1966 Fred Lorenzen Ford Galaxie - Junior Johnson's Yellow Banana

[gami8630]

This car is the Ford Galaxie, one of the most controversial cars in NASCAR history, dubbed the Yellow Banana due to its body style, which was illegally modified for aerodynamic advantage.

The base kits are AMT's 1966 FORD GALAXIE 500 7-LITRE and '65 FORD GALAXIE 500XL, both 3-in-1 kits. The body, cockpit, and engine were selected from the 1966 kit, and the chassis from the 1965 kit, and were combined with the necessary additional work.

I tried the following modification to Yellow Banana. It is a simple method, but I think I was able to reproduce the body style reasonably well.

1. Front nose is lowered by making a wedge-shaped cut starting from the lower end of the A-pillar and bending it downward.
2. The rear quarter panel is swept upward by making a wedge-shaped cut at the rear end of the C-pillar and inserting a wedge-shaped plastic plate into the cut.
3. The front end of the roof is cut 3mm to the left and right, and the A-pillar is bent backward toward the rear of the body to integrate the roof.

Other body modifications include installation of taillight covers, removal of production-spec moldings, emblems, and wipers, and addition of race-spec fueling ports and fuel overflow pipes.

Cockpit has a race-spec instrument panel created, seatbelts added, fire extinguisher added, etc. Racing seat is from Monogram's 80's kit parts. 
Steering wheel is a surplus part from JO-HAN.
Roll cage is made by myself with Evergreen rods, but it is not so good.

Tires and wheels are PPP Firestone tires and HM-type 10-inch wide wheels.

Body was sprayed with Tamiya's TS-16 yellow, but it was little too bright.

Decals were made by Gofer Racing and PPP for Galaxy. The missing sponsor decals on the front fenders were used from the decals I had in stock.

 

 

Edited December 25, 2023 by gami8630

[ColonelKrypton]

Very nicely done.

I was just reading about this car the other day https://www.macsmotorcitygarage.com/junior-johnsons-infamous-66-galaxie-the-yellow-banana/

Interesting story and time period in NASCAR racing.

cheers, Graham

 

[bobss396]

Some model mag years ago had a how-to on making one, maybe Scale Auto. The car caused quite a stir at the time. 

The Smokey Yunick #13 Chevelle was another controversial car.

[THarrison351]

It would appear you have captured the lines of this special car very well! Was a very fast car up until it wrecked in its only race. Needless to say NASCAR upped its use of templates after this car. 

[slusher]

Wonderfully done..

[ChrisR]

Awesome build!!

[PappyD340]

Very nice!

[bobss396]

13 hours ago, THarrison351 said:

It would appear you have captured the lines of this special car very well! Was a very fast car up until it wrecked in its only race. Needless to say NASCAR upped its use of templates after this car. 

The Smokey Yunick Chevelle was also wrecked after a couple of races ?. 

[Horrorshow]

Didn’t Junior build a 7/8th scale car one time?

[bobss396]

2 hours ago, Horrorshow said:

Didn’t Junior build a 7/8th scale car one time?

That rumor surrounded the Yunick #13 Chevelle. It was full size, but tricked out within the rules. NASCAR made their 1st ever template for that specific car. They made it from a rented stock passenger car.

[MarkJ]

Excellent job re-creating the Yellow Banana , Yoshimi. I had forgotten that Lorenzen had driven the car.  Very clean work on this build.

[catpack68]

Very nice work!?

[Gord55]

Very nicely done, from what I consider the last really great era of Nascar.

[gami8630]

Thank you all for your comments.
Your comments have been very motivating for me to build nascar model.

[bogger44]

What a wonderful build, Yoshimi!  All those mods really paid off as it really does look the part of the real one.

[Nitrobarry]

Very well done! The mods are very subtle just like the real car. Outstanding work!

 

[gami8630]

Thanks, bogger44、Nitrobarry.

Looking at images of the actual car at the time, the body style was not so extreme, so the modifications were made accordingly.
Even so, the image of the completed model is quite different from the one before the modification.

 

[bobss396]

On 12/23/2023 at 9:04 PM, THarrison351 said:

It would appear you have captured the lines of this special car very well! Was a very fast car up until it wrecked in its only race. Needless to say NASCAR upped its use of templates after this car. 

With the #13 Chevelle, a template was made up from a rental car. The #13 car passed the contour check easily. A couple of other Chevelles that were entered, they failed the check. Smokey Yunick did a lot of little subtle things to the car, exploiting the gray areas of the rule book. The seat was moved to the maximum left as possible. The bumpers were tucked in, holes were filled to direct air under the car. The bottom of the car was smoothed out. The glass was moved to the outside of the car too.

[Rattlecan Dan]

Real nice job! Looks very sharp.

[gami8630]

On 1/3/2024 at 8:54 AM, Rattlecan Dan said:

Real nice job! Looks very sharp.

Thanks, Rattlecan Dan. 

This kit has a good reproduction of the body style, so modifications were minimal.