@kyletut

In 1969, Ford and Chrysler were in the midst of an "aero" war in NASCAR. At the time, the two manufacturers were beginning to understand the importance of aerodynamics at speed, most notably at Daytona and Talladega. The resulting cars became known as the "Aero Warriors". Below, you'll see the Plymouth Superbird and Dodge Daytona. They became iconic for their pointed nose cone up front and their extreme wing out back. Interestingly, while aerodynamics were becoming important, engineers still didn't fully grasp how it worked exactly. Think about how early airplane builders created bi-planes because they thought more wings would create more lift. That's kind of where motorsports was at at the time. With the cars below, many people would assume that the horizontal part of the wing out back created downforce on the rear of the car, pushing it into the ground and making it have more grip in the corners to go faster. Instead, what was actually happening was the vertical struts of the wing were creating yaw stabilization through the corner and improving side force. This allowed the driver to enter the corner faster and exit the corner faster without losing the backend of the car and spinning out of control. By 1970, this car was banned from racing because it had too much of an advantage.

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