Daytona Test Mule

[nitrometal]

How accurate is this story?  I don't believe I've read this before.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Charlie-Glotzbach-Nascars-Dodge-Charger-Daytona-/120600727105?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Racing_Fan_Shop&hash=item1c145d0e41


This is a photo advertisement of Charlie Glotzbach driving the #99 dodge Charger Daytona 426 Hemi at Daytona. it was a 200 MPh test to see if the ' Mule " could go that fast...And Charlie did it...So this was the promotion photo ...It is thin photo paper but is in excellant condition...color is clear...Selling as is !! ...Was part of a collection of photos from a Goodyear tech who knew Glotzbach, and actually still rides Harley's with him when he comes to Florida ...I copied some info about the car below, just for info on the photo....

No one outside the Chrysler Corporation engineering staff or upper management had any idea just how fast this new car was. The engineering mule Daytona was built strictly within the guidelines set down by NASCAR. It was a closely guarded corporate secret that Buddy Baker had routinely run laps with that very same mule, at the Chrysler Corporation Proving Ground in Chelsea Michigan at 235 miles an hour! That wasn't the full potential either! Charlie Glotzbach had taken the mule to laps over 240 miles an hour at Chelsea! The hottest was 243 miles an hour around the huge Chrysler complex! If anyone had been armed with news like that, other competitors would have been howling in protest, trying to ban the car out of fear! After all, the Daytona "stock" car was upwards of 45 to 50 miles an hour faster than anything that the major competitor, Ford, had to offer.

Charlie brought the car out of the pit without fanfare. The 426 racing Hemi was grumbling, but he didn't bring it to full throttle. Instead, he slowly worked his way around the big Talladega track. Thousands of pair of eyes followed every inch of his progress. Coming out of turn four, heading for the front stretch, Charlie pressed the accelerator. The big Dodge roared by the pits, the Hemi starting to make its full belly deep throated song. Everyone's eyes were glued to that car. Old experienced veterans that knew speed sucked in their collective breaths as Charlie put the Daytona into the wind. Down the back stretch, the old racers knew that they were witnessing a new breed in action. One was heard to mumble, "must be doin' 230 by now." And so it was, as verified by the many stop watches that were clicking all over the pit road area. The timing tower operators were glued to their sets. Out of turn four again, the 426 now up at full bellow, with the wind singing over the rear wing, Charlie blasted past the start/finish line. The timing tower electronic eye clicked and nearly instantly the time flashed up on the big board.

You could not have achieved a bigger astonishment before a shock, if a hydrogen bomb had been set off right outside the track. Everyone was simply stunned. Some claimed that the timing equipment had malfunctioned. But the old hands knew better. They knew that the time was true, and they had witnessed a new type of car that was making history as they watched.