mod@tech

The order came down in the fall of 1970: No more aero cars in NASCAR for the 1971 season. Ford and Mopar had taken the cars to speeds and the sport to a level that Bill France hadn’t anticipated or wanted, so he limited all “special” cars to a maximum engine size of 305 cubic inches. Aero development programs for 1971 stopped. Factory support withered. Engineers were assigned elsewhere. While nothing initially came of those development programs, 30 years later a trio of wing car enthusiasts built a series of cars imagining what they would have looked like, some of which will head to auction this May.

The germ of the one-of-none 1971 wing cars that Massachusetts residents Gary and Pam Beineke and Mike Goyette built in the early 2000s came from a handful of photos that Goyette discovered of wind tunnel tests for aerodynamic modifications for the 1971 Dodge and Plymouth B-bodies. Described as the G series following the 1969 E series and 1970 F series, the aerodynamic modifications were tested on 3/8-scale models in the Wichita State University wind tunnel over three months. According to an interview Chrysler aerodynamicist Gary Romberg gave to Steve Magnante at Hot Rod magazine in 2005, the purpose of the tests was mainly to try out “various nose cones, wings, fairings, rooflines, and windshield configurations.” Among those configurations were a bi-level wing and even a tri-level wing.

While the tests were cut short by France’s decree, Romberg and his team were still able to deliver a 406-page report in October 1970 outlining their findings. “Though they look sleeker, the fact is the ’71 cars were not as good,” Romberg told Magnante. “They were wider and presented a greater cross-sectional area that was an immediate disadvantage.” According to Steve Lehto’s book, “Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird,” even with the aerodynamic modifications, the 1971 cars would have run at least 2 MPH slower than their predecessors.

Romberg also confirmed that no full-size 1971 cars were built with any of the aerodynamic modifications that his team tested in the wind tunnels. Regardless, Goyette and the Beinekes – 1971 B-body enthusiasts who already had a 1971 Dodge Charger awaiting restoration – decided to see what such a creature would look like.

The Charger, a rusty junkyard refugee originally equipped with a 383 and four-speed, benefited from an NOS pair of quarter panels, new doors, fenders, and rocker panels, Ramcharger forced-air hood, and the roof skin and mechanisms from a sunroof car. To the car, Goyette added a scratchbuilt steel bi-level wing like the one seen in the wind tunnel test photos, equipped with a latch for tilting the lower wing out of the way so the trunk lid can fully open and the appropriate strut braces. For the nosecone, Beineke and Goyette took a fiberglass reproduction of a 1969 Charger Daytona’s nose, cut it up into four pieces to fit it to the 1971 Charger’s fenders and hood, widened it by an inch and a half, then took a mold off the modified nosecone to produce a one-piece fiberglass nosecone that they then mounted to the car using 1969 Daytona retractable headlamp buckets adapted to the 1971 Charger’s electric headlamp door actuators.

While the rest of the car was built to look like one would expect a loaded, Hemi-powered, manual transmission 1971 Charger Daytona to appear, it’s largely a facade. The Hemi, for instance, is a 472-cu.in. crate engine with forged innards and an aluminum intake manifold that Goyette fabricated to mount three two-barrel Holley carburetors, creating a never-was Hemi Six-Pack. It has a five-speed manual transmission with Pistol Grip shifter instead of the expected four-speed, a Dana 60 rear axle with 4.10 gears, and 11-inch discs front and rear.

Naturally, the Beinekes and Goyette followed the 1971 Daytona build with a 1971 Superbird though, just as the 1969 Charger Daytona’s aero parts differed significantly from the 1970 Plymouth Superbird’s, the team took different approaches for the front and rear aerodynamic modifications for their one-of-none builds. Rather than adapt E- or F-series aero parts for the nosecone, they built the unit for the 1971 Superbird from scratch to replicate the one seen in the wind tunnel testing photos, starting with a wireframe built from thin-steel tubing, over which they applied a fiberglass skin and into which they inserted headlamp mechanisms from a Pontiac Fiero. The single-plane rear wing might have the same angle of a 1970 Superbird’s, but Goyette still had to fabricate it entirely out of steel to match the complex contours of the Plymouth’s upper quarter panels. As with the 1971 Daytona, the 1971 Superbird received a 472-cu.in. Hemi with a fabricated six-barrel intake, five-speed manual transmission, and disc brakes.

In addition to the two never-was wing cars, Gary Beineke has put up for auction a pair of 1971 B-bodies reportedly based off of discarded styling concepts – a 1971 GTX with ‘Cuda-style hood and fender vents and a 1971 Charger R/T with a shorter variable-pitch rear wing and color-matched bumpers and hideaway headlamps – as well as a winged 1971 Dodge Charger restomod with a 6.1L Gen III Hemi V-8 and six-speed manual transmission.

All five will cross the block as part of Mecum’s Indianapolis auction, scheduled for May 12-20. For more information, visit Mecum.com.

