Close your eyes for a minute and imagine the Aero Wars didn't end after 1970. Imagine the King Cobra made it to the road and track. What would Chrysler have done? Okay now open your eyes! Members Pamela Jo and Gary Beineke are the proud owners of this newly minted 1971 Charger Daytona. Yes, that's right a 1971 model. Pictures of this car really don't do it justice. This car is truly a "WOW!" when you see it in person. It's safe to say that the Beinkes are Charger fanatics having owned more Chargers through the years than I've got fingers. A one of none car, the Beinkes got the idea to build a 1971 Daytona after seeing the 3/8 scale wind tunnel models on the Aero Warriors web site. With the help of their fabricator and friend, Mike Goyette, "the Wishmaster", work began in earnest. The car started out as a '71 Charger SE, a 383 4-speed car. It was fairly solid but was needing some quarter panel work.
One thing you will notice is that the nose cone must be widened to fit all the way to the edges of the 1971 fenders.
A mold was pulled off an original Daytona nose, and then modified. If you look at the outer edges of the headlight pods, you will see there is more "meat" on that sliver of nose cone that curves down. The outer edges of the nose also are flared a little to match the fender edges. All the pieces inside the nose are steel, just like the factory did. The headlights are electrically operated as on a '71 Charger. Mike custom made the Z-brackets, and headlight buckets and they are just gorgeous. The lower nose valance below the fenders is also all steel. Some extra pieces were on display with the car, and I would dare say they were as good as factory. Amazing!
One of None 1971 Charger Daytona
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The car has a 472 Hemi crate motor. What is really interesting here is the fabricated 6 pack manifold. Most of you already know that Chrysler never offered a 6 pack setup for the Hemi. Well, in our concept 1971 Daytona, it's a done deal! Starting with a dual quad Hemi manifold, Mike spent over 80 hours of machining time building it. The top of the manifold was machined off, and starting with a solid block of aluminum, Mike engineered and milled the six pack carb towers and hand ported each intake runner and put it all together. An Air Grabber setup completes the package. The 80 hours I told you is only the machine work time, and doesn't include the time it took to figure out how to do it! The car still runs a 4-speed with a Gear Vendors overdrive unit.
Moving to the rear of the car, you will see it also is equipped with a factory sunroof. Gary grafted the roof on, and also replaced the rear quarter panels. Another good bit of work involved the side marker lights on the front fenders and rear quarters. Sharp eyes will realize that the stock 1971 Charger sidemarkers which would be mounted heightwise in the middle of the panel have been replaced with 1970 style pieces. One of the main reasons this had to be done was that the rear quarter sidemarker would wind up right in the middle of the word "Daytona" on the rear stripe. Both sidemarkers were welded up, and the new holes cut into the fenders with a custom made die-stamp.
The rear wing is also hand fabricated from steel, and has the two horizontal stabilizers as seen on the 3/8 scale wind tunnel model. Both horizontal sections are adjustable as they should be. And the lower wing pivots out of the way enough for the trunk to open as it should. Inside the trunk, you'll find steel wing washers and bracing, just as you would expect.
In the photo above, you can see the clever design of the rear wing allows the lower stabilizer to pivot up and out of the way for the trunk to open.
The '71 Daytona took ten months to build, with Gary, Pam and Mike devoting much of their waking hours to get it done.
