Let’s continue our special sneak peek of the limited-edition Muscle Cars Forever® stamps today with the second of the five stamps: the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona.
Dodge Charger Daytona is a trademark of Chrysler Group LLC.
The outrageously styled 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona was designed to dominate on the racetrack. The car, which underwent wind-tunnel testing before its release, took the checkered flag at its NASCAR debut in September 1969 at Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega.
The production version of the car was powered by a standard 440-cubic-inch, 375-horsepower Magnum engine. A limited number of Daytonas were also available with a 426-cubic-inch Hemi, a race-inspired engine Chrysler introduced earlier that decade. (Chrysler first used a version of the Hemi—a high-performance engine with hemispherical combustion chambers—in automobiles in the 1950s.)
Concealed headlights, fender-mounted scoops, a nearly two-foot tall, rear-mounted wing, and an 18-inch nose piece helped boost aerodynamics. Other signature touches were thick body stripes containing the word “DAYTONA.”
The distinctive vehicles were not easy to come by. In order to qualify for NASCAR racing, at least 500 Daytonas had to be made available for purchase. Only 503 were produced.
The Muscle Cars stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. (Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.) They are the third issuance in the American on the Move series and will be released in February. To see the other stamps in the series, visit Beyond the Perf.
We’ll reveal another of the five Muscle Car stamps tomorrow. Any guesses about which car might be featured?