LUKE'57

Not an exact replica of a real car but more like what I would have had if I was there. Always liked the Junior Johnson based Ned Arp car in "Redline 7000" and I really like yellow race cars so it'll probably have one of these two sponsors of mine and Speedway Photo Service (my old racetrack photography business that my son resurected the name for a couple of seasons ago and uses for real now) on the other side.

Easily the best known driver in the convertible division was ol' Pops, Curtis Turner. Here's two of his convertible division cars and his '60 hardtop with the top whacked off per Bob Colvin's instructions in order to run in his Spring Darlington race that he persisted in calling a covertible event until the trouble of hacking off the cars roof and the rising speeds prompted Nascar to say "enough" and make the "Rebel 300" just another hardtop event.

Thanks, that's mighty generous of you but then what'll I do with those two '64 Galaxies that I've got earmarked to build that Grand National car for the street? LOL

Cool, that sounds like a fun road trip. You wouldn't think an old dirt dobber like me would enjoy that would you? One of the first cars I remember wanting as a teenager was a Jaguar. Must have been that ad in Car & Driver magazine with that XKE setting in the tall grass with that long legged girl with the short dress on beside it. I guess I figured if it was alright for a good ol' boy from Memphis (Elvis) to sing about then it was OK for a circle burner like me to fantasize about. LOL

Now you don't really think that if I knew an insurance salesman that I would admit it do you? LOL The Steve Davis I know is from Monroe NC and builds dirt track race cars and still drives at the local dirt tracks here. Seems like Dale is the same kind of guy his dad is and surrounds himself with quality people. Good to know that some things (especially the good ones) never change. I'll take you up on that invite some time if I ever get that far away from home again. Four dollar gas and forty year old Fords keep me kinda close to home lately. LOL

Never was into the Modified much so I didn't see that one run but I read a lot about it in the early Stock Car Racing Magazine. Always wondered if he was related to Reds Kagle who ran Nascar back in the day. I've used all kinds of paints in the forty or so years I've been replicating cars for the local racers so if you can screw up a model with paint then I've probably done it. LOL Take a piece of the same kit that you want to paint that won't show, like the outside of the interior tub or the inside of the chassis, to use for the "test mule". I've seen some plastic "take" a certain 1-1 paint while it would craze and wrinkle another kit's body. Just prime the car with a good primer to seal it before you use the 1-1 paint and it usually works well. I've had good luck with just flat black, light or dark grey from the cheap "big rattle cans" and it's also great to use on the chassis.

Zeb, The factory color was called Vintage Burgandy (maroon metallic). IIRC Brandywine was about the same color. I had a friend that painted several of his dirt track cars Brandywine. There's a strange story about Roxanna's color that goes like this. The paint was pretty good when I bought her as just a body and, since the first '64 I saw up close was that color, I just waxed her and let it go for several years. The paint started getting a little "chalky" so I decided she was ready for a facelift. I had been seeing this little mountain girl (ex- Miss Ford Motorsports, naturally LOL) and she came down to help me sand one evening. She got this strange look on her face as she sometimes did around battlegrounds and "fairy places" and said that Roxanna was "talking" to her (her grandmother was full bloodied Cherokee and she seemed to have taken after her) and said that Roxanna told her that she wanted to be white. I had seen, many years ago, a white one with the silver painted area in the chrome "spear" painted red and really liked it so I told her I would think about it. I got a little pale and weak in the knees when I took off the first piece of side trim to check for rust. The car was white beneath the chrome so I checked the vin number and it came up Wimbledon White. Needless to say Roxanna is now white.

Think that's bad? I got my hopes up when I saw this galley proof for the April cover of Hot Rod. I couldn't wait for them to call to set up an interview..............I'm still waiting. Guess it was a hoax, huh?

The only Steve Davis I know is a local racer. Great family, shot his daughter's wedding, lettered his race cars and dated his sister for a while, so I guess I can state that with confidence, huh? Can't remember what the county is where Mama's place is but it's just above Chimney Rock State Park on NC74. Not too much guv'mint intervention there though.

