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Historical Race Car Build Practices and Costs

12:47
30:33
157.3K views

At 12:47 in

Bobby Allison's 1979 Daytona 500 Car: The Race That Changed NASCAR Forever! (Unrestored Survivor)

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What happens here

Greg Moore delves into the historical context of race car construction in the late 1970s. He explains that teams extensively reused parts and often built cars in three distinct sections: the front clip, mid-section, and rear clip. He mentions that the particular 1978 Thunderbird chassis was derived from a 'Diamond Jubilee Edition' model, which originally came with a vinyl roof and opera windows. A notable design flaw of the period's cars was that their open back windows created significant aerodynamic drag, impacting performance. He highlights the substantial financial investment, noting that building such a car cost approximately $180,000 in 1978, equivalent to over $847,000 today, underscoring their status as 'tools' for racing rather than pristine showpieces.

Goal: Understand racing construction methods and costs from the 1970s.

Tools and materials

  • Historical Car Advertisements — Providing visual context for the original donor car model
  • Period Race Photos N/A — Illustrating race conditions and car modifications
  • Phone iPhone — Listening to Greg Moore's historical explanation

What they say

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this car was cuz in that Daytona race the door was all dented in from some accident he had been in I'd really like to know what you know how many how many more times was it raced and what race is this from for reference for those of you who don't know Greg Moore is Bud Moore's son hold his headrest in now look at the picture of this car 1979 look at that headrest and compare that to what you're looking at right now I don't know about you but it's little details like that that make the authenticity of this car on top of that those three window bars up there I thought that would be good to see and you know what they are not on this car but you can see the holes where they used to be I guess the bad part about being my age now and growing up with all these guys because most of us have hearing aids and crutches now or Walkers some things that you never thought you didn't think of back then let's go under see some more what's going on in here yeah even though there's no front suspension in here you can see how it was there would have been a a straight control arm like this with the spring in it and then it had another locator attached to this looks like little hind ball there that would come out like that instead of the double a AR deal like the chevel style that they evolved into might as well just we'll just crawl on in here and hang out see what it's like to be Bobby Allison's engine oh this is neat we got a Ford part number on there hey Mr Moore how you doing oh thank GRE more called him back and oh okay we just pretending to be a radiator look at all those rivet holes in that Grill I should probably get out of here so we can see what he's doing right well he's right okay he's right here filming and um Mitchell you're on stage with Mr Greg Moore now we were just wondering whenever Tim brought this car to you to authenticate what about it makes it um undeniably the 79 Daytona Car as opposed to just one of the cars that you had back then how many cars did you have back then at that time yeah well back in those days uh in 79 we we done good if we had like three four at the most but yeah that that no doubt whatsoever I mean that you know everything from the gray Speckles of paint that we put on the inside it was a waterbased type fuel where it didn't weigh much robar placements gussets I don't what to look for on that thing and and and that's the right car no no doubt about it see back in those days you just didn't throw cars away breing a Thunderbird that we…

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