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I Want One Now: Purchase a Winged Car for Anywhere Between $1 and $75,000! There were less than 2500 winged cars made. I've never seen one in person, but I've seen Superbirds for sale in ads and online for anywhere from $48k to 75k. Ouch. The good news is that if you set your sights a lot lower, you can own a Superbird or Daytona Charger for just a couple of bucks. The first winged car as toy that I know of is the AFX slot car by Aurora. At some In 1991, Racing Champions put out a couple of crappy die cast Superbirds, followed by a slew of Chargers Daytonas with real numbers and graphics. In the Mid 90's a new comapny called Playing Mantis took over the Johhny Lightning name and began to manufacture copies of the originals as wellas new designs. One of their early muscle car series featured a Superbird.
The collectable car boom in the late 90's led to higher priced collectables by Johnny Lightning and Racing Champions. Somewhere in the time line, Hot Wheels started making low end Daytonas, which led to ridiculously overpriced collector's editions often only available as part of a set. And then there's Ertl. They are the ones that bring you the large 1:23 scale models that come in oversized shoe boxes. They make large Daytona's and just recently put out some HO scale Daytonas. It turns out that Ertl is now owned by Racing Champions, or vice-versa. Then there are other companies that offer 1:43 scale models that range in quality from good to average, like Road Champions.
What about the slot cars? I don't have a track, and I don't have my original Aurora model, but I've seen them on eBay in both the yellow/black and blue/black scheme. There are also three contemporary options that I'm aware of. In a cross liscense deal with Matell Wheels, Tyco puts out a Superbird and Charger double pack. Note that it's a straight Charger and not a Daytona. I guess that would be too good to be true. The detail on the Tyco model is not as good as the Aurora, but slightly better than Life-Like Racings un-named Superbird. It looks like a nearly identical mold to the Tyco model with a horrible paint job. An interesting adittion is the Playing Mantis line of Thunder Jets. These are plastic shells with little pull back motors (like fragile Darda cars) that are made to fit the old HO scale slot cars that pre-dated the AFX cars. They are very nice in the context of a slot car, but unfortunately, they are too small to use on current chassis and to fragile to last very long as a toy that's going to see any kind of regular use.
Where are They Now? There are a couple in museums, including the Richard Petty Museum located at Route 4, Box 86, Branson Mill Road, Randleman, NC 27317. Tel: (919)495- 1143 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (205 362-5002) in Talledaega, next to the raceway. Every once and while there are rallys and auto shows that feature winged cars, like the one that took place October 14-17 at Talladega Alabama this year. I've been to random vintage auto shows without luck, so check ahead if you don't want to be disappointed. If you can't get to a museum or auto show, try watching TV. On an episode of Beverly Hills 90210 the boys went to the Petersen Automotive Museum (213-930-CARS) and they panned over a couple of Superbirds, although I'm not sure if they are in the permanent collection. Also, the Spice Girls have a music video that features some annoying footage of them frolicking on Charger Daytona specially decorated for them. Don't ask me which song. I don't know.
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