I dragged this thread out of it's time capsule as I think that not only is this a great model but it's owner/driver is one of the best known racing personalities in this state.
This is a simply wonderful model and a tribute to a truly great car. But I think that not only is it important to know about the car, but it is also important to know what we can about the man behind the wheel of that car. Ralph Nason made more contributions to auto racing in the State of Maine than just about anyone else who ever lived. Always promoting racing as well as driving winners. He owned Unity Raceway for a long while and is known to everyone in Maine who has any interest in car racing. Ralph started racing when he was about 35 yrs old.
The first twin photo shows Ralph talking to some journalist type about the Dart, the first Chrysler Kit car on a Maine race track. They said: "The car went like hell, handled decently and looked MEAN". Just the ticket to be a big winner. The other half of that photo shows the dart holding tight on the inside of a turn.
rnason8 by
Nathan Pitts, on Flickr
This photo shows Ralph seated behind the wheel of the Dart.
ralphnasondart by
Nathan Pitts, on Flickr
This photo shows the Nason/Dart combo celebrating another feature win.
rnason3 by
Nathan Pitts, on Flickr
But the Dart was not his LAST Chrysler car by any means. This is the next one after the dart......
rnason1 by
Nathan Pitts, on Flickr
And this was his last one.
rnason2 by
Nathan Pitts, on Flickr
This is a photo of Ralph much further along in age than the first ones, happens to all of us. This was taken with the grandstand at his well known Unity Raceway in the background. This is the very same grandstand I first sat in back about 1958 where I saw my first auto racing. Lot of things happened years since I first saw the place, before this past photo was taken. Lots of good memories there for sure.
I posted the other two cars in the hope someone might like to model one of them. I can probably scrounge up another picture of two if that would help anyone deciding to go that way. Lots of photos around you just have to know where to search for what you want.
Nathan