Mummified??!?!? Nope. Embalmed.........mmmm.....could be. LOL Here's my brother and an ex-cop friend of mine getting ol' Roxanna ready to roll a few years back.

Not yet. Guess I should have taken some pics of the one I used to park next to. Changed real racetracks this past week and haven't checked out their water apparatus yet.

Hey Zeb, glad to know the both of you. Good solid mountain folks. I've got some friends in Waynesville if they haven't moved since I been there last. Skip Grasty that ran a garage up there and Wanda and Bud Early. Wanda is Tiny Lund's widow and they, along with Tiny's son, used to run a card shop up there. Fine people all.

That would be me standing at the door of Roxanna, my '64 before the repaint to white. That's my brother who goes by Gator of several boards and builds a MEAN dirt track model (Jackie Sims Race Car Models). And you ain't gonna believe this, but that's an ex-cop that Gator is handing the "product" to that is one of my best friends and for some reason answers to "Troy".

Sorry, but that's a deer, not a horse. But anyone who has had some of that good ol' mountain corn and tell you about seeing WAAAY more than unicorns! LOL

Hey Olle! Sparta Tennessee? Home of my very favorite Blue Grass singer, Lester Flatt. I shot the picture they used on the cover of one of the two biographies on him. Even got my Sigma all dolled up with one of those big pick guards like his. I KNOW all those guys in the posts above were talking about MARTHA WHITE biscuits!

You are way too kind. Thank you for appreciating my ol' redneck race car models.

I thought about doing the Daytona Permatex 300 superspeedway version of that car but I think it'll probably wind up Banjo Matthews' '61 Grand National car.

Started my son early. too. Here he is at about ten with my Ruger short barrelled .41 Magnum Blackhawk. He wouldn't even point a cap pistol at you back then. I felt much safer going shooting with him than some of my adult friends. He's now thirty eight and owns several .45's of his own. He is a really good son too. I had a Ithaca Saddle Gun in .22 back when they were new and loved it. But it got sold, along with every other gun and model I had, in the divorce auction. Know what he bought me for Christmas a few years back? A brand new Henry lever action in .22 to match my Ruger Single Six. I told you he was a good son.

He seemed to see it as a "hate" thing, I guess. The only thing I hated was that they lost my stock car racing heritage and sold us out to the California crowd when we lost the Southern 500, the FIRST and still the best, superspeedway stock car race!

Scorched earth policy, Zeb. Like I never existed. Well, there was that one pic that got smuggled into the magazine a while back. Seems Superman ain't the only one with a secret identity.

I've got it on tape and ol' "Yancey" ran out of brakes but not "braves". Everytime he hit the brakes the grease from the diff would catch fire so he tried a few laps without them. Anybody who tries to sail "brakeless" through the "old Darlington's" narrow third and fourth turns is braver than Dick Tracy! His spirite was willing but the "iron" was weak, so to speak and he had to park it. Darel was one of my very favorites and one of the main reasons I bought a '66 Cyclone as my first car bought with my own money. Got to meet him shortly before we lost him and I was NOT dissappointed. Class act all the way around.

Gary, do you know what's more precious than a true and faithful friend?.................. ........................................ .............................................. .......................................................... ............................................................................. ................................................................................ NOTHING IN THIS WORLD AND VERY FEW IN THE NEXT!!!!! You just made my day.

COPPERHEAD ROAD!! Almost forgot about that one, a later generation's "BALLAD OF THUNDER ROAD" and a kick butt little tune.

Don't know about Charger roofs, but I'm living proof that you can't use one on a racing program cover and then say anything about it being deleted! I STILL can't post on that lame site!

That would have been in '65 and ol' Ned was switching the ignition off down the straights to cool it with raw gas because it was overheating. Can you imagine the backfire report under those covered grandstands when he switched it back on? And to make it that much more impressive, the guy he beat by those 14 laps was Buddy Baker!