Bill Elliott's Dodge Intrepid Stock Car

[mrmike]

This is my Bill Elliott Dodge Intrepid.  It is painted with Model Master Red with a grey interior and built OOB.  I built this back in 2000 and I stopped watching NASCAR on February 18, 2001 when Dale Earnhardt died.

Edited August 24, 2021 by mrmike

[satterwhite78]

Great looking build! Always thought Elliott and Marlin Intrepids were the best looking of the Dodge field.  Looks a lot like my build...hmmm...let me check my shelf......

[CRANMAN1]

Awsome build have plenty of them good kits. Nice build

[slusher]

beautifully done!

[Jonathan]

Nicely built!

[magicmustang]

Like your Intrepid build. Have a diecast of the same car.

NASCAR was never the same after Dale Sr. died. I quit watching when they came out with the "Car of tomorrow". 

[ChrisR]

Very nice!

[espo]

Great looking tribute to "Million Dollar Bill". Very clean and well detailed looking build as always. For many of us NASCAR just seemed to no longer be as interesting as it used to be after Dale died. 

[mrmike]

Thank you guys!  I had been thinking about not watching NASCAR long before Dale Earnhardt died and that was the reason to push me over the edge.  The Car of Tomorrow seemed like a flash in the pan for me.  Another reason not to watch NASCAR anymore!  I might watch again if they gp back to the Body In White concept which is a stock shaped body taken from the production line and is made into a race car.

[bogger44]

Nice build Mike!  When Sr. died I lost some of my interest in NASCAR too, but kept watching, albeit with a slowly dwindling interest, until the COT came out.  I really haven't watched it much since, a few laps here and there throughout the seasons.  

[Vietnam Vet67]

On 8/24/2021 at 10:02 AM, mrmike said:

This is my Bill Elliott Dodge Intrepid.  It is painted with Model Master Red with a grey interior and built OOB.  I built this back in 2000 and I stopped watching NASCAR on February 18, 2001 when Dale Earnhardt died.

Dale spoiled Dodges coming out party.

[espo]

I'm really not a fan of the way they run the races now. A couple of short Heats and then the last so many laps as the main event. 

[mrmike]

It is unfortunate that this has become a "spec" series.  The body is carbon fiber, no grilles or lamps, just decals, the engine is from who knows were.  There was a time when the car they had raced, you could go down to the showroom and buy an almost carbon copy of the same car.  Yes, times have changed and I remember the "good ol' days" when racing was real and very dangerous! 

[Jim N]

7 hours ago, mrmike said:

Yes, times have changed and I remember the "good ol' days" when racing was real and very dangerous! 

The “good ol days” of racing are old, and they are not very good.  I have read about the supposed halcyon days of F1 when you could look at a group picture of the drivers before the start of the season and KNOW that 1 or 2 of them would die before the season concluded.  I remember reading about drivers being crowned as champions posthumously.  Those are not good ol days.  I could not understand Jackie Stewart’s almost fanatical demand for safety, until I read about the time he raced, and then I understood his point of view fully.

Dale Earnhardt, Sr. is not with us today because the good ol days were far too dangerous.  Some of it was Earnhardt’s lack of understanding of safety.  A driver seat that was not suited for racing and his insistence on wearing an open faced helmet, but car design, more specifically, front chassis design had changed to the point where the front ends were so stiff that a driver could not ride out the collision.  The race cars looked like a 60’s crash test where the car crumples to the front wheels and then bounces back.  I remember the 2000 season where a truck series driver, Adam Petty and Kenny Irwin, Jr. lost their lives.  I remember members of Congress telling NASCAR after Earnhardt Sr’s death to get their act together and fix their safety problems, or Congress would gladly fix the problems for them.

Reading about or seeing race car drivers in caskets far before their full number of years have elapsed is not a cause for celebration in my book and is why I will never view the good ol days as being anything but old days.

Today's racing is very real, and thank God, not as openly dangerous as the good ol days.

[Vietnam Vet67]

7 hours ago, mrmike said:

It is unfortunate that this has become a "spec" series.  The body is carbon fiber, no grilles or lamps, just decals, the engine is from who knows were.  There was a time when the car they had raced, you could go down to the showroom and buy an almost carbon copy of the same car.  Yes, times have changed and I remember the "good ol' days" when racing was real and very dangerous! 

So you want them to race cars with the plastic front and rear bumpers with V-6 or 4 cylinder engines ?? Right???

I worked in the Chrysler Race Engine Group from 1966 to 2007. Times do change and you have to change or move on. Technology waits for no-one. It took a 426 Hemi to go 200 mph back in 1970 and now we can do it with a 355 engine making less horsepower than the Hemi did because of all the advances in aerodynamics. For 1978 our goal for Daytona was 600 HP at 7200 rpm which we made. By 2011, last year for the carbureted engine we were making 950 HP at 9500 rpm. That's the same displacement, same carburetor, but with major advances in cylinder head design and airflow, camshaft timing, valve spring technology etc. By the way the engines used by all the carmakers were designed by them. No, you can't get one in a car as they are purpose built race engines.

By the way, the racing is still real and very dangerous. The point is the cars are so much safer so when there is a major accident nobody is getting killed. Dale Sr died because he manipulated the safety belts so that they didn't work like they were supposed to and he paid the price. He said they were too uncomfortable to race in. I read the report and saw the pictures.

[PappyD340]

Awesome build Mike!

[mrmike]

Thanks Larry!

Jim and Ed, I remember a time when stock car racing was just that...a stock car that goes fast.  I'm not talking about the cars of today with their plastic bumpers and tiny little engines, but cars that were built 30 years ago with chrome bumpers and V8 engines.  25 years ago, I was just starting to loose interest in NASCAR.  February, 2001 sealed the deal with Dale Earnhardt passing away.  I don't know how these drivers died or what caused their deaths.  Yes, racing is dangerous...very dangerous!  Today, they have cars with plastic Mustang or Camaro noses on them and they still don't look like a stock car should.  With Detroit moving away from cars in favor or trucks and SUVs, will the so-called "stock cars" still be around?  Will the "stock cars" be replaced with an SUV?  I still wish for the 'good ol' days', but those days are long gone!