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Kurt Busch' 2005 CROWN ROYAL Bud Shoot-Out Taurus


Kurt showed up as defending NEXTEL CUP Champion at the Bud Shoot-Out with this special Crown Royal-sponsored Taurus. (When I first Googled Kurt Busch to get some background bio, I got this: "Kurt Busch - Emmy-Noether Fellow - Theoretical Nano-Photonics" and thought, "nah, that can't be right...")

From the Roush Racing website, I got some info on the REAL Kurt Busch - not that egghead guy that popped up in my Google search:
"He began competing in go-karts at the age of 14, but it was Dwarf Cars that gave him his first taste of success. After winning the 1994 Rookie of the Year title in his home state of Nevada, Busch followed it up with a championship one year later. In 1996 he earned Hobby Stock Champion honors at Las Vegas Speedway Park and began to attract the attention of owners in NASCAR’s regional Touring Series. By 1998 he arrived, winning the Rookie of the Year Title in the NASCAR Southwest Touring Series. Repeating his Dwarf car success, Busch followed his rookie honors by winning the series championship in 1999.

In the fall of that same year Busch received an invitation from Roush Racing to audition for a seat in a Craftsman Truck Series entry for the following season. Busch impressed the personnel enough to earn an invitation to the second tryout in November at Phoenix International Raceway.

"They let us know that one of us five drivers would be leaving today with a ride," Busch said. "I just took it as an opportunity of a lifetime and thought if I'm even being considered for this truck ride, that's great. I was really a lot more laid back the second time, and I was able to get more into a groove and go out there and show them my stuff. That's how I was able to get the job."

Busch moved to Roush’s headquarters in Michigan that winter, and in 2000 won four events and finished second in the final point standings on his way to Rookie of the Year honors in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Jack Roush opted to move Busch directly into NASCAR’s premier series, foregoing a stop in the NASCAR Busch Series. Busch finished runner-up in the Rookie of the Year title chase in 2001.... The combination of young Busch and the veteran Jimmy Fennig yielded immediate results. Their three seasons together have produced 11 victories, including four at one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway, 31 top-five and 55 top-10 finishes. Eight finishes of sixth or better in the inaugural “Chase for the NEXTEL Cup” last season propelled Busch and Fennig to their first NEXTEL Cup Championship.”

What the Roush site does not mention is that in spite of his boyish looks, Kurt is no angel, and has had several run-ins on his way to the top. Just ask Jimmy Spencer... He has a hard-nosed approach to racing, and is not afraid to exact a bit of payback when he feels it is needed. All in all, maybe a refreshing throwback to what NASCAR was all about a couple decades back...

Sam sent me these graphics, and I immediately sensed another opportunity to use one of the Perry's Resin Taurus bodies. We modellers have been living for nigh onto 5 years with the 2000 version from Revell. With REVELL's announcement a few months back of a further delay I decided to try the conversion, ultimately ending up with the piece being cast by Perry's Resin. (See my write-up on Matt Kenseth's SMIRNOFF car for more info... Click Here)

I also took this opportunity to try out one of a couple really trick pieces I got from Modern Motorsports at the NNL East in March - the dashboard ignition plate. I have been doing a half-a**ed mod on my own on 2004/2005 cars, but as soon as I saw these, I knew I had to try them. With a bit of paint and some wiring as per his instructions, I'm really happy with the results! Nice pieces!!! What I did was cut out an area from the top of the dashboard the same size as the MM piece, then boxed it with Plastuct strips, and fastened the MM unit to it. All that was done after painting, wiring etc... To find out more about these and Modern Motorsports' other offerings, Click Here. The rest of the chassis is box-stock - all I added were seatbelts.

From the reference shots I could find, this car appeared to have a violet/purple pearl finish, so off I went to the local Shoppers Drug Mart, to cruise the Goth section of their fingernail polish offerings. (Being no stranger to Crown Royal over the years, I pretty much knew the hue I was after...) I chose a Sally Hansen "New Lengths" offering - #4662-45 Violette Frost.. (trying not to catch anyone's eye at the check-out..but the young lady behind the counter did not think it was "my colour"...).

The body was deflashed, washed in warm water and dishwashing detergent, and I applied several light coats of PlastiKote grey primer. As has been my past experience, the casting from Perry's was defect-free, and required minimal cleanup. After the primer was cured and sanded, I sprayed on several light coats of TAMIYA TS37 Lavender, to provide a colour-keyed groundcoat for the nail polish, which is quite transparent. The polish itself was thinned about 250% (ie 2.5 to 1) with lacquer thinner. This was applied via airbrush in multiple light coats over the TS37 once it had had a couple days to cure, until I had the pearl effect I was hoping to achieve. Due to the high percent of lacquer thinner, the polish dried out to a dull finish, but a couple medium coats of TS13 clear brought it all back to life. I then masked off the front airdam strip, and primed it with white PlastiKote prime, then shot it with orange-red dayglo as per references. (Again, I suspect the rear spoiler should be black, which I forgot...) All in all, I was pretty happy with the final colour, but on my next version, I plan to add some blue pearl, either directly to the fingernail polish, or in an additional clear layer over top. I think it needs a bit more blue-tone in the refelcted highlights.

The gold foil decals appear to be unique to this race, as the Martinsville car had yellow-over-white graphics.These decals are primarily gold foil over white. Application of the decals is very straighforward, and the sheet we have put together has nearly everything, including accurate contingency decals for the BSO, and the new "supersized" Goodyear logos for the tires. All you need are the "NASCAR racecar" logos for the A-pillar, and a front airdam grille of your choice. I just used those from the chassis donor kit.

Once all the decals were in place, and had had 24 hours or so to dry, I applied successive light coats of TS13, again from warmed rattle-can, and after a day or two to dry, I polished it all up with terry cloth and Turtle Wax to a nice shine.

In the BSO, Kurt was not a major factor, except for helping both Greg Biffle and ultimate winner Jimmy Johnson with some delicately-applied bump-drafting. He started and finished in sixth place. Crown Royal's actual debut in the Points chase was at Martinsville in April; we are currently working on a second version of these for that race.

(This decal sheet is now listed as available from 3 Amigos (Click here for our catalog page).

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