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I've always loved those cars. The best one I've ever seen was a Charger Daytona that was Petty blue with a 426 Hemi that had been tuned with MPFI, massive chromed CAI, a modern (for mid-90s when I saw it) stereo stealthily cut into the car (except the 12" sub in the package tray) and sitting low over NASCAR-look wheels.
They did some different things on these cars because cars were just plain built different back then. One of the things that they did was put a large metal cap plate over the A-pillars. I had read about them having to do this to improve aerodynamics but haven't been able to locate the discussion on the reasons why. I want to say it had to do with ducting air over the top of the car as opposed to allowing vortices to form outside each front window, but it may have been a cheap/cheating way to shield the rain gutters from the air flow.
I'm rather interested in these because on my truck the visible portion of the A-pillar is entirely built into the front doors and it closes over a gasket on the structural pillar/windshield frame. From the airflow the door skins create massive scoops where air shedding across the windscreen in combination with the aero low pressure outside the front windows will pry the upper door skin/window frame away from the gasket and create an air leak. I hear the air leak regularly above 75 mph if I'm near trucks or if there is any head- or cross-wind (and at slower speeds is less favorable weather conditions).
One of the studies in contrasts between "aero" cars of old and more modern vehicles is the fitment of the windows. Before CFD and wind tunnel tests were common manufacturers flush-mounted the windscreens but the side and rear windows were deep-set inside thick window/door frames (take a close look at a mid-80s Dodge truck sometime). Most modern vehicles have very flush-mounted side and rear windows but relatively deep-seated windscreens (like my truck, my dad's old Contour - both have thick A pillars that protrude forward of the surface of the glass).
The Charger Daytona did indeed have better aerodynamics than the Superbird because the Daytona was designed to be what it was. The Superbird was more substantially different than the base Road Runner and was cobbled from parts of other vehicles rather than just the Road Runner. I had also heard that the Superbird had a completely different rear wing and that the uprights were significantly canted inward toward the rear to help reduce wake turbulence and flow separation on the deck lid.
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