11/28/2023 0 Comments Nasa stock racing car![]() RacingOne // Getty ImagesĪfter watching Ford take seven consecutive NASCAR manufacturers’ championships between 19, Dodge won not only the 1970 manufacturers’ title but Isaac and crew chief Harry Hyde won the drivers’ championship, as well.īut that success ruffled some feathers in Daytona Beach. Pete Hamilton beat boss Richard Petty to the finish line at the 1970 Daytona 500. (That unusual number was based on one showroom-available car for every two dealerships within Chrysler’s marketing network.) The company quickly manufactured the 1,923 “showroom units” required for NASCAR competition. Once satisfied they had it right, Chrysler named the car the Superbird in recognition of the popular Road Runner cartoon character. They spent two months in a scaled-down wind tunnel at Wichita State University, struggling with the hood and front fender aerodynamics, and then with the size, shape and placement of the rear wing and struts.Īfter realizing the nose and wing wouldn’t work with the Belvedere, they switched to the popular Road Runner body. Indeed, Romberg and his colleagues were already all-hands-on-deck designing, testing and building a winged Plymouth for 1970. They couldn’t have done it that quick unless they were already planning to do it, anyway.” "I think they’d already decided to do that because it wasn’t long before they had one for me to look at. Richard Petty and his 1970 Plymouth Superbird. That was it … just give me something new for next year. “So, I told him to build me a Plymouth like the Dodge teams had. (For the life of him, the 82-year-old Petty can’t remember the man’s name after all, it was 51 years ago). “It was just him alone, and he said to me, ‘What will it take to get you back in a Plymouth next year?’’’ Petty recently recalled. A company executive high-tailed it to North Carolina in mid-1969 to ask one question. Not surprisingly, that got Chrysler’s attention. (His one-year deal with Ford was clear evidence he didn’t expect to stay with them for long.) ![]() Angry that Plymouth wasn’t keeping up-he’d repeatedly asked for a winged car-the sport’s biggest name announced late in the 1968 season that he would race Fords in 1969. So, while Dodge was presenting something new and forward-looking to its drivers and fans, Plymouth was staying with the same tried-and-true Belvedere model that had taken Petty to 43 (!) combined victories in 19. Each brand went its own way, doing its own thing, competing not only with GM and Ford on the racetracks, but also with themselves. With its emphasis on aerodynamics, the Dodge Daytona was unlike anything ever seen on any of America’s stock car circuits.Īt the time, Chrysler’s racing programs weren’t united. ![]() The new creation had a low, snout-like pointed nosepiece and a huge spoiler sticking almost 40 inches above the rear decklid. (Being a Plymouth man, Romberg wasn’t part of that project). Midway through that season, Chrysler unveiled plans for a radically different version of its popular Dodge Charger for the 1969 NASCAR season. The backstory with Petty goes something like this:Įxcept for several Oldsmobile starts early on, the seven-time champion, 200-time winner and Hall of Fame driver raced street-based Plymouths almost exclusively from 1958 through 1968. ![]() Richard Petty left Chrysler for a one-year fling with a Ford Factory program and the Ford Torino Cobra in 1969. Of all his professional accomplishments, he considered his role in that historic project his finest moment. Romberg was instrumental in developing the Saturn B-1 booster that sent astronauts into outer space, including the first visit to the moon. He worked at NASA throughout the 1960s, helping build America’s space program from postings in Huntsville, Alabama, and New Orleans. He spent his first three years after Cal Poly-SLO as an aerodynamic engineer and flight test engineer at Boeing aviation near Seattle. We should all live as large and accomplish as much. A native of Buckley, Washington, and 1957 graduate of Cal State Poly-San Luis Obispo, the Old Man didn’t miss much during his time on this good earth. He is survived by Bonny, his wife of 62 years sons Kurt, Val and Leif daughter Heidi 12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Romberg died two weeks ago at age 85 in his adopted hometown of Mooresville, North Carolina. Gary Romberg shows off the Plymouth race cars he helped design.
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