Plymouth Superbird Vs. Dodge Charger Daytona: Are They The Same Car?

It's no secret that car brands often take inspiration from one another — the Mazda MX-5 Miata was heavily inspired by the Lotus Elan, even being called a "shameless copy." But companies taking design elements of earlier cars into the future is nothing new. However, some cars look so similar that people are often confused if they are even different cars altogether. One example of that is the Dodge Daytona and the Plymouth Superbird, two pointed cars with massive wings. 

While both of these cars came out around the same time and for the same reason, they are not the same car. The Dodge Charger Daytona came out in 1969 and the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird came out one year later, both muscle cars focused on aerodynamics to compete in NASCAR competitions. The two cars dominated in 1970, winning a combined 38 races that year alone. But was one car better than the other?

[Featured image by Jeremy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped & Scaled | CC BY 2.0]

The Daytona and Superbird may both be aerodynamic muscle cars with a comically giant wing, but the two are actually not all that identical when it gets down to the nitty gritty. First is the designs themselves — the Daytona has a pointer front with a smaller grille than the Superbird and a wing that is leaned a lot further back. The Daytona has a 23 inch wing height while the Superbird's is 24 inches — these massive wings eventually got the Superbird banned from NASCAR. Both cars had different roofs as well, with the Daytona sporting a metal top and the Superbird a vinyl top. The fender scoops, A-pillars, and hood pins look identical but are installed much differently. 

While the Superbird may have been designed to look sportier than the Daytona and they both shared the same 440 wedge 4-barrel engine, the Superbird wasn't as fast. The Daytona was designed in a wind tunnel after all. As a result of marginally better aerodynamics, the Daytona was one to three miles per hour faster than the Superbird, which makes a massive difference in a competitive race. The Daytona is actually one of the fastest classic muscle cars in NASCAR. The Dodge Charger Daytona has continued but is now electric. Meanwhile, the Superbird was actually only in production for one year. 

[Featured image by Sicnag via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped & Scaled | CC BY 2.0]