Pictures of Nascar ,Trans Am /Road racing Mopars

[RUNCHARGER]

His best race car, one of the reasons I love 71 Chargers so much.

[Chryco Psycho]

 
It was also his favorite ride & ran it until 77 which was the limit for the body style & was forced into the Magnum for 78

[RUNCHARGER]

That Magnum didn't cut through the air very nice, I believe they reskinned that chassis as a GM and it was all over.

[Chryco Psycho]

True the Magnum was not successful , 1 year & done

[RUNCHARGER]

The nose looked pretty good, I imagine the backlite was the problem.

[GY3R/T]

The 80s sucked for nascar  "stock car" racing. Horrable areodynamics, smallblock engines, sanctions,
restrictor plates, body templates, etc.... Suprised they didn't make them run a smog pump.....

[Chryco Psycho]

& since the 80s it has never recovered IMO   
even though the nose was angled back there was a ton more frontal area on the Magnum & the back lite would not be clean either .

[Chryco Psycho]

 

[HP2]

The Magnum does get a bad rap,  but keep in mind the GM boys were not particularly happy with the newer, more angular Monte Carlo, Olds Cutlass, and Buick Centuries. They all complained about high speed stability and poor handling.

Petty led 26 laps at Daytona with the Magnum and it actually was the fastest car in the field that day, before crashing out with a blown tire. A few races later Nascar mandated taller rear spoilers to try and improve stability for the fields. It seemed to help the more angular GM style more than the  rounded Magnum. Petty had six top 5 finishes in the Magnum before retiring it for a Monte. He had three top 5 finishes with the Monte that year.

Also relevant was that 1978 was the year Iacocca took over at Chrysler. They were still hemoraging money from the 1976 F body recalls. Lee starting slashing budgets and selling of unprofitable aspects of the  company. No doubt they completely pulled the plug on factory sponsorship of race teams and pushed more heavily into the parts supply business of Direct Connection. Despite his success, Petty was loosing funding and needed to align  with someone who had deeper pockets.

Petty gave a  lot of the Magnum program to the Arringtons, who were reasonably successful with it winning some races, qualifying high in the field, and setting top speed at some races. Eventually the Magnum was retired for the Imperial of the '80s.

[RUNCHARGER]

Good insight, thanks HP. I remember the Imperials, I guess they were the slickest Chrysler offering in that time frame.

[Chryco Psycho]

cool to know the magnum was not so bad , definatly understand the Chrysler funding issue

[Chryco Psycho]

 

[Cudakiller70]

LS powered 
https://www.google.com/amp/www.hotrod.com/articles/challenging-the-rules/amp/

[Chryco Psycho]

 

[Chryco Psycho]