LUKE'57

Don't know how far along everybody is but...........In the interest of more entries and a real fun experience, might I suggest two categories? One being what most of the early post-war unlimiteds were and that being stock airframe surplus fighter planes with race paint jobs. Easy to build and your imagination is the limit on markings. Sort of like the early Nascar racers when they were mostly stock appearing with even the chrome trim and all the seats. Quick and dirty builds with the emphasis on the fancy paint jobs. Group 2 could be the fighter based but highly modified planes like the Red Baron, Super Corsair and Stiletto from the seventies to the present day. That way everyone could have a go at it within their comfort range and it would still be fun and not restrictive to the ones who wanted to build the later racers. Just an idea born of watching those creative rule benders (is it stock? of course it is, I just spent $20,000 and two months making it stock)that race the stock cars for more years than I care to admit. What do ya'll think?

Thanks Navy48, that's an old original AMT convertible kit from WAY back. Glad you liked it.

I haven't forgotten you "bent wing bird" fans. Like all the rest, the Corsairs started out with just a paint job and some numbers to join the fun. But like the rest, there came clipped wings and DC-6 engine tranplants and before you knew it the Super Corsairs were bending around the pylons.

Now here's the ultimate in "grey area" of the rules. The Grummn Bearcat didn't see service in WW2 but was a regular competitor in Unlimited air racing with several iconic planes competing in the races. The British Sea Fury has a similar problem so maybe ya'll should make a ruling on these now for the contest.

Matching a USAF P-51 Mustang about as closely as Junior Johnson's "Yellow Bananna" '66 Atlanta entry matched a Ford Galaxie 500 on the dealer's lot, an early version of the Red Baron Race Team's Mustang put the fear in everybody with its slick bodywork, clipped wings and Rolls Royce Griffon engine with counter rotating props. The huge sigh of releave when they pulled pilot Steve Hinton, gravely injured but largely intact, from its smoking wreckage after wreaking havoc in the unlimitied division for several races, wasn't all just for Steve's survival. Here it is early in its career when it was still all red.

And while the Mustangs were beginning to compare to the factory planes like your Galaxie in the driveway compared to a Holman Moody Darlington winner, you ain't seen nothing yet!

Jairus, just wait until I get you a shot of the prototype P-40Q. It was raced (well, IIRC it didn't qualify but they started it anyway and it was destroyed in a crash in the railyards near the race course) and was a sleek bubble canopied speedster. In the meantime, for all you sir racng "newbies" let me tell you that after the clipping of wings, cutting down of turtledeck and engine swaps started, these racers had about as much in common with your basic olive drab war surplus fighter as Aunt Hattie's beige Pontiac Catalina in the driveway had with Smokey Yunicks black and gold thunder wagon at Daytona. This is gonna be SO much fun and one of the most creative contests ya'll have ever undertaken. BYW here's the P-63 King Cobra (the P-39's big brother) in race trim, complete with clipped wings and a hot red paint job. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!

Guys, there were several P-39 racers and even a few P-63 King Cobras. I've got some pictures of a one off Curtis P-40Q that was lost in an early post-war air race that had a factory bubble canopy and pretty smooth lines that would make a good candidate. I've got copies of Air Classic Magazines going back for years, including the yearly air race special issues that have bunches of photos of the air racers and once the cutting and engine swapping began in ernest it was Katy bar the door. This contest can be, according to drag race terms, pretty much "run what cha brung" and the entries should still be legal. As a long time air race fan, I am really looking forward to what this contest brings out. BTW here's a link to some pics of a model of a very famous P-39 racer. http://www.austinsms.org/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=-5

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I was just before stopping the calendar pages because I thought nobody was interested. I've already got the entire year finished but if there's something that ya'll would like to see, and I've got the cars, I could make up something special for a month or two.

Sounds like fun. Let me ring up Smokey and see if he's still got that cold fusion conversion for the Rolls Royce Merlin. And I know that ol' Ralph has got some really slick "stock" sheetmetal for a Mustang layin' around somewhere. I may even be able to hit up ol' Junior for some sponsorship money with the Midnighht Moon deal. But hey, if all else fails, I'll just cheat up a Griffon and drop it in the ol' Spit. Tally Ho, Ya'll. Try this for some links to some pictures. http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-&p=air%20racing%20planes&type=

Not just dabbled, he raced a Ferrari and even won the stock car race at the road course in Augusta Ga.

This was Nascar's version of "The Day the Music Died". I can remember exactly where I was as a kid of fourteen when the news came over my brand new pocket transistor radio. The Clown Prince of Stock Car Racing ( 2 time champion Joe Weatherly)and the sport's first superstar, both gone within a six month period. Wonder how different racing would have become if Bill France hadn't made Ralph Moody tear out that first "fuel cell" tank in '64 because it wasn't "stock" while leaving those non-production Hemis in the Mopars because he knew what a Chrysler boycott would do to the "gate". Sad thing is that is happened anyway the next season. And before anyone gripes, that '63 is a model.

Been wanting to do one of those for years. I've got a black and white pic but never knew what color the stripe was. I've got the '60, '61 and '62 winners built, kits for the '57 and '59 (original AMT buildup) and info for the '57 and '58. I really don't want to but it looks like I'll have to go resin for Turner's '58 but I want to build all 6 Rebel 300 convertible winners.

I think you reminded me earlier in the week and I still almost forgot. Just gettin' old, I guess. That #12 would be ol' Curtis' partner in crime, the clown prince of racing, Little Joe Weatherly in the 1960 Rebel 300 winning "hacksaw convertible".

