ExoMod’s D69 Daytona is a winged wonder for the present
Back in August, we reported on the new C68 Carbon, a rebodied, reimagined retromod built in the style of a 1968 Dodge Charger by custom Mopar builder ExoMod.
Welp, they’re at it again and have just announced a stablemate for the 807-horsepower, Hellcat-engined C68. Like that machine, the new D69 Daytona is based on the current Challenger platform. However, the D69 takes its design cues from the winged wonder that wreaked havoc on NASCAR’s superspeedways in 1969 and ’70 and became the first such car to top 200 mph.
For this build, ExoMod retains the familiar shape of a classic Daytona—its pointy nose and tall spoiler—but tones down both to slightly less purposeful, more street-friendly proportions. The car begins as a Challenger Hellcat Redeye, stripped to its undies and then completely reclothed in a carbon fiber “aero body,” a 2000-hour build process, according to ExoMod.
“The Dodge Daytona is perhaps the pinnacle of the muscle car movement of the late ’60s,” says ExoMod CEO Rick Katzeff. “Building a D69 Daytona has been a dream of mine for many years and I’m thrilled that we can now offer this vehicle to our clients with modern-day performance and peace of mind.”
No two D69 builds will be alike, but they will share that supercharged 6.2-liter, 807-hp screamer V-8, an eight-speed TorqueFlite paddle-shift transmission, SRT Competition suspension, and Brembo brakes with six-piston calipers clamping down on nearly 16-inch slotted rotors. The prototype shown here, s/n EXO-007, wears Firenze Red Pearl paintwork with carbon reveal cosmetic flourishes on the wing, tail panel, door jambs, rockers, and rear diffuser. DigiTails has supplied sequential LED taillights, and the Forgeline wheels, finished in dark satin bronze, are wrapped in Nitto NT555 tires.
The interior is a step up from current Challenger offerings, too, luxuriously done in two-tone Italian leather with ink-and-walnut-colored seats and walnut door panels. An 18-speaker Harman Kardon audio system is there when you get tired of the vroom noises. Despite all the custom work done to make the Challenger into something else entirely, buyers won’t lose Dodge’s 5-year/60,000-mile warranty. Their bank accounts will, however, lose $395,000 on the purchase.
The D69 will make its public debut at 2023’s Muscle Car and Corvette Nationals in Rosemont, Illinois, on November 18.
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The Daytona is an amazing car. It was so hated when new the dealers took several years to sell them off at discounts. Now today it is a big prize car.
I always liked it as this was like a race car for the street. But I was just a kid back then and I guess I was seeing what others did not see till later.
I am not a Mopar guy but this was one I always liked.
I’m in total disagreement. “Pinnacle of the muscle car movement”? HA! Don’t fool yourself. The winged warriors were designed and built to be race cars, pure and simple. The only reason they ever even saw the street was the homologation requirements to make them seem like “production stock cars”. They were not conceived of as muscle cars, and there never would have been street versions if not having to meet the rules (which kind of backfired, as NASCAR soon outlawed the cars anyway, homologated or not). Those of us who were adult gearheads in the late ’60s and early ’70s NEVER looked at them as muscle cars – let alone as serious street vehicles in general.
Seriously useful as race cars? Sure. But try to park one in any regular parking spot – shows immediately that they were not meant to be consumer cars (and muscle was definitely consumerism at its best). If you were Ricky Bobby Racer, they had a genuine use. For “civilian” use, they were simply gimmicks.
As far as “popular”? – they were ugly and ungainly then and they are still so today. What made them unique has no usefulness on a street car whatsoever. To build a “modern” version is pure folly, in my not-so-humble opinion!
I think this is our of proportion. The car is just too short and looks a bit fat? The hood scoop is just plain wrong. I’d like to see it without that. Maybe that would make it look more whole? Guess I’d need to see one in person, to be sure. I already don’t like the cartoon headlights. Those would have to go.
Agree, the body is too short so the nose angles are too blunt.
If they want to do it right, they need a new front clip.
But that may not work given they can’t change the “hardpoints” of the platform. To properly stretch the front, they would have to move the wheel forward.
Also the current MOPAR “pill box look” of deep bodies and slit windows works against the old school architecture as well.
So…I think they’re stuck with this unless they want to make it totally unaffordable, and build an entirely new platform.
Why bother when you can buy a Tesla for half the price that will blow it away and without using a drop of gas?
I agree that this car is very expensive and out of reach for many people, but at least it has some personality. Maybe you will lose stoplight races, but there is more to life than being the fastest car on the road. Plus, I’ll bet this car sounds a whole lot better than any Tesla.
There is nothing about this car that is appealing to me. At all. But I’m waiting for someone to write something nice about it to try and convince me otherwise. So far, hyperV6 has some praise for the original car, but has said nothing at all about this iteration. Swamibob says if you lengthen it, narrow it, remove the scoop and the headlights, it has a very slight chance of not looking terrible – maybe. That’s as close to a positive comment as we’ve got so far, folks…not looking too promising. John B just flat slams it with too many points for me to summarize. I don’t think we can construe what Dave says as “I like it”, no matter how hard we try. Are we seeing a trend here?
It does not look right to me. It looks squished, etc. $395k??? Wow. No thanks.
First, the price is bizarre. The current Challenger has never had the correct proportions with its very high sides and compressed side glass. Like riding in a bucket, visibility is terrible. Forcing those ungainly proportions into something that mimics, and only from a long way away, a Superbird – which was ugly and ungainly to start with, and was built strictly to get around the rules – just seems pointless. Anyone looking at the forced conformity of this design would laugh. Then they’d double up and fall over rolling on the floor when they heard what you paid.