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Post by jamesharvey on Feb 14, 2013 11:06:19 GMT -5
I ended up with a built model of this when I bought several from an estate. The one that I have has #98 rather than #36. Can someone share some history on it? I have tried to clean up some of the detail so it looks better. The eagle on the nose is really striking.
Thanks,
Jim
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Post by indy on Feb 14, 2013 11:55:49 GMT -5
The #98 was PJ Jones' ride. Parnelli's son was a holdover from AAR's IMSA days. 1998 was another lackluster year for AAR as the Toyota engine (almost said motor ;D) was still a boat anchor and the Goodyear tires were not the best week in and week out. The Arciero-Wells Racing team was the closest in equipment with them running the same Reynard Toyota combination even though AWR ran Firestones. Arciero's driver combo of Papis and Robby Gordon (after Hiro retired) blew AAR's guys out of the water consistently. PJ only scored points with an 11th at Long Beach (road course config) and 12th at Gateway (speedway config). PJ was cut from the team with four races left in the '98 season. Still his 3 point total was more than Alex Barron whom kept his seat at AAR with only 2 points running the entire season. 1998 also marked the last time AAR ran the Reynard chassis. Phased in during 1998 and run entirely in 1999 was the Eagle chassis. Gurney "bet the farm" on his car and at the end of 1999 Goodyear was pulling out of the sport, Castrol pulled their sponsorship, and Toyota was not supplying Gurney with engines and cash. Thus ended the final ChampCar effort from Dan Gurney's All American Racers.
The Revell kit is very nice and can be built nicely straight out of the box and the stock decals are from Cartograph so they are top notch factory decals. Only complaint with Revell's art is they only did helmet graphics for one driver so Barron got the nod from Revell (same thing in the Target car where Zanardi's helmet graphics were not included).
LMK if you are looking for other specifics.
Jordan
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Post by indy on Feb 14, 2013 12:08:34 GMT -5
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Post by jamesharvey on Feb 14, 2013 14:55:49 GMT -5
Thanks so much, Jordan. I really appreciate knowing this part of history. I do recall that Gurney's last foray into car ownship did not fare too well. Toyota did not have too much success with the IRL either. I guess their sights all along were on the series down south.
Jim
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Post by indy on Feb 14, 2013 15:56:09 GMT -5
Glad to help, Jim. The real tragedy in the Toyota ChampCar engine program was when they finally turned it around in 2000 that Gurney did not get to reap the rewards of their four-year long struggle with Toyota. The team sadly had the worst engine and worst tires during their tenure plus they didn't make a lot of what they had.
To put Toyota's struggles into light, Honda got their engine right early in their second season of IndyCars but Toyota only got their first pole at the finale of their 4th season and didn't win a race until their 5th when they landed Chip's juggernaut for the 2000 season. I'm sure Toyota paid handsomely to get Chip to switch from Honda, too. Toyota's only ChampCar driver crown came in the Penskeless 2002 season when da Matta and Newman-Haas dominated all enough to clinch the title one race early.
The next year, Toyota was in the IRL and they actually did really well at first. In 2003, they won the Indy 500, 11 of 16 IRL races, and powered 3 of the 5 drivers with a chance at the championship going into the Texas finale. Toyota powered de Ferran won that race while Toyota powered Dixon prevailed in the points. But except for bookend wins by Penske's Hornish and Castroneves, it was Honda domination all season long in 2004. Defending Champions Ganassi and Scott Dixon didn't win anything that year in their Toyota powered cars - pretty amazing fall from the previous year. Toyota powered Dixon, Hornish, and Castroneves to four wins total and Chevy only one win in the 17 race 2005 season - both manufacturers left the IRL after '05, leaving Honda as sole supplier until the new IndyCar turbo formula for 2012.
Jordan
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Post by jamesharvey on Feb 14, 2013 16:52:07 GMT -5
Again, Jordan, thanks for all the information. I had forgetten about Toyota and Ganassi in the IRL. How soon we/I forget. You along with many others are just gems about sharing information. With that, I will bring up another question. In that same estate sale, I got two built models of Bill Jorgensen's first generation Novi. I would like to redo one into the first car that Ralph Hepburn drove in 1946. I have some decent pictures and old film but I can't quite figure out all the writing in the yellow circles on each side. I know it says some about Novi Equipment but I can't find a straight on shot. Not that it really matters since I don't know how to make a decal even if I did get a picture. Just curious about what it says.
Thanks again.
Jim
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