Interior

The Daytona interiors were never the leading edge of appeal. However, they were very functional. In 1990, the entire interior was replaced with a slick, rounded, well thought out package with one exception: I personally HATE the turn signal being mounted on the dash.

In 1987, however, Chrysler decided to give us what could be the best driver's seat ever fitted to a car (personal opinion!). Built by Recaro, and skinned by one of Chrysler's standard suppliers, this seat has power adjustments to the bottom and back wings, and power-inflated bladders for thigh and lumbar support. The adjustment range makes it easy for the smallest driver to be snugged in, and the largest driver won't get squished. The seat is also on motors that lift or drop the front and back independently, and move forward and back to extreme ranges. With the driver's seat all the way back, it is actually resting against the back seat!

Gas and brake pedals are positioned just perfectly for heel-and-toe driving. For those of you who keep reading about this in car magazines, but don't know what it is, heel-and-toe is where you use your heel to brake, while hitting the throttle with your toe, when downshifting, to match engine speed to the drivetrain while decelerating. Once the skill is mastered, your downshifts will be smooth as silk, and clutch wear is reduced.

Instruments are a work of art. Large bright orange needles floating over a black background, with illuminated numbers for night time, make a truly useful gauge package. A large speedo and tach, and smaller oil pressure, engine temperature, voltage, and fuel gauges, match the turbo vacuum / boost display, and a hokey little diagram of the car with lights to indicate doors ajar, low fuel and low washer fluid.

Gauge problems are legend in the Daytona, including: sticky tach, inoperative speedometer, pressure and temperature gauges that jump around as if possessed, and inaccurate vacuum / boost readings. The easiest way to fix most of the problems is to occasionally take the entire cluster out and clean the connectors. Also, the sticky backing on the gauges sometimes lifts off, stopping the needles from moving. You can usually just press this back down, or add new adhesive.

Inaccurate pressure and temperature readings are mostly associated with the connectors to the sensors on the engine. These are the simplest, cheapest connectors possible, and tend to stretch over time. You can unplug the sensor, crimp the connector tighter with a pair of pliers, and reattach to the sensor to provide about another year of accuracy, so it isn't really a terrible problem.

Just above the vacuum / boost gauge in most Daytonas is a small cubby-hole, almost useless since sunglasses keep falling out and a cassette won't fit there. Surprisingly, this slot is there for a reason: the Navigator. Navigators were not offered in the Shelby in 87 or 88, but were optional in 89. If you run out to a wrecker and pick one up, it will plug directly into the dash. The required connector is there, and it's all wired up. The Navigator is a day and date clock. It tells you elapsed time, fuel economy, distance travelled, average speed, and if you program in a distance to travel it will give you ETA and distance remaining. As a bonus, it estimates the distance you can travel with your remaining fuel. The original price was about $500, but wreckers seem to be selling them for about $10. Most of them require all their pushbuttons be replaced, a relatively easy and inexpensive fix.

Above the rear seats are sun visors. These are there to keep the sun off the neck of back seat passengers. Many people have expressed amazement at these visors, but really that is what they are for!

The windows in the Daytona are riding on a rail. The part that clamps to this rail tends to get out of shape, causing the window to shudder when travelling. The best fix is to replace this part once the symptom appears. Also, the window is pushed up and pulled down by a flexible plastic strip ("flex drive regulator"). This strip gets brittle with age, and can break. Opening up the door shows how easy it is to replace this part.