No Talladega at Talladega.... [PIC]

Richard Petty's relationship with Plymouth soured a bit and in 1969, he was lured by Ford to drive their 429 Cobra Jet powered "Talladega" which had a more aerodynamic nose and a rear wing. It was the stable mate of the similar designed Mercury Cyclone. Petty with Homan Moody prepped the car and that 429 that was severely underrated at 335 HP was now pumping out 700 HP. He was contracted to run on Goodyears. During preparation for its namesake, the Talladega 500, the Goodyears were failing and Petty threatened to pull out for safety reasons. Goodyear sent another shipment of tires to him and they failed also. Hence, he withdrew. Although Petty and the Talladega went on to beat the Dodges for the Manufacturer's Cup winning 13 NASCAR events but Dodge was breathing down their neck winning the last 5 out of 6 races that year. In 1970 Petty was lured back to Plymouth with their high wing and aerodynamic shaped "Superbird". Larry Shinoda and "Bunkie' Knudsen designed and built what they thought was an answer: the Torino "King Cobra". Inspired by the GT40, it was given a Smooth one piece fiberglass nose but like the GT40, it was tail-less. Although the nose produced 200 lbs of downforce, when Cale Yarborough test drove it, without a tail spoiler, he was spinning the wheels on high speed straights. Shinoda and Knudsen went back to the drawing boards and then, with only 3 built, the project was cancelled and Shinoda and Knudsen were fired when Lee Iacocca became boss and stripped Ford's racing budget. The final nail in the coffin was new NASCAR homologation rules with numbers now based on the number of dealerships which would have demanded some 3000 King Cobras to be built. The remaining Dodge and Plymouth winged cars fared no better. With their track speeds exceeding 200 mph, for safety reasons NASCAR limited the winged cars to engines no larger than 350 cid which just didn't work for the cars so for the 1971 season, they were essentially banned.

This is a Wix model of Petty's Talladega:

Here's the one unrestored Torino"King Cobra":