Late 60's early 70's Dirt Super modified/sprint car

[garydavis]

This car was built back in 06 or 07. When I found out that GMP made a vintage sprint car kit...I had to have one. The idea behind this build is to represent the early super modified class in Northern California in the late 60's early 70's. That was when that class was just beginning and they allowed sprint cars with full roll cages and wings to run in that class. Believe it or not...most of those roll cages were bolt on cages. They would run in the Super class Friday night at Shasta Speedway (Anderson, Calif.) and take the cage off and run at Chico Speedway (Chico, Calif.) Saturday night. It was a time of real speed and excitement....for sure. A lot of experimenting went on at this time too.

The body is die cast and the rest of the kit is plastic and rubber. A very cool kit for sure. This was built as a race team as I would own one. The nose was opened up for more air flow. It was then screened. The engine was modified into a Ford engine (very rare at that time...too expensive to run). The cage is fabbed from Evergreen rod and the wing was fabbed from sheet plastic. The car is plumbed and wired. The paint is Duplicolor. The Decals were made with my Alps printer. The Dirt is Tapers Mud that I mixed with water based brown paint before I applied it. Once on the car...I let it dry and then added Dark brown paint to represent wet dirt. 

This is a little part of the Racing history that I grew up with. I only lived about 2 miles from the track and man....you could really hear the cars as they hot lapped. Made your juices flow for sure! LOL

I hope you folks enjoy this little part of the Dirt racing History. Thanks for looking in and commenting..... 

First look and mockup...

Here's the modified nose and screen...

Wing, cage, shocks in mockup....

The Engine....

Finished Car......

[deafpanzer]

I love it!!!  Thanks for sharing with us! 

[406 Silverado]

You're right about the Ford engines being more expensive to run. Heck it's still that way. Small block Chevrolet engines could be built at a fraction of the cost as compared to the Ford and Dodge counterparts back in the day. Awesome build and thank you for sharing your build here with us Gary.

I was out on one of the tracks in the DFW area in one of the pusher cars that they had sometime in the late 90's. Now THAT....was fun.

[ogrejohn]

That is so cool looking! Nice work indeed!

[keavdog]

That is fantastic. Great build/scratch work and the weathering is awesome. Love those cars - remember watching them up in Sacramento and when I visited my brother out in Blythe, CA. You have to cover your beer when they come around the turns lol

[kyledehart5]

This is awesome Gary! I absolutely love it. Right up my alley.

[project510]

This is so cool! Great job.

[garydavis]

Thanks for the compliments guys. It was a pleasure to build.

I think I put this in the wrong section. Joe...would you move it to the motor sports section for me...Thanks

Aug 19, 2023 15:24:47 GMT -5 keavdog said:

That is fantastic. Great build/scratch work and the weathering is awesome. Love those cars - remember watching them up in Sacramento and when I visited my brother out in Blythe, CA. You have to cover your beer when they come around the turns lol

..That's for sure John...you had to cover your Beer no matter where you set. Plus...you had to wear plastic protective glasses to see. I think I've got about 4-5 pairs of those things. I always forgot to take the pair we had (and my wife's too) when we went to the track....

[handiabled]

What a great looking build! I love the clay splatter everywhere, god I hated cleaning that off our short-tracker back in the day

[70 STING]

Incredible work. A very high level of skill here on display.

[martslay]

Superb!

[garydavis]

Aug 20, 2023 3:37:12 GMT -5 handiabled said:

What a great looking build! I love the clay splatter everywhere, god I hated cleaning that off our short-tracker back in the day

Thank you for looking in and the compliment, Handi. Yea...I didn't really like cleaning the clay/mud off either. Specially that wing. You can get most of it from standing on the rear tires, but the front you had to stand on the nerf bars and reach as far as you can. Now days they spray the car down with WD-40, sometimes baby oil is used too. Never thought of that in the late 60's...at least I didn't...

Thank you for looking in and the great compliment sting....

[garydavis]

Aug 20, 2023 9:59:54 GMT -5 martslay said:

Superb!

Thank you Marty...

[Joe Rix]

That is the definition of boss Gary. What a cool sprint and beautifully rendered.

[garydavis]

Thank you, Joe! It still makes me look at it when I go into the display/paint room...LOL

[sharp]

Beautiful work Gary! Love the detail work you've done on it.

[garydavis]

Aug 31, 2023 15:51:02 GMT -5 sharp said:

Beautiful work Gary! Love the detail work you've done on it.

Thank you for compliment, sharp. It is appreciated very much....