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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR

Jeff Gordon's 2003 "VICTORY LAP" DUPONT Monte Carlo!!


Now I ask you - who could possibly be more deserving than Jeff Gordon to be honoured by a "Victory Lap" car? Four championships, one of the most highly-regarded companies in the world on the flanks of his Monte Carlo... (wow - it's gettin' pretty deep, but maybe it'll get me that salary increase...).

Seriously, love him or despise him for it, Jeff Gordon's arrival in WINSTON CUP in 1993 was the start of the tectonic shift in NASCAR that brought young, raw talent to NASCAR into top rides early, rather than the formerly more traditional route of running the field-fillers, hoping someone would eventually notice you, and maybe, by your mid-thirties, if you hung in, you might get a good ride, even win a couple races before you turned forty...

Was it Gordon's talent as a driver? Evernham's skill as a crew chief? the Hendrick resources? the Dupont sponsorship money? the bright paintjob?? It was all those - being in the right place at the right time. (Those of us who have been following this sport more than 10 years remember how that Dupont paint scheme stood out in '93... shocking, it was!)

Anyhoo... At the October race in Charlotte in 2003, Jeff ran this car with the "Victory Lap" colour scheme, to commemorate those four championships. Sam provided the Victory Lap graphics, and I cobbled together a few other graphics to allow me to build this kit, using various graphics from the new 2003 Gordon kit from Revell, plus the 2003 SLIXX set. This model was built using the SLIXX decals, for the flames, contingencies and side numbers. On the "trans-decal" sheet we have put together are the hood and decklid graphics, the red roof number and the TV panel graphics. There is also a spare set of white side number "blanks" that I laid down first over the flames before applying the side numbers, to minimize colour bleedthru.

This was actually a surprisingly tricky build. The main difficulty was the transition from paint to decal on the front in the hood/fender area, and is not related to the decals we came up with, but to the use of SLIXX decals. The kit decals look like they may be more simple to use, but the colours are less fluorescent.

I primed the whole body with PlastiKote white primer, then sprayed the nose and TV panel, including rear side of spoiler, dayglo red, using TAMIYA TS-36 Fluorescent Red, a fair match to the SLIXX flame colour. Once it was dry, I applied a coat of clear (TAMIYA TS13), to ensure a glossy surface, and to protect the fluorescent paint.

I then masked off the tv panel and backside of spoiler, as well as the nose of the car, putting a break line just behind the leading edge of the hood across the top of the front fenders. This break needed to be in a position where it would be covered by the flame graphics on each side of the hood.

I removed the hood, and painted it, plus the greenhouse/roof, cowl, rear deck and front side of rear spoiler silver as in references. Once that had dried, I masked off the cowl, greenhouse, decklid, and front of rear spoiler prior to painting the sides blue. I had to keep the masking in place for the fluorescent red nose and tv panel/ backside of spoiler as well. I used TAMIYA TS 19 Metallic blue for this.

Once all this was dry, I removed all the masking tape, and carefully sanded the red-blue breakline on the front fenders. In order to ensure no colour variation due to the breakline, I also had made a white “blank” of the required flames for the front fender tops as I was using the SLIXX set. I applied those first, then cut away the portion required for the fenders from the large SLIXX hood decal, and applied over top.

I found the SLIXX decal to be very brittle, and since the paint-flame match was not perfect, ended up clearcoating and sanding the decal/paint interface, then using a liquid mask to protect the flame decals, carefully airbrushing white on the decal/red paint interface, followed by TS36 thru the airbrush, to ensure a fade effect from paint to flame colour to hide the colour difference. This was by far the most difficult part of the build. If I were to build another, I think i'd try the kit decals, as all the red colour nose panels are there.

The rest of the decal application was more simple – apply the rest of the flame decals (note – none on roof on this scheme), then follow up with numbers, hood graphics, etc. Final touch was to apply several LIGHT coats of clear (I used TAMIYA TS13, warmed in hot tap water and first couple coats DUSTED on..) after decals have had a couple days to dry thoroughly., then polish with Turtle Wax compound.

In the race itself, Jeff started second and finished fifth, a good run by most drivers’ standards, but likely not what Jeff was hoping for in this special car! Unfortunately, with the latest crop of "Young Guns" that Jeffie helped open the door for, the level of competitiveness has been raised. Will Jeff ever manage to win a fifth championship - let alone try and catch The King and The Intimidator?? Likely not... but his impact is already assured!

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