If you find yourself blinded by the lights while driving at night, you aren’t alone. Complaints from drivers who are being blinded by oncoming traffic is becoming a regular topic of conversation, with some folks avoiding going out at night whenever possible to remedy the situation. Sometimes turning mirrors away from the glare isn’t enough. For driver’s piloting shorter vehicles, the passing of a large truck or SUV can easily light up the other car’s interior like an aquarium on display.

Today’s headlights are faster than the speed of dark. The LEDs in new vehicles can turn nighttime into daytime with the flick of a switch, but how safe is it, really? Regulations on headlights hasn’t changed in decades, while vehicle design and bulb technology has advanced. There are active online communities and petitions dedicated to discussing the causes and solutions to blinding headlights. A quick internet search for “ban blinding headlights” will reveal several pages of results.

According to John Bullough, the Light and Health Research Center’s Program Director at the Icahn School of Medicine, there are three primary issues that have added to bright beams causing temporary blindness on the roads, the most obvious being America’s love for big, tall vehicles. The rising placement of headlights on supersized pickup trucks and SUVs creates a more direct line of glare right into the eyes of those who opt for cars that sit lower to the ground.

The second cause of being blinded by the light is the changing of bulb technology and varying color hues. Vehicle manufacturers have long moved away from the standard halogen bulbs which produce a yellowish ray of light that is easier on the eyes. The move to LEDs introduced a brighter, harsher blue or white light that seemingly reaches farther to cut through the darkness, but commonly causes drivers to see spots after the vehicle passes even if eyes are averted to avoid the glare. The main issue is how the regulated lighting is measured: The human eye in sensitive to an LED’s blue hues vs. the warmer yellow halogen lights, but the light meters are not. Perhaps continuing the use of the old method of measurement isn’t too bright.

The third and most easily fixed issue for light blindness is headlight alignment. Bullough states that is it increasingly common for vehicles to have headlights out of alignment, even in new cars from the factory; “We actually did some measurements not too long ago and found that probably about two-thirds of every car had at least one headlight that was either aimed too high up, which is something that creates a lot of glare for other drivers, or too far down, which essentially limits their visibility.”

Matt Brumelow, Senior Research Engineer at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, supports this claim, explaining that federal regulations over headlights are certified based upon the independent vehicle. After installation, there is no further testing to ensure the headlights are aimed properly. Are you constantly flashed by the opposing traffic’s brights, even though your vehicle’s brights aren’t activated? Your lights could be out of alignment. Just to make sure, it’s a good idea to make any adjustments necessary to avoid blinding other drivers, and to ensure you’re getting the most out of your vehicle’s lighting.

The solution feels like it’s lightyears away

There is a potential solution in the works that involves implementing “adapting driving beams” into new vehicles. Adaptive driving beams automatically adjust the light output emitted from LED headlights to avoid blinding pedestrians and other drivers in passing. However, Brumelow warns that the availability of this new technology may not reach our roads anytime soon; “We’re still not aware of any that are available in the U.S., so it might take a few years for the manufacturers to make sure that their high beam or their adaptive driving beam technology meets the requirements that the NHTSA has released.”

Currently, no regulations or legislation is in place that would require automobile manufacturers to implement the adaptive driving beams into vehicles by a specific date. Even if this technology is adopted by the United States, it doesn’t resolve the fact that millions of vehicles are already on the road without this feature in place. In the meantime, the future will likely get even brighter. The best short-term solution for drivers with sensitive eyes could be to keep a pair of polarized night driving glasses in the glovebox, available for under $20 on Amazon.

Date: January 1990

Location: Scotia, New York

Source: Roberta Smith, via Times Union Historic Images

What do you see here?

Despite the wooden body, the luggage lashed to it wherever possible, and the hotel name stenciled on the doors, this 1931 Ford Model A boattail listed for sale on Hemmings.com has only spent its recent years doing promotional work for a hotel and likely wasn’t built to be some jauntier version of a depot hack. Or, at least, that’s what we’re presuming, given that the lack of luggage and passenger space would make this a less than ideal vehicle for fetching any more than one hotel guest from the nearest train station. That said, the provided description of the car makes no mention of its origins, other than to say that it came out of Ohio, or of the intended purpose behind the boattail body. From the photos, that wooden boattail body appears simplistic but well crafted, and it could very well have been installed in place of the car’s original body when the car was relatively new, judging from the wear marks and assorted minor damage to the body. And if that’s the case, the boattail must be of rather sturdy construction and must have been well maintained over the years.

According to the California-based seller, it’s a running and driving car that could use some assorted servicing beyond, apparently, the tuneup that was done not long before these pictures were taken. From the seller’s description:

It was brought out from Ohio many years ago to San Francisco, CA and still retains its license plate from 1931. It was purchased by a large collector who also owned the San Remo Hotel. The car was used as a promotion vehicle for many years by the hotel for its advertisements, special events and showings. The hotel is now sold and going through some changes for its future but its 100-year history will still live on.