Dodge's Legacy Machine Discovered!

© Fiat Chrysler Automobiles 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona While it might seem likely that credit would go to some open-wheel beast, it was a '69 Dodge Daytona that turned the first closed-course lap with a speed exceeding 200 mph. In a well-publicized test session at Talladega on March 24, 1970, Chrysler testdriver Buddy Baker took a No. 88 Dodge (similar to the car campaigned by Cotton Owens) to a 200.447 world record. While a No. 88 car has resided for years in the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at the fabled Alabama track, it has now come to light that the car that actually achieved the glory had been forlornly sitting out behind former circle track racer Don White's race shop in Keokuk, Iowa, for almost 25 years! How did the real deal show up? Credit Chrysler technician Greg Kwiatkowski for a fine job of sleuthing. Long before he went to work in Auburn Hills, a 13-year-old Greg had talked his dad into taking him to Michigan International Speedway in 1970 for the Motor State 400. That day he saw the winged warriors firsthand, which left a lasting impression. In fact, Greg's been a NASCAR fan ever since, accumulating factory race car photos for the past 16 years, some depicting the No. 88 Chrysler test car which supposedly had been on display at the IMHOF Museum for decades. Related story: Owner refuses $100K for vintage Mustang © Provided by Hotrod Yesterday: The No. 88 Daytona at Talledega during the 200-mph run. That's Larry Rathgeb talking with Buddy Baker through the driver window. Fast forward to about 1985. Now employed at Chrysler, Greg met Larry Rathgeb, supervisor of the Special Vehicles Group during Chrysler's stock car program in the '60s and early '70s; Larry still worked for the company. "We'd talk on and off about the winged cars," recalls Greg. "At the time, I had a street Daytona and a street Superbird. I'd go over to his house and on occasion would buy stuff from him: documentation, race tires, memorabilia. One day, he mentioned the No. 88 car in the Talladega Museum wasn't the real thing; it wasn't the car that set the record." This was surprising news, and if the Daytona at the museum wasn't the car that first cracked the 200-mph time, where was the historic automobile? Larry explained that automotive musical chairs had occurred and the real No. 88 car went to Don White, who was actively racing on the USAC stock car circuit in the early '70s. © Provided by Hotrod MotorTend Image More classic muscle on MSN Autos

In fact, No. 88 was still a very good race car and, with wings still flying high on the USAC and ARCA circuits, Don received the good car and NASCAR received a similar test vehicle for their historic collection. The car NASCAR received was formerly painted red and numbered 71 like the Harry Hyde-owned, Bobby Issac-driven machine. Chrysler repainted it Corporate (Petty) Blue, lettered it, then donated it to the sanctioning body. It hadn't gone 200 mph. Backing up this information was an inter-company correspondence memo written by G.W. Porter and dated July 31, 1970, which was uncovered by Tim Wellborn (director of the Talladega Museum) in 1997. Key parts of this memo include the following: "In May, we received a request from NASCAR relative to the possible donation of the subject car to NASCAR for their speed museum.... Contingent upon your approval, we will take our old No. 71 car, DC-74, paint it to look like the Engineering car No. 88 car, which we used in breaking the 200-mph speed record, and present it to NASCAR. This No. 71 car has outlived its usefulness and would be scrapped in the event we weren't to use it for this purpose." Greg, full of erudite information on these test vehicles, explains that both cars were used as development mules at the Chelsea Proving Grounds in Michigan. The red one (No. 71) was called the "low-speed" car and the blue one (No. 88) was called the "high-speed" car. © Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Dodge Daytona Related story: The Golden Age of Drag Racing "They would go up to about 120 mph with the low-speed car," says Greg. "It'd been used pretty hard. It wasn't really mechanically sound to go any quicker. Whatever they'd developed on that car, such as the nose and the wing, was put on the No. 88 car to test it at faster speeds. Once they had their entire package, they prototyped it on the high-speed car, and on July 20, 1969, the No. 88 Blue Daytona ran 205 mph at the Chelsea Proving Grounds on a closed 4.71-mile track." After hearing Larry's story, Greg was still skeptical, but mentally filed away the information anyway. "A few years later, I wanted to get in touch with Don White and find out what happened to that car. I called him in Iowa, told him who I was and that I knew Larry, then simply asked him if he knew the whereabouts of the old No. 88 car. When he answered 'Yes,' I almost dropped the phone. I said, 'OK, do you know what happened to it?' White goes, 'Well, yes, it's sitting here behind my shop.' Just like that." © Provided by Hotrod Don White still had the car, though he rebodied it as a '73 Charger after the Daytona body no longer offered a competitive advantage in USAC. After its tour of the bullrings and the asphalt playgrounds, Don parked the old Dodge outside behind his shop in 1976, where it sat for the next 22 years. Don retired from driving in 1984 with an estimated 400 wins during a 35-year career, including four USAC season crowns. Greg posed the obvious question: Was the car for sale? He then received Don's standard answer, "No." Don had already turned down at least 25 people who'd asked to buy the car throughout the last 20 years, whether they knew the legacy of the vehicle or not. Moreover, when Don parked the car for good, the old No. 88 was hardly recognizable as a Daytona, since it was now fitted with a '73 Charger body. Related Story: Is NASCAR scripted? Greg called Don every month or so for the next seven months to talk about the car. He asked Don for pictures to compare with the original factory photos he had of the car from Chelsea and Talladega and sent him a disposable 35mm camera to take the shots. Greg compared these to the pictures from years ago. "I looked real close and could see the rollcage inside was black, with the black paint coming off and the original blue showing. There were other little details, like the location of the ignition key on the dashboard. Each ignition key was installed by hand. It wasn't one big stamping on the dashboard-it was wherever the guy drilled the hole: a little to the left, a little to the right, a little bit higher or lower. I had a vintage photo showing where the key was in relation to the gauge on the dashboard. It was exact." © Provided by Hotrod Dodge racing boss Bob McCurry says, "The name of the game is win!" That these cars did, taking Dodge to a championship in 1970 with Bobby Isaac driving. © Provided by Hotrod The switches for the onboard computer (data recorder) are seen to the left; as shown, the hole for them is still in the dash. This might be the toughest part of the restoration. At one point in their monthly conversations, Greg went so far as to ask, "If it was for sale, what do you think you'd want for it?" Don answered, "Shoot me a price."

"$5,000." "Well, I might consider that, if it was for sale." In July 1998 Greg called Don and the first thing Don said was, "I've decided to sell the car." Up to this time, Greg had only seen photos it. The '73 Charger body was on the original chassis; the big question was what happened to the '70 body. Luckily, Don had held on to the original front clip-the fenders, nosepiece, and hood-which were simply laying in the woods behind the shop where the car was. Though the front clip was corroded, Greg could see Don's yellow repaint coming off and the original Corporate Blue showing through plain as day.