Been off this week and just hanging out and doing mostly nothing but chillin' and watching DVDs so I wasn't watching the clock.....err....calendar like I should have. Just noticed that this is the last day of June and I haven't posted the July calenday page yet, so here goes. In keeping with the summertime I've included a couple of convertibles for some VERY highspeed crusin' at The Lady in Black with the Gold Dust Twins. This is the addy for the large printable version. hope ya'll like it. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/JUNE/JULY.jpg

Unfortunately, that's not as funny as you thought. Way back when I was just starting out building the local dirt track car models three kids came by my table at the track to talk and ask questions about how I did the cars. I told them to come by the house and I would show them how to do it and to cut down the brushes to hand letter them. The came by on Saturday afternoon while I was getting some cars done for the race that night and stayed an hour or so asking questions and watching. They left and I packed up the cars to head to the track. The next day when I got ready to start on the new orders I couldn't find my three best custom cut brushes. I cut a new one and got started trying to "train" it so I could get some lettering done when I heard a knock on the door. It was one of the same guys that had come by the day before wanting to talk and watch again. I figured I had just misplaced the brushes so I let him in and he stayed for a while and then left. When I got ready to start back on the model, you guessed it, no brush! I thought now what a set on those guys, expecially the one that came back again. It turned out I didn't know anything yet. Those same three jerks showed up at "my" track the next Saturday with their "custom painted" stock cars for sale in the pits. Unfortunately for them, I had told most of the racers what had happened. But the cold reception they got for their models was only in part because of them not being the same quality I usually brought. As they started to see some hostility brewing on the part of my racer friends that knew the story, they decided that the pits of a local dirt track wasn't a good location for their businees. In fact, since I never saw them down there again, they must have completly abandoned their plans for a racing car model production business. Glad you got your stuff back.

OLD Nascars? Did you say OLD?!!? Are you just trying to make me feel ancient? That's alright, even us feeble old men can appreciate great builds like yours. But could you lay off the "old" stuff?

I've got an old "how-to" book on custom painting that has a chapter on lace painting that gives their take on how it came about. Knowing and having been a painter I have to give some weight to the story. It seems that a pair of lace panties were found one day in a shop where some painting had been being done and a pattern remained on the surface from the settling paint when they were removed from the bench. How they came to be there in the first place was not explained fully. And the rest, it seems, is custom paining history,

Just got the two original movies with all sorts of extras and the later live action movie at Big Lots for $3 each. Haven't watched the movies yet but the extras with all the background stuff is really great.

Thanks guys, I really appeciate it. I know that these old redneck race cars aren't what most of you are interested in building but I get a kick out of hanging out here and sharing this stuff with ya'll and checking out what everyone else is building. Hey, I may even be inspired to build one without numbers someday because of it.

...........in a little place called Charlotte NC kicking the whole thing off with what will probably be the only "Luxury Car" era in stock car racing with the powerful Cadillac, Lincoln and Hudson entries setting the pace. Another first could be argued with the introduction of the "Rocket 88" Oldsmobile, one of, if not the very first, "Muscle Car", that put a luxury styled big V-8 in a smaller and lighter Oldsmobile coupe body. A Father's Day story...of sorts........... By now you've probably guessed that I'm talking about the very first race for Nascar's top division, today's "whoever wrote the biggest check" Cup that started out with the unassuming moniker, "Strickly Stock Division". That first race was on dirt and won by Glen Dunnaway, the father of a friend of mine, who followed quite ably in his dad's tire tracks, named Harold Dunnaway, who outran all those big powerful new cars in a lowly little two year old Ford coupe. Now if you look up the results of that first race you may wonder why Jim Roper is named the winner driving a Lincoln. Well, it seems that Glen's borrowed ride for that race happened to be one of Hubert Westmoreland's "business" coupes (althought NOT a Business Coupe model, there is a difference) and his business was liquid corn refreshment, so to speak, and its transportation. When the post race inspection was over it seems that the "wedges" in the Ford's rear springs, so helpful in handling the extra weight of its usual "cargo", turned out to be a no-no in the new division because it also helped the handling when the car was "empty". Remember, it was called Strictly Stock for a reason. Well, it wound up in court but after all the dust settled, both figuratively and literally, the division survived all the controversy and even prospered and turned out to be somewhat of a success. Kind of like King Kong being a monkey with a small pituatary gland problem. Since I haven't been able to build a copy of Harold's dad's car, just no model of a '47 Ford "business" Coupe out there, which, in this case, was really an "Opera Coupe", I'll have to post this shot of a diecast "Rocket 88" to commemorate Father's Day "Southern Style" and mark the beginning of the France Dynasty that began with a bunch of "car guys" and a dream.

Thanks guys. Hey Tom, are you related to Ned Setzer

Ran across a somewhat "doctored" shot of a model I built for an old friend that's gone on and thought I might work up a series of photos to honor some of the drivers I've know down through the years. Yeah, I know, anything to keep from having to build something new. Well, anyway, here's a model I built for one of the local "legends" who raced from the time of the flathead coupes, and with the likes of Fireball and Buck into the days of the wedge dirt cars. There wasn't much about a Ford he didn't know and, like most early racers, if you were his friend there wasn't much he wouldn't do for you and if you weren't, you'd better have your own watch if you wanted the time of day. Garland, my old friend, I hope you know that you are well remembered.

Only one problem with that dyno picture. The valve covers say Ford and if it's a 330 cubic inch engine then it's not what the 'birds were running. Holman Moody got those racing Thunderbirds as "scrap" (and some of the factory guys got in more than a little trouble about those whole cars being termed "scrap") and they had 430 cubic inch Lincoln engines in them for the races.

Thanks Cody, and welcome to the board. How are things down in "Elliot Country"?