...
Unfortunately I was too slow on the sale and another Big Guy bought it! (think it was Jason)?
Then he sold to Pete Wiseman, whom I believe he did the resto, or a least paid for the resto...

The rest is History, I shipped her over to my friend Julius in California and the UK lost another Wingcar... BOOHOO...  
I hope she is outta the RAIN now?

[hemi68charger]

... and the UK lost another Wingcar... BOOHOO...  
I hope she is outta the RAIN now?

You lost two that day....... My Daytona is in front of it......... So, I know my Daytona went to Julius and Dave M., but the Superbird did as well? What happened to Pete's orange Superbird? He owned 3 wingcars in the day......

[Dave Kanofsky]

You lost two that day....... My Daytona is in front of it.........

WOW, you really know how to hurt a guy!  

[hemi68charger]

You lost two that day....... My Daytona is in front of it.........

WOW, you really know how to hurt a guy!  

It was actually Pete Wiseman who lost two on that boat journey.. Back across the Pond..

[500Jon]

Hi Wingers,
I'm not sure you can lose something that you never owned?
We have gained and lost many Wingcars over the years here in the UK.
I tried to buy one of the UK ones and some from the US too...
I was always a day late and a dollar short?
I realise now that it wasn't meant to be for me personally.
BUT I have something BETTER,,, in my eyes, a 4-speed C500...

Much rarer and less GAUDY as the King once said (Petty) lol...

Gone have the days of Street driven Wingcars here in the UK.
I have fond memories of two, three, sometimes four Wingcars at the imfamous Chelsea Criuse in London town in the glorious 1980's.

Those were the days indeed, a long distant tribute to affordable UK Nascars.
5J

ps, I never saw a street driven C500 anywhere on the planet yet.
Maybe next year as I drive past a large glass shop window, I will see myself in one lol...

Hope I look as cool as this DUDE!

[alfaitalia]

I look forward to seeing it around!

[djcarguy]

Awesum,get out an enjoy them.      Any more pics??   

[djcarguy]

  Is this Daytona owner a member here??   more info an pics??   

[djcarguy]

Please forgive me if posted previously... http://www.superfly-autos.com/features/1969-dodge-charger-daytona-bonneville/#disqus_thread

   Happy turkey day heres some viewing an dream material.

[Simonic]

An interesting article thank you. Love the color on this car .

[Simonic]

[quote I never saw a street driven C500 anywhere on the planet yet.

[/quote]

There was one at the Uk Mopar Nats this year,driven over from Germany ?

[aerolith]

Hi Tim and Simonic.
Hopefully you will see a STREET driven C-500 next year!
Now the UK MOT regs have been dropped for 30+ year old cars, I can re-fit my C-500 back up and smoke her around the streets of Kent UK...
I think Carstens (German) C-500 was driven on the Streets of England , but no one saw it?
I believe the RPM Guys drove the hemi C-500 around the streets of Guildford a while back?
Maybe mine will be the first to be driven on the streets of England and be seen, with this paintwork, lol...(well this Century anyways)...

[alfaitalia]

Hi Tim and Simonic.
Hopefully you will see a STREET driven C-500 next year!
Now the UK MOT regs have been dropped for 30+ year old cars, I can re-fit my C-500 back up and smoke her around the streets of Kent UK...
I think Carstens (German) C-500 was driven on the Streets of England , but no one saw it?
I believe the RPM Guys drove the hemi C-500 around the streets of Guildford a while back?
Maybe mine will be the first to be driven on the streets of England and be seen, with this paintwork, lol...(well this Century anyways)...

Its over 40 year old cars don't need MOTs from April 18. However even before that is was easy to pass. Just the usual safety stuff that you would want to be up to spec anyway. There was no emissions testing on cars older than 1975 anyway. I will still be getting mine tested...just seems sensible to me. I'm a pretty competent mechanic and indeed was an MOT tester once....but getting another pair of eyes to check its safe seems like the right idea to me.....even the best of us can miss something. I take my wife and child in my cars.......needs to be a bit safe!! I does worry me that the old guys who own old cars and just polish them will NEVER have them checked apart from basic maintenance and oil changes. Hopefully there will not be too many accident involving poorly maintained classics....or they will soon be MOTing them again!!

[Simonic]

I must say I've never had a problem with an MOT,however I do use a small independent garage and the owner is a classic car owner himself. Even with the changes to the current laws i'll still keep taking my car for an inspection. Although i'm an apprentice trained mechanic it's always useful to have the car up on a ramp every now and then

[Simonic]

I believe the RPM Guys drove the hemi C-500 around the streets of Guildford a while back?

Haha,i'd believe anything of those guys at RPM,i bought my 69 Charger from them back in about '98,the cars they had down there were amazing.

When I went to buy the Charger which was 8k at the time they also offered me a 70 Hemi Charger which was a 4 speed in red with a white interior,this was 25k...

[alfaitalia]

LOL.....could not buy the engine for that Hemi for £25K now!!

[djcarguy]