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The Aerodynamic Superbird and Early Fabrication Techniques

8:09
50:38
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At 8:09 in

Richard Petty Museum Full Tour: Epic Racing Stories From Dale Inman! (Former Petty Race Shop)

What happens here

Dale Inman explains that the Superbird, a highly aerodynamic car, was developed during a period when teams experimented with various body modifications and aerodynamic tweaks. He mentions the adjustable rear wing, which could be tweaked by even a small degree to significantly affect the car's performance. He notes that the Petty team didn't even realize the full extent of the aerodynamic advantages at the time because they were so focused on optimizing other aspects of the car. He also points out the wooden templates that were used to shape car body panels, highlighting the hands-on and less technologically advanced methods of car construction in that era.

Goal: Showcase the innovative Superbird design and early car construction methods

Tools and materials

  • Plymouth Superbird — Displaying an iconic aerodynamic NASCAR vehicle
  • Wooden Templates N/A — Illustrating early methods of shaping car body panels

What they say

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there's the famous Superbird did you guys do any uh tweaking to the body panels or anything on these things nothing much you know they they were pretty fast you know we worked on the front spoiler but everything was back legal then and then that blade back there from left to right boy you could tweak that eye a degree and just make all the difference in the world we tried to set it on our car when we went we tried to set it at zero to the world and worked on the chassis as much as we could and then tweaked that wing and it made difference what year around do you remember being in a wind tunnel for the first time when did Arrow become a conversation of work in the shop 64 for sure big on this 66 and 67 car for sure with the wooden templates or they don't have templates back then yeah they they had templates then of course they still made us run the door handles you see that you know and then they finally they were being knocked off during the race and where the door handles functional back then or they're just still on there they just had to be on there to look like a car you know and they went down one year this one wasn't but I when we had to run them I cut them down but I'd stick in maybe a half inch one of the mechanics come by trying to show an official but now they've been cut down I think Maurice told him get his hands off the car I ain't gonna call him names but were you ever uh messing with a post to get the windshield laid back or anything like that before they started making rules we always tried to get them as high as we could here for Daytona where he could see around the corner you know so you're trying to raise the windshield up uh just to get him out of his vision because like you mentioned he was pretty

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