Pics of a few cool Chargers I saw at Talladega

[JimShine]

I am still blown away! I can't believe I forgot to get pics of the triple black 1968 R/T! The stock cars just blew my mind!

[JimShine]

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[TruckDriver]

Awsome pics! 

I'd love to go there one of these years.

[BigBlackDodge]

Cool!

Whats with the 'super' & stobe' toggle switch on the dash?


BBD

[JimShine]

That was on the number 88 Daytona.

[ChargerSG]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing

[pettyfan43]

Cool!

Whats with the 'super' & stobe' toggle switch on the dash?


BBD

Thanks for the pics Jim, I didn't know they put that K&K Charger in there with the Daytona.

The "Strobe" is for checking tire wear on the right front. They had a strobe light that was in the right front inside the glovebox on stock cars so they could check the wear indicators on the right front tire.

The "Super" switch was probably for one of the coolers (Rear end or oil).

That car is NOT the actual #88 Engineering car, it is actually an old K&K car that Chrysler used to do low speed testing VERY early on in WING car development. The most common picture of the car is the picture taken at the Chelsea proving ground where the car has a short rear wing and a big long exaggerated nose.

In the picture it is painted REd with the #71 K&K Spl livery. There is a copy of the letter from Chrysler where they donated that car with normal race pieces replacing the prototype parts the car had.

[JimShine]

One thing that really stood out to me with the 88 car was it appeared to have tons of bondo in the rear section of the car. The paint is now old and checking (cracking) and you can see a sort of grain made by the filler. It was still very cool. I also thought it was cool to see that a real grille was behind the screen mesh on that standard '69 Charger 71 car. I always figured they used the mesh to conceal a removed grille. That one is all intact, but that may just have been done during its resto.

Here are a couple more detail type pics I took of these. Being able to see and touch these cars was worth every cent of the admission price.

[pettyfan43]

That blue car has been showing its age for a LONG time. Last time I was there (In 04 at the wing car reunion) it was looking bad. As far as the grille, back then the cars HAD to have a stock grille along with actually having STOCK body panels. A FAR cry from today.


Is the orange interior pic the #71 Charger? If it is, it has an almost 66-67 style dash in it.

[Charger1973]

The first pic in the window I can see the #43 Petty Charger...  Any chance you got a pic or 2 of it?? 

[28Texaco]

I am still blown away! I can't believe I forgot to get pics of the triple black 1968 R/T! The stock cars just blew my mind!

That's a great museum/Hall of Fame... been there twice myself.  That triple black '68 R/T belongs to the great linebacker Kevin Greene.  Not blowing any smoke, but when I was looking for a '68 R/T a few years ago and saw that one at Talledega, I knew I wanted it.  So, I called the manager of the museum and told him I wanted to buy the Charger from the owner, he told me it belonged to Kevin Greene.  I left my name and number with the manager to give to Kevin.  But, I doubted I'd get any calls at all from him.  Within a week, Kevin called me and he said he was willing to sell it, but it didn't have the numbers matching 440 in it.  So, I passed on it. 

For you Steelers fans... Kevin left the Steelers because he didn't want to share playing time with Jason Gildon (he told me that himself).

[JimShine]

That blue car has been showing its age for a LONG time. Last time I was there (In 04 at the wing car reunion) it was looking bad. As far as the grille, back then the cars HAD to have a stock grille along with actually having STOCK body panels. A FAR cry from today.


Is the orange interior pic the #71 Charger? If it is, it has an almost 66-67 style dash in it.

Oh yeah, that was apparent! These even had all of the glass and regulators in the cars! You could still hop inside and roll the window up if you wanted too!

Sorry, I didn't get the later Charger. We were on a tight schedule and I wanted to drool over these bad boys.

Cool story about the 68. I wondered how straight it was. It seemed too good to be true.

Yes, the dash pic in the red car is the standard 1969 71 car. I liked the pentastar like on the fenders used on the dash.

[BigBlackDodge]

Cool!

Whats with the 'super' & stobe' toggle switch on the dash?


BBD

Thanks for the pics Jim, I didn't know they put that K&K Charger in there with the Daytona.

The "Strobe" is for checking tire wear on the right front. They had a strobe light that was in the right front inside the glovebox on stock cars so they could check the wear indicators on the right front tire.

The "Super" switch was probably for one of the coolers (Rear end or oil).

That car is NOT the actual #88 Engineering car, it is actually an old K&K car that Chrysler used to do low speed testing VERY early on in WING car development. The most common picture of the car is the picture taken at the Chelsea proving ground where the car has a short rear wing and a big long exaggerated nose.

In the picture it is painted REd with the #71 K&K Spl livery. There is a copy of the letter from Chrysler where they donated that car with normal race pieces replacing the prototype parts the car had.

Cool, thanks for the info.

Sounds kind of like Ernie Derr's Charger (they all did this back then I guess) he had a hole cut into the right rear wheel well to check tire wear while driving.



BBD

[hutch]

And this is why I think NASCAR should change its name.  In the old days it was "Stock Car" racing, the cars they race today are bad ass but they stopped racing sock cars years ago.   

Nice photos.  History.

[pettyfan43]

That place is very cool, I first went to a race at Talladega back when big blocks still rumbled and cars had chrome bumpers and Richard Petty's Charger LOOKED like the 73 Charger I own now. Walking through that museum and getting that up close and personal with cars driven by the greats of Nascar is  a truly neat experience. There are some really neat other vehicles besides stock cars there as well.

IF you love cool machinery or racing history, it is a must see.

[Mike DC]

 
I really dig the stock '69 NASCAR charger.
You don't see pics of those very often because the Daytona/500 Chargers eat up so much of the historical attention for that year.

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I've always wanted to start with a crummy 2nd-gen bare shell and build a "General Lee" like that. 
Build the amateur dirt-tracker that the car really would have been.
 
Tube chassis, cut out wheelwells in front, big/wide tires, taillights & door handles blocked off with sheet aluminum, white "440 c.i." texts painted onto the hood, maybe a few smaller sponsor decals on the fenders . . . Although I've never been able to decide whether it should keep the Vectors or use steel wheels.

         

[pettyfan43]

 
I really dig the stock '69 NASCAR charger.
You don't see pics of those very often because the Daytona/500 Chargers eat up so much of the historical attention for that year.

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I've always wanted to start with a crummy 2nd-gen bare shell and build a "General Lee" like that. 
Build the amateur dirt-tracker that the car really would have been.
 
Tube chassis, cut out wheelwells in front, big/wide tires, taillights & door handles blocked off with sheet aluminum, white "440 c.i." texts painted onto the hood, maybe a few smaller sponsor decals on the fenders . . . Although I've never been able to decide whether it should keep the Vectors or use steel wheels.

         

A set of police car wheels would be perfect, OR if you could score a set, SuperCoupe/Kit car/Magnum GT  wheels But the Vectors would give you the full effect.