The Batmobile. No, not THAT one....THIS one.

[roadhawg]

When Gary Balough showed up at Syracuse Super Dirt Week in 1980 with this Kenny Weld built contraption, he changed modified dirt racing forever. Painted black, with it's wide, ground-effects body based on a Lincoln Contenental (wink wink, nudge nudge), it was quickly dubbed the Batmobile, and many wondered if ground-effects would really work on dirt. Any doubts evaporated when Balough qualified 2 1/2 seconds faster than the second place car, which, ironically, was the same car that Balough himself sat on the pole with the previous year.

Practically overnight, the other racers tried converting their own cars to "ground-effect" cars, bolting on everything from stolen highway signs to plywood in an attempt to keep up with Balough. It was all to no avail, however, as Balough easily dominated the week-ending Schaefer 200. After Syracuse, the rule book was re-written, making the Batmobile illegal, and it never raced in this configuration again....but it signaled the end to stock-bodied modifieds, ushering in the more aerodynamic fabricated sheet metal bodies like the ones raced today.

For what its worth, Kenny Weld built the car this way to disguise the REAL secret. According to Weld, the ground-effects did little, if anything, to increase performance. The REAL secret, and the reason Weld used a Lincoln grille in the first place, was a sealed forced-air induction system....ram-air.....that at the end of the straightway was estimated to be 70% as effective as a turbocharger. The radiator was relocated to the side pod, so the "ground-effects" louvers were for cooling, not sucking the car to the ground!

I've always thought this was one of the coolest race cars ever, and after finding out that Big Donkey made a resin body kit, I just HAD to build a model of it. The Chassis is an AMT Gremlin modified with the wheelbase stretched 5/8". I used the torsion bar suspension from a Monogram sprint car kit. I also raised the roll cage to match the height of the roof.

Like the real car, the interior is pretty simple. I added MCG gauges and a Detail Master seat belt kit. The engine is the kit engine, and like the real car, I moved the radiator to the side pod and fabricated a ram-air setup from parts-box pieces. They were very secretive about this setup, and no pictures are known to exist, so I just sorta guessed at it.

Most other parts are from the Gremlin kit. The wheels and hubs are my own castings. Bumpers are aluminum rod. Paint is Testors black, and the decals are from Polecat.

A very fun build, and my first completion of the year, which is sayin' something for me.

[Draggon]

Great job! I have always like this car and the story behind it takes me back to when ingenuity played a big part in racing. You did this historic race car justice!

[Bartster]

Very cool roadhawg! I'd never heard of this. excellent reading & Better model! your rims are nice.

[Danno]

Way nice!!

Love that kind of racing provenance. It's truly Smokeyish!

[roadhawg]

Thanks so much, Y'all, and yes, the car IS "Smokeyish", which I suppose is why I liked it in the beginning. It wasn't very popular with the other competitors though, lol.

A bit of trivia....the race that made this car famous, the 1980 Schaefer 200, was one of the first races broadcast on a brand new TV network at the time, ESPN. The race has been posted on YouTube in it's entirety....all 17 segments....so if you happen to be bored sometime and feel like watching a classic dirt modified race, here ya go. The first 7 or 8 segments are preliminary races, but there's some good commentary throughout. Notice how young Bob Jenkins looks, and Larry Nuber is no longer with us.....

Edited February 2, 2012 by roadhawg

[Guest]

That's a really cool build Tommy! I always enjoy checking out your builds and this one is no exception! Great work!

[krazyglu]

Thanks for the little history lesson Tommy. Seeing your 80's dirt modified and a few other people on here got me real interested in the dirt scene. I am hooked and now have two sprint cars in the works I love those wheels you cast...they look super realistic. Great job on the scratch building and kit bashing. Your paint/decal work always looks outstanding. I love watching dirt track racing videos on the tube while I build.

[roadhawg]

Thanks again, guys. Steven, I'm glad we got you interested! I grew up around race cars, so I guess it's only natural that I like to model them. I'll be looking forward to seeing your sprint cars!

[MadKaw6]

I remember that car well. You did an excellent job on it. It was really funny that everybody overlooked the real reason that car was fast. Those roofs started showing up on a lot of cars.