 |
Umbauten: NASCAR - Legends Of Racing
1969 Dodge Charger Daytona - Jim Vandiver #31
(Für eine vergrößerte Darstellung Foto anklicken) |
Als Slot-Unterbau dient das Chassis eines Carrera GO Mini
Cooper welches wegen des deutlich längeren Achsabstand geteilt
und verlängert wurde.
Hier die Daten des original Fahrzeuges:
- Baujahr: 1969
- Hersteller: Dodge
- Modell: 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona
- Rennserie: NASCAR
- Rennstall: Buddy Nixon
- Fahrer: Jim Vandiver
- Motor: V8 426 c.i. Hemi
- Leistung: 345 PS
- Höchstgeschwindigkeit: 322 Km/h
- Beschleunigung 0-100 Km/h: 6,8 sec
- Länge: 5,75m
- Breite: 1,94m
- Gewicht: 1814 Kg
- Geschichte:
|
 |
 |
Known
as one of the hardest charging independents of the sport, Jim
Vandiver always ran among the leaders in his 16-year Winston
Cup career despite very limited sponsorship. Vandiver's expertise
on super-speedways netted him 2 victories in his only two ARCA
starts at Talladega. Jim was a legend among the Carolina dirt
tracks with hundreds of feature wins at tracks such as Gaffney,
Lancaster, Monroe and Concord. The Vandivers were truly a racing
family. Younger brother Tommy served as Jim's chief mechanic
and their sister. Lillian, was the first woman to drive at Charlotte
Motor Speedway. One of the more colorful tales of Jim's career
involves a "family matter" as well. Tom Vandiver explains:
"In 1973 Jim was in the middle of a custody case at the time
of the Darlington race. His lawyer got a continuance from the
South Carolina court until after the race - or so he thought.
Before our second pit stop, I noticed two uniformed officers
standing at the back of our pits. During the pit stop I yelled
to Jim "The police are going to arrest you after the race for
contempt of court!" Not sure if he heard me. I later held up
a pit board with the message "LAW" on it. As the race wore on,
we got in a wreck that made the car run slower and slower. Normally
Jim would have pulled the car in and parked/but he was determined
to avoid the bad publicity of being arrested. Around the mid-point
of the race, he came down the frontstretch with his safety net
down and waved "bye-bye" to us. He intentionally spun the car
in turn three to bring out a caution flag. Then he scrambled
out of his car, ran up the banking and jumped over the wall!
The crew split up and looked for Jim all over the parking lots,
campgrounds and infield with no luck. After several hours of
searching in the 100 degree heat, I was called to a pay phone
in the garage area. There was Jim on the other end, laughing!
He told me that he had hitch-hiked in his driving uniform and
was already safe back at home in North Carolina - sitting in
the air conditioning and drinking iced tea!" |
|
