1993 Mello Yello 500 winner/DOMINATOR

[18degrees]

hey y'all, i have been working on this for a few weeks now and finally finished it up tonight. And just a warning, there is gonna be a lot to read in this, so click off or scroll to the pics if you aren't up for it.

pictured below is my build of the 1993 Mello Yello 500 winning car of Ernie Irvan.  i chose this particular build because it showed truly what a powerhouse combination Irvan and Yates were; plus i remember watching the race on tv, thinking what kind of whoopin' they were gonna put on the field in 1994 - and we all know how that turned out . so here's the story..


Sunday, October 10, 1993, Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord NC...

Ernie Irvan qualified outside pole next to polesitter Jeff Gordon.  What occurred next was a (to borrow from the metal band Pantera) vulgar display of power. Irvan led 328 of 334 laps... lapping all the way thru the 8th place car of Ricky Rudd.  Margin of victory was 1.83 seconds, there were only 2 caution periods for a total of 11 laps.  average speed of Irvan was 154.537, he led laps 1-64, 66-161, 165-210, 212-272, and 274-334. Gordon led lap 65, Earnhardt led laps 162-164, Martin led 211 and 273... no one else got on the lap leader board.  not really sure if these moments that the others led were during green flag pit stops or not, as cautions fell on laps 145-149 and 307-312. 

i surely could have just used whatever contingencies that were on the Powerslide #28 sheet (i had to get a Slixx 1994/95 sheet for the name plate) but what fun would that be? I ended up finding a broadcast of the race on Youtube and scrolled thru the entire 3+ hour race taking screen captures as i went.  the only things that i wasn't sure of was the contingency layout on the rear fender, the style of exhaust, and the side skirts... so i made my best educated guess on what i could find.  i even sent pics of the rear fenders to Steve and he was in the same boat as i was.  guess our eyes are equally old

i normally don't post interior pics but i used some of the roll bar padding that Jaye makes, and it was awesome and very easy to work with.  some pieces had to be trimmed but that was no big deal.  i also used the Youtube video to check the appearance of Ernie's seat, so that should be close to what he ran. 

i will point out the details and extra parts from Jaye that i used with each picture.

and awayyy we go..






roll bar padding, shifter, dash, 3 piece fire bottle were all from Jaye. seat is from a mail slot Tbird with tan padding like Ernie ran. the exhaust was from the kit, ends chopped off and replaced with Evergreen tubing.



nothing special here


no RYR logo on the left headlight area, no THUNDERBIRD on the front air dam, the bottom of the lower grille barely creeps down into the yellow area, grille color and layout, and grille tape


again, nothing special here


3rd time for nothing special here


trunk rails that went over the trunk logo, rails on the rear windows (all the same Evergreen L channel)


steel window straps (Evergreen strip)


hopefully the correct underhood logo layout (taken from a Davey Allison era pic), bare metal foil on the area behind the snout


ok, so here is where it gets different.  the front fender (both sides of the wheel) contingencies were different-ish in placement from each other.  the main section of contingencies were applied individually, as they were different than what was on the decal sheet. i am putting the pictures of each section on top of each other so you can see the differences without having to refer back to the earlier pictures (that is, if you care).  and yes, the Goodyear over the front wheel on the right side was pushed that far forward.  that wasn't a mistake on my part, it really looked like that.  far look from the uniformity of the last 20 years or so.






i guessed the contingency layout for the far rear fenders based on shape and some colors... there weren't ANY clear images i could pull off the video.


so it started life as a Revellogram 89-93 Thunderbird, interior was painted with Krylon fire red, exterior was Tamiya pure black.  front grille areas were filled in (top 2 were filled with putty, lower was filled with Evergreen strip). Jaye supplied the wheels and hubs, dash, shifter, firebottle, roll bar padding, fuel filler, antenna (which i forgot about and added after the pics were taken).  in hindsight i shoulda pirated a better/more accurate window net from another kit.  and the RF wheel is just a smidge too low, i noticed after the chassis was done that the front spring on that side, it didn't fit right into the hole on the bottom that it was supposed to.  there is a slight imbalance (LF sits barely off the ground) and i am sure that woulda fixed it.  Powerslide Davey Allison 1991-93 decal sheet with name plates from a 1994/95 Slixx sheet and also took the white tire decals and the RYR wheel logos from that sheet.  grilles are from Powerslide and the grille tape is from Slixx.  forgot that i made some jack points (not the typical ones from the era) out of styrene strip.  you can only really see them in the first pic of the driver's side but not on the right side.

anyways, that's about it.  kudos if you patient enough to read everything up to here...

[Volzfan59]

I like it Dave, but you already knew that. The stuff from Jaye's is spot on. Those fire bottles are pretty doggone sweet.

Steve

[18degrees]

I like it Dave, but you already knew that. The stuff from Jaye's is spot on. Those fire bottles are pretty doggone sweet.

Steve

Thanks Steve, do appreciate it but you already know that

If you like them fire bottles so much, maybe you should use one in your next build...

[Volzfan59]

I like it Dave, but you already knew that. The stuff from Jaye's is spot on. Those fire bottles are pretty doggone sweet.

Steve

Thanks Steve, do appreciate it but you already know that

If you like them fire bottles so much, maybe you should use one in your next build...

I plan on doing that very thing on my next NASCAR build. Things are progressing nicely in the old shop remodel. Should be finished this weekend. Then it's back to building.