50 Years Ago Win on Sunday; Sell on Monday
1969 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II and Ford Talladega
It has been 50 years since Ford, Mercury and Dodge began a short-lived aero war. 1969 was the beginning but it only last two years. By 1971 NASCAR had restricted the wild aero cars to smaller engines than the non-aero cars. The loss of horsepower was more than could be made up with better aerodynamics and the factory special bodies disappeared from the race tracks.
This video was made before the Dodge Daytona appeared at its first race at Talladega in 1969. Up until then the Dodge Charger 500 tried to keep up with the slicker Ford Talladega and then the even slicker Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II.
These factory-built cars were a far cry from today’s custom-built, NASCAR designed bodies. While today’s race cars are covered with decals and shapes meant to appear to be stock bodies, in 1969 the race cars were made with real factory sheet metal and appeared every bit like a stock car.
