Vietnam Vet’s $5,000 Dodge Charger Daytona Revived After Two Decades of Hiding

You can’t help but be skeptical every time one of the roughly 413 TV car-hunter hosts stumbles yet again on some fairly rare classic vehicle hidden away by a quiet owner who’s suddenly ready for the limelight. Here’s the story of one owner who did the rediscovery on his own, and whose original $4,770 investment could become a six-figure payout.

As reported by Barcroft Media, Ron Smith of Washington bought a 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona, a car Dodge built 503 copies of solely so it could win at NASCAR superspeedways. A ‘69 Charger Daytona was the first NASCAR vehicle to top 200 mph, and made for an all-conquering street car.

Smith drove the Daytona before shipping out to Vietnam, and again after returning in the ‘70s. He parked it in 1980 on his father’s property, where it sat until a few years ago. Smith found a restorer to bring the Daytona back, who wisely chose not to do a full rotisserie, spending only $12,000 to keep the Dodge as authentic as possible.

So how much is it worth now? Assuming that this Charger Daytona had the typical 375-hp V-8, Hagerty’s price guides would put it around $180,000—although it’s one-owner and mostly original state might drive up interest in the right auction. That’s a nice “what-if,” but I hope it remains purely a theoretical number. If I were in Smith’s place, I’d keep the keys handy, the gas tank full and tell the car hunters this beauty ain’t going nowhere.