---- Robert Whitman wrote: > Racing Champions is coming out with a few more finned Mopars in 1/64th scale > (Hot wheels and Matchbox size). As you may know they produce racing cars > and stock classics. They currently have a '57 Fury (very nice for $4!) and > a '60 Fury. They have come out with a Petty history series with most cars > raced/owned by Lee and Richard Petty. These include: > 1953 Coronet > 1954 Coronet > 1955 300-B > 1956 Coronet > 1959 Plymouth Plaza > 1960 Fury > 1962 Plymouth Savoy > 1963 Plymouth Savoy > 1964 Belvedere > 1965 Barracuda > and almost every other Petty car raced to present. More may be added > (hopefully a '57, '58, '61 Mopars, too). The Pettys had a factory deal with Oldsmobile in '57. GM "officially" quit direct factory support later that year, tho some Chevy and Pontiac teams continued to get GM support waaaaay under the table. Olds simply sold Lee Petty their entire supply of NASCAR stuff at an incredibly low price, which he continued using through '58 and into early '59 (Lee ran a '59 Olds in the '59 Daytona 500, but was back in a Plymouth shortly thereafter). In fact, Richard's first race car was an Olds, I believe a '57 convertible (NASCAR had a short lived convertible division). They definitely ran Plymouths in '61. I believe this was the year Lee had the bad accident that effectively ended the driving part of his career. Petty Enterprises stayed MoPar through the middle of the '78 season with the exception of '69, when they ran a F*rd Torino Talledega. This was the year Dodge got a couple of aerodynamic NASCAR models (Charger 500 and Charger Daytona). Chrysler expected the Pettys to keep running Plymouths but did not give them the aero help the Dodge teams got. The announcement of the Superbird in 1970 was accompanied by a press release welcoming the Pettys back, with a quote from Richard along the lines of "Plymouth is, well, like family..." ----------------------------------------------------- Get free personalized email at http://email.lycos.com
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