A mixed-bag contingent plus their containers of racin' stuff arrived in Japan for this non-points event, after the '98 season was over.. No idea what the criterion was for an invite. I think four NASCAR series were represented - Winston, Busch, Trucks, and Winston West.
In a special promotion with Coca-Cola, the Dale Earnhardt's, Senior and Junior, were there... Of course, everyone was agog at the prospect of DEjr racin' his dad... and it was well-blown up into a major event in NASCAR media circles... (Of course, father/son racin' has long been a staple of NASCAR, from Richard and Lee, to Bobby 'n Davey; from Buck 'n Buddy to Richard 'n Kyle... but this is the '90's and we got Coke to sell...)
The race itself was quite good, both Earnhardt's started back in the 'teens, worked together a bit, and as the race progressed, made their way to the front... Ultimately, final order of top ten was Skinner, Gordon, Mayfield, Burton, Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Junior, Elliott, Earnhardt Senior, Marlin and Norick. Certainly did not live up to the hype...
In spite of all that, I thought both Earnhardt cars were really sharp-looking, but was skeptical of ever getting decals to build them, as the "crackdown" had begun in earnest on "bootleg" decals in October....
It was thus a great, and pleasant, surprise, when a Toronto-area store had the Coke decals available for sale early this year. The quality was definitely sub-SLIXX, but, hey... you make 'em work, right?
The store owner indicated that the DEjr version - the cool black (dk Blue?) one with the polar bears, as well as his 1999 BUD version, were also on their way.
Other than the decals, there was nuthin' special about the build of this model - I followed my usual formula. The "Earnhardt bar", fan-type exhaust dumps, engine wiring and plumbing, valve stems, etc were added. SLIXX provided the contingency decals, and Canadian Tire the Red aerosol touch-up lacquer, chosen to match the red Coke disk, destined for the hood... As is my practice, the painted, decalled body was covered in several coats of Tamiya TS13 clear, from a heated (Tap water only, folks!) rattle can. After careful masking, the black around the bottom was sprayed on, as was the white pinstripe, separating the black and red sections.
So far two of the three decal sets predicted have surfaced - the Coke set shown here for Dale Sr's car, and Dale Jr's #8 1999 Bud decals, of about equal quality, and obviously from the same source... Maybe there's hope for them polar bear ones yet!
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