The interior was dressed up in OEM-style seat covers from Legendary Interiors, and also received the imitation woodgrain steering wheel barely visible in the surviving photos. The high-tech tranny is topped off with one of Shafi Keisler’s long Pistol Grip replicas. Mike’s a motorhead who likes the sound of horsepower, but, since an antenna can be seen in the images, the original must have had a radio. A gutted AM face was added to the dash for looks only.
The car made its debut in 2005, after only four months of thrashing. Mike drove it to the Year One Experience, in Georgia last April, 1100 miles each way, where we shot it, and some recent follow-up may have helped solve the mystery of the 1970 Daytona.
At the car’s first appearance in Carlisle last July, a fan brought up a very rare 1971 Super Stock Nationals program. In it was a black-and-white photo from an advertisement for the Michigan Career Institute.
“The photos showed a ‘new car’ display by a local Dodge dealer with the new Challenger, Super Bee, etc,” says Gary. “Plus, there was a ‘funny car” Daytona with the body up and a tailshot of the right side of the Watermelon car. Right place, right time. I’ve heard the MCI was a Chrysler-sponsored school and that every class had a project car; could this be one of them?”
While no definitive answers have come to light, Gary now believes that this would be more plausible than the idea of a factory show car, since the people involved in those projects have all gone on record stating that the factory was not responsible for the mystery Daytona. The rear view also showed that the car had dealer plates as opposed to a manufacturers tag on it, even at this early date.
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If you have enjoyed seeing these unique wing cars, Dayclona.com has complete kits available to do any of the 1971 versions they have built to date (the ‘71 Daytona, ‘71 Super Bee, and ‘71 Superbird), though Mike decided that he would indeed own the only ’70 Daytona the company has developed. Dayclona continues to offer a complete line of aero parts and hardware for Daytona and Superbird restorations as well.
This wraps up our two-part series on the Dayclona crew here at MoparMAX, but we will no doubt be seeing more of them. Gary smiles when asked about what project may next materialize from their fertile imaginations.
“That’s a secret,” he coyly says in conclusion, “but you’ll like it.”
Click here to read Part 1 of this story.
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