NASCAR Models by Don Falloon

Jody Ridley's 1986 NATIONWISE T-Bird

Note from Don:
"Here is one unusual and not well known Winston Cup car. The actual car was built by RahMoc Racing in 1986 as a "back-door" project for Ford. Since Nationwise Auto Parts was sponsoring RahMoc's #75 Nationwise Pontiac, driven by Lake Speed, it didn't take much effort to put the same decals on this Thunderbird once driven by Jody Ridley.

Now, I consider myself to be reasonably knowledgable about many of the cars run in Cup competition, but this one was a mystery until I saw it on the track with a group I'm involved with. Out here on the west coast of the US is a group that restores and races retired Winston Cup cars. You can check us out at http://www.hscrs.com for more info.

This box-stock Monogram kit was painted basic Testors white, black and yellow. The interior is unusual in that it is also yellow, and not the red or gray one usually finds in a race car. The decals are from JNJ's old #75 set.

But, this story isn't yet finished, either. This car was hauled to Arizona and temporarily repainted to represent Alan Kulwicki's 1988 Zerex T-Bird that scored Alan's first Winston Cup win at Phoenix International Raceway and used in the filming of an independent movie called Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story. The movie is slated for a limited release April 1, 2005, in conjunction with the 12th anniversary of Alan's death. While I haven't yet completed a kit of the '88 Zerex car, I got to assist with the painting of this car to Zerex livery for the movie. I guess doing this thing in full scale is pretty cool, but awfully hard to put on your shelf for display.

I'm a member of a group out here on the west coast of the US that restores and races retired Winston Cup cars. You can check us out at
Historic Stock Car Racing Series (http://www.hscrs.com)
for more info."

Home Page To Models Index Page To Top of Page