Earnhardt was brought in onto the program in 1974, and tested Chrysler’s prototype kit car. Later dubbed “Saturday Night Specials” by Richard Petty’s company Petty Enterprises, the kit cars came either fully assembled, or in pieces for the owner to build themselves and customize. While if you selected to build the car yourself, you had the ability to drop any engine you conceived of into the engine bay, if you bought the car from Chrysler fully-assembled, it featured the company’s “W2 Head” 355ci V8 that made 650 horsepower.
Here’s where it becomes truly interesting. When the Saturday Night Specials were introduced, the only body shapes you could buy were a Dart, a Valiant Scamp, and a Duster. Only 130 cars were sold, 30 full-assembled and 100 kits. However, there was at least one prototype that was built using a Challenger exterior, and to tie in Earnhardt, the original prototype that he tested had a Challenger body. Now a Challenger-bodied Saturday Night Special is coming up for sale and it could be the car that convinced
Earnhardt to stay.