Do "real" Daytona fenders have that little brace?

[C5X DAYTONA]

Winged Warrior Newsletter, August, 1977:
          "Probably the main question asked of John [Pointer] in the question and answer session again this year was what the purpose of the fender scoops [was]? John said it was found in the Charger 500 that in super speedway cornering the right front tire was rubbing up against the fender causing the terrible smelling smoke to enter the driver's compartment making it unpleasant to drive. So to get the extra one inch of tire clearance they needed for the right front tire they put the scoops on the car, and for no other reason

[C5X DAYTONA]

Winged Warrior/B-Body Review, September, 1996: (question to John Pointer)
"(Q) OK, if the Daytona racecar's fender scoop is for clearance, why doesn't the fender look as wide as the tire?

  (A) Tires are not straight up and down when turning. It was only the top outer edge of the turning tilted tire that rubbed so the scoop was enough to let it clear."

[C5X DAYTONA]

Supercars: The Story of the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth SuperBird, by Frank Moriarty:

"Curiously, one aspect of the press preview seemed to cause endless fascination and speculation among the witnesses. Why did the wing car have rearward facing scoops on the fenders above the front wheels? To this day, articles and books about that era still come up with a bizarre array of explanations for the scoops, ranging from alleged aerodynamic benefits to engine heat ventilation. In reality, the purpose of the scoops is considerably less exotic.


At the NASCAR super speedways, front tire clearance in the wheel well was often a problem. The tires would be forced into contact with the fenders when the car passed through a high-banked turn at nearly 200 MPH. To solve that problem on the Daytona, Larry Rathgeb came up with an idea -- a backwards facing air scoop that would do nothing more than provide room to prevent the tire from coming in contact with the fenders.


          'I worked furiously on those things to make sure they didn't do anything aerodynamically,' John Pointer says. 'They were just there to provide an extra inch or two of tire clearance'.


          As Gary Romberg notes, 'There were myths around those things all the way to the racetrack for years! All during the time that the cars were on the race tracks, that was supposed to be one of the major tricks. And that was no more than tire clearance!'"

[C5X DAYTONA]

When I asked George Wallace about the vent that everyone says it was for air.  He says,  NO.  When engineering saw the drawing from Pointer, Engineering asked Pointer to make clearance there.   Wallace said,  what Pointer did with it was his job.   It was his expertise. 

[C5X DAYTONA]

Here is a shot of Wallace with the 1/8 scale E-Series Charger.   Awesome guy.

[odcics2]

Why would they test improvements on a scale model when they could do it on the full scale red mule at Chelsea and get actual results?

That could explain why there are no holes on the scale model.  Obviously we know that they tested the hell out of both the red and blue Engineering cars at Chelsea.

[C5X DAYTONA]

Why would they test improvements on a scale model when they could do it on the full scale red mule at Chelsea and get actual results?

That could explain why there are no holes on the scale model.  Obviously we know that they tested the hell out of both the red and blue Engineering cars at Chelsea.

It was way cheaper to modify and test the 3/8 (not 1/8 like I posted before) scale car when the effects are the same in the wind tunnel.    Also it was cheaper to rent the smaller wind tunnel in Kansas.  The Red Mule was a slow speed test car.     The Blue #88 was a high speed test car that got the final results from the 3/8 test car transferred to full scale.