Wish Race Cars Still Had Some Personality

[ancrdave]

Check out this old photo of Howard Turner & crew at Sunshine Speedway in the early-1960s... Howard's nickname was Yogi Bear and he had Yogi on his car... Bet he had tons of kids as fans because of it... Todays cookie-cutter "wrapped" cars just have no personality at all for the most part... We used to have a number of cars that were easily identified at OSW/NSS... Two that come to mind are that Tasmanian Devil #0 car (can't remember the drivers' name) and Jack Hackneys orange & black Camaro LM #13 with the black cat on it...

[egspeedway]

From the same era, Dick Crowe had a plastic crow from the Old Crow bourbon days on his roof and Kip Pearce had a trolley on the top of his old toonerville trolley cars. Won,t see that anymore with everyones concern for aerodynamics.

[dd38]

Thats one reason I still have Dan Fry hand letter my cars.

[Jimmy McKinley]

Not only that, Dave, but...let 'em run "unique" numbers - zer0, FOUR, III, 112, Brand X, ONE, Three, XII, 123, 237....at least run three-digit numbers.

[Frasson118]

They do allow it Jimmy.... Jason Vail runs a #407 Late Model.

[Jimmy McKinley]

LOL...He's about the only one The rest of 'em are so....*vanilla* ("unoriginal")... :/

[andre]

Balough//Weld 112 Batmobile was probably one at the top of the list too.

Personnality- Creativity- Ingeniousity.

We do not see enough of that today. There should be a place, a serie, a sanction or something that allows that somewhere.

Remember at Syracuse, we even saw Pavement Super Mods run there.

Another classic that use to run at Phoenix, if my memory is good, all kinda of Open Wheels cars all mixed together, and let the best prepared win.

[86chevymatt]

how bout I think it was Ron addams at nss that had Beavis and Butt-Head on his car and the blue light special when he had the gas pedal floored the blue light on the roof came on

[Matt Albee]

Stock cars having personalities again would require track owners/promoters to do one of two things. Either mandate that all cars use stock all metal bodies ( no restrictions on year or make ) mounted on the current chassis. It would require a little fabrication but could easily be done.
Or, ask 5 Star and the other body manufacturers to start making panels that are absolutely stock appearing and have a little character. For example, you could choose from 55-57 Chevy, early or late Nova, Chevelle, Camaro, even Corvair. Or Falcons, Mustangs, Fairlanes. Or Darts, Aspens, Cudas, Challengers. Or Grand Prixs, GTOs, Firebirds. Or Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Mazda, VW . Any engine with any body.
And like the short tracks of old, require that all cars be painted and lettered tastefully at all times. Could even adapt the drag racing and supertruck practice of naming every car in big lettering on the quarters.

[fred23]

The only thing close right now is the sportsman classes......there aren't any mandated body specs......my dad wanted to put a 57 chevy body on his sportsman a couple of years ago but the only ones we found were for drag racing and they were a bit flimsy and very expensive......

[rmac]

We run a pinto wagon as mod mini. The shaggin wagon will be at Showtime sat. night.

[Jimmy McKinley]

We run a pinto wagon as mod mini. The shaggin wagon will be at Showtime sat. night.

Let's see a pic!

[Jimmy McKinley]

Different approaches to hangin' a Late Model body in the mid- to late '80s. These cars are all from within three racing seasons ('84-'86).

1) Larry Moyer's clear Lexan-bodied "Chevy Under Glass" in 1985 at St. Pete.

2) Dick Trickle at the 1984 Gulf Coast Classic.

3) Mike Eddy's Howe house car at DeSoto's Coca Cola 200, part of the Florida Triple Crown in 1985.

4) Bryan Wescott in our car at Sunshine in 1986.

5) Bruce Gaskins' 1981 Camaro-bodied Late Model in 1985, when most of the other Late Models were hanging bodies like what you see above.

These are just to show the ingenuity in the teams' body-hanging (and even "interpretation" of the rules at the time).

[Jimmy McKinley]

One of the wildest creations to ever come out of Mitton Racing: this car was a regular winner at St. Pete in 1987.

[rmac]

pic of wagon.