“As lore has it,” explains the Hemmings article, “Dale Earnhardt was just about ready to hang up his helmet in 1974 and turn his back on racing for good when he got the opportunity to test a factory-built kit car Chrysler was developing. Encouragement from the Chrysler engineer on hand led Earnhardt to reconsider and go on to race professionally.” While the late Earnhardt is now considered one of racing’s great drivers, at the time, he was just a new driver. However, what made this encounter even more memorable was the car Earnhardt tested.
In 1972, Chrysler had once again left the racing world. The company was at the top of its game, and had a huge supply of racing knowledge that it could have tapped and returned triumphant. However, like the Viper’s mentioned earlier, the company just decided to leave. In the interim, the company had decided to develop a short course racecar that customers could buy from the factory. Essentially, Chrysler was developing a Porsche Cayman GT4.R in the 1970s.