1969 Rossi/ Brooks Daytona Charger

[MarkJ]

Just finished over the weekend. Took 215 hours to build including the decals which took 56 hours of that time. This is supposed to represent the last winged warrior that competed in Nascar. The 1971 Daytona 500 was the race. Mario Rossi prepared the car and this was the only race it ever appeared in.  Bill France changed the rules on these cars for 1971, saying that if you wanted to run one you had to run a 305 cubic inch engine with one 4 barrel carb. Rossi took him up on it and almost won the race. He used a Keith Black prepared 340 cuda engine that had been prepared for trans am racing. It was destroked to 305 cubic inches. This stock block engine ran at over 9000 r.p.m.'s all day long and survived. If Brooks had'nt got caught up in a wreck with Pete Hamilton, he could have possibly  won the race. They were fighting for the lead on laps 97 and 98 when they tangled. Brooks ended up seventh. If you want to see how it came together click on the link below.
http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=1701.0

[bbowser]

Outstanding model!  Back in the day when the factories were still involved.  I love that a privateer could show up and take on the big boys.

[yellowsportwagon]

Sweet Mark!!

[gks1964]

Super job!! Mark!!

[THarrison351]

Nice looking Daytona!

[PappyD340]

Super nice!

[MarkJ]

I forgot to post some real car pictures.

[bogger44]

Beautifully done!  Thanks for the history behind it too.

[Jim N]

Great work as usual Mark.  Really outstanding!

[sflam123]

Great job!!  This turned out FANTASTIC!!  I remember watching the highlights of the Daytona 500 where this car ran.  They did an amazing job to be competitive with a car that had a huge HP handicap.  A great tribute to an outstanding effort

Edited September 21, 2020 by sflam123

[Bills72sj]

Very nice result.

[shoopdog]

Very impressive build and thanks for the history behind of the actual car.

[catpack68]

Awesome work Mark!

[Steamboat]

Very nice!

[AmericanMuscleFan]

Very beautiful build Mark, the paint job and the decals are awesome!   It's obvious that you know your subject and I love the story behind the car.  I assume the 305 cu. in. engine is the one we can see in the last pic!?

[slusher]

Outstanding model!

[ChrisR]

Looks great!

[MarkJ]

12 hours ago, AmericanMuscleFan said:

Very beautiful build Mark, the paint job and the decals are awesome!   It's obvious that you know your subject and I love the story behind the car.  I assume the 305 cu. in. engine is the one we can see in the last pic!?

Francis, Yes that little black motor is a 340 destroked to a 305. Chrysler didn't make one back then. I don't think they ever did for that matter. Keith Black the drag racing motor builder built those 340's to be used in the trans am series in cudas and challengers. I made mine from a 440 taken from a 71 amt  charger kit. I shortened it moved the heads more upright to make it less wide and fixed the valve covers to look like 340 valve covers. Added an intake from my parts box that looks some what like the intake on the picture I found of the real motor from above. I was thinking it would be a bathtub manifold but it was not. Thanks for your interest in the build.

 

[james460]

read somewhere where he said he couldn't lead but could draft with anyone. great build.

[MarkJ]

16 hours ago, james460 said:

read somewhere where he said he couldn't lead but could draft with anyone. great build.

He could lead but he had to slingshot and get the rpm's up to 10,000 to do it is what I read. So to win it would have been a  coming to the finish line slingshot. We will never know though. 

[MarkJ]

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback.

[Vietnam Vet67]

On 9/23/2020 at 9:31 AM, MarkJ said:

Francis, Yes that little black motor is a 340 destroked to a 305. Chrysler didn't make one back then. I don't think they ever did for that matter. Keith Black the drag racing motor builder built those 340's to be used in the trans am series in cudas and challengers. I made mine from a 440 taken from a 71 amt  charger kit. I shortened it moved the heads more upright to make it less wide and fixed the valve covers to look like 340 valve covers. Added an intake from my parts box that looks some what like the intake on the picture I found of the real motor from above. I was thinking it would be a bathtub manifold but it was not. Thanks for your interest in the build.

 

Chrysler built 288" and 296" Pro-Stock drag engines in the 1977-1979 time frame for drag racing. I did the dyno development on those engines at the Tech Center. Don Glidden ran a Pro-Stock Plymouth Arrow back then. Ran the engines to 10,400

rpm. Also, had the 327" Indy car engine in 1969. See picture.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Vietnam Vet67
addition of info.

[mopargreg]

Looks fantastic, awesome work! Wondering what sort of putty you used around the wheel openings & to flare them out? Did you use thin styrene strips on the inside of the wheel openings to hold the putty & so it’s smooth on the inside? Any help would be great! 

[MarkJ]

14 hours ago, mopargreg said:

Looks fantastic, awesome work! Wondering what sort of putty you used around the wheel openings & to flare them out? Did you use thin styrene strips on the inside of the wheel openings to hold the putty & so it’s smooth on the inside? Any help would be great! 

Greg, yes I added strips to the bottom of the openings all around and used tamiya white putty above the strips to try to duplicate what Rossi did on the real car to give clearance for the wide racing tires. If you look at the wip it might help. I think i posted the wip link somewhere in this thread.

 

 

 

 

[MarkJ]

Here is that link again. the wip is 7 pages so it might take a while for all the pictures to build but the fender part should be close to the front.

http://www.shorttrackmodels.com/index.php?topic=1701.0