1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Barn Find

This car, Lot F186, sold for $99,000, including buyer’s premium, at Mecum’s massive auction in Kissimmee, FL, on January 15, 2016.

The 1969 Charger Daytona was Mopar’s first winged wonder, built to dominate NASCAR’s super speedways through both brute power and a host of slippery aero tricks. The drivetrain consisted of either a 440 Magnum or the optional 426 Hemi, and both were offered with the heavy-duty TorqueFlite 727 automatic or a 4-speed manual transmission. The winged Charger was a homologation special, and Dodge produced 503 of them for sale.

Although the Daytona was a track winner and forced rivals to up their game, it was a poor seller due to that outrageous wing and nose cone. Drivers weren’t enamored with “park by feel,” and the styling was simply too in-your-face for most buyers. Plymouth’s Superbird, built for the 1970 model year, was a little more usable in the real world thanks to revised nose-cone cooling, and more of them were built to satisfy a change in the NASCAR homologation rules. Of the two, the Daytona is the rarer bird.

Winged wonder in the barn

Decades later, the Daytona became recognized as an influential force in aerodynamics in speedway racing, and it then became a blue-chip vehicle hunted by serious auto collectors.

With every market run-up, Mopars led the pack in record-breaking prices and corrections. As market bellwethers, Mopars are frequently involved in trends and fads. We’ve seen shabby-chic-patina rides, and the latest trend is the “barn find.” That’s why you’ve likely seen this car already — even the mainstream news picked up on its sale at Kissimmee.

Selling cars in barn-find condition at auction isn’t new. A number of significant European post-war classics have found new homes this way for years. But there’s one important difference between a barn-fresh Ferrari 250 GT California and Dodge Daytona — the law of supply and demand greatly favors a complete Ferrari restoration. That isn’t always the case with a Dodge.

Two markets for two engines

The Dodge Daytona world is split in two layers for collectors: Hemi cars and 440 cars. Dodge made only 70 Hemi Daytonas, which are more desirable than their 440 siblings in today’s market thanks to their race victories on the track. It’s the Hemi Daytonas that set records at auction, with an astounding $972,000 high-water mark set for a low-mile, perfectly restored Hemi car at Mecum Kissimmee last year (ACC# 263111).

By contrast, there were over 400 Daytona 440s made, the bulk of them automatic-transmission equipped just like our subject car. The median sale price for all 440-powered Daytonas sold in 2015 was $147,000, compared with $798,500 for Hemi cars. The highest 440 sale we’ve seen in the past two years was also at Mecum Kissimmee in 2015, at $302,400 (ACC# 263112).

Preserve or restore?

Let’s suppose you own this car. What’s next? It needs a complete restoration for show standards, and considering recent median pricing, there’s little chance of that being profitable unless you discount the labor and do it as a hobby. Although stored under a carport for decades, there is rust on the front end and part of the roof. The partial white vinyl top may have accounted for that. The interior looks like it was and might still be home to a number of small furry creatures.

“Patina” cars are very popular at cruise nights and shows, but this one is a few mossy layers beyond that. It needs to be hauled to go anywhere, which gets old fast.

Although the odometer shows 20,553 miles, we have no true knowledge of its condition. A lot of work needs to be done to make it road-worthy, which will remove a lot of the character that makes up its scruffy “barn-find” appeal. So it appears the new owner is in a bind. Or is he?

That shining moment

There’s an old maxim I like to consider when weighing the “restore, modify, or preserve” status of old cars: What was that car’s shining moment in history? For instance, did it have an illustrious race career with victories or a famous driver? Was it customized for the show circuit by a notable customizer, or perhaps owned by a local street-racing legend? Is it a low-mileage original worthy of preservation?

This car was originally owned by a judge in Alabama. He bought it for his wife to drive. By 1974, it had been traded in and eventually ended up sold to an 18-year-old who used it for a vacation cruise down South, complete with flamed paint job. The teen sold the car to someone else, who kept it for decades. That owner stopped driving it after denting the nose, and it spent years parked in an open carport. That owner eventually sold it to Charlie Lyons, who brought it to the Mecum auction.

Prior to the auction, this Daytona’s crowning moment was a high-jinx-laden Spring Break run to Panama City. The once-teenage owner may have fond memories from that trip, but they aren’t historically important, and the custom touches aren’t unusual enough for preservation. No, in the grand scheme of things, this car’s true shining moment in history was this well-reported sale, complete with dingy, chipped paint under years of moss and dirt. But would you really leave this car as-is?

Bringing it back

Considering you can’t do much with the car in its current state, and the fact that it still retains its numbers-matching drivetrain, the most compelling path for this car is a restoration to factory-original status — whether it’s done in stages by various owners or in one go by someone with deep pockets.

Here’s why I think that’s the ticket: Fundamentally, the Daytona changed NASCAR history as the first car to smash the 200-mph barrier, and it changed the styling of all Chargers afterward. The Daytona also triggered some of the most controversial NASCAR restrictions in history, with rule changes designed first to make the car uncompetitive, then illegal.

Mopar collectors traditionally love the winged cars for those reasons and more, and you can’t argue against these things being most impressive when done up in showroom condition. This one, with its matching numbers, is worth that effort, even if it’s not a slam-dunk money-making prospect at today’s market levels.

All things considered, at under the ambitious estimate of $150,000, I’d call this one a fair deal for both the buyer and seller. The price paid here was no bargain, but careful handling will get the car mobile and buy the owner time to plan his next move in the world of Daytona ownership.

(Introductory description courtesy of Mecum Auctions.