Jeremy responded quite well. Rusty, who had been said to be cool to a team mate, suddenly found himself with a built-in drafting partner, right from the get-go at Daytona. In the first race of 1998, Jeremy placed third, after a brilliant run. He took the points lead shortly thereafter, and held it thru the early part of 1998. A win at Pocono, and a second at California, joined his third-place Daytona finish as high points for '98. Unfortunately, some poor finishes in midyear took him out of a promising hunt for the Championship, but Jeremy had shown he could respond and take the heat.
The model shown is a straightforward build using Monogram's Exide Taurus as a start point. The usual underhood wiring and plumbing was added, an "Earnhardt bar" was installed, and the very peculiar kit exhaust dumps were replaced with scratchbuilt fan-style dumps that are the current practice.
The unique rich dark reddish blue was made by blending a Toyota dark blue touch-up paint with Violet Chromabase@ from Dupont, to get the rich, red hue of the Penske Taurus fleet. (I did five bodies once I had the right colour!). An equal part of Tamiya TS13 clear was also added, to ensure the pigment loading wasn't too high, which can lead to a rough, hard to clearcoat/polish hazy surface. I applied through an airbrush, after thinning 100% with lacquer thinner.
Decals were "nonames" - although a kit was promised from Monogram in '98, it has yet to appear. Decal quality was excellent, with good fit and coverage, and excellent acceptance of Tamiya TS13 clear over top. This was a nice set of decals to work with, and made for a very convincing model.
One item I feel key to improving the kit's fidelity to the real thing is to reshape the nose opening, making it larger than it is in the kit, and putting in screen from behind. Far more convincing than the stock kit configuration, which is based on early Taurus designs from 1997.
1999, the sophomore year for the new team, has shown classic "sophomore slump", and they languish outside the top ten, a far cry from this time last year! No doubt they will regroup, and Jeremy will be back in the hunt by year-end. They're too well-backed for any lesser expectations!
(Update - just as I finished this item, i heard Paul Andrews was let go as crewchief in an effort to regain last year's glory. Philipe Lopez has replaced him.)
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