Monogram 1/24th 1995 NASCAR Monte Carlo By Herb Pfeiffer

“The Gang” (family and friends) had a great time going to the auto races. There was vintage racing at Seattle International Raceway (SIR), CART races at the Portland International Raceway (PIR), and local stockers at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Washington. One year at the PIR CART race weekend the Saturday feature was the Northwest NASCAR series. PIR has the so-called “Festival Curve” (chicane) near the end of the main straight. It’s a tough curve for more than one car at a time.

As the race developed a black car, #18, caught our eyes. It would come charging into the chicane with abandon, regardless of traffic. The driver was either fearless, or a dumb rookie. By the end of the race #18 had worked its way into the top ten without mishap.

Well, the Gang thought it would be neat to see car #18 again on the oval in Monroe, Washington. I phoned ahead to reserve some good seats. The woman who took my reservation asked whether or not this was a “special occasion”, explaining that announcements of birthdays, anniversaries, etc. could be made by request over the PA system during the race. I told her no, and explained that we just wanted to see #18 again. She was apparently a friend of the team owner’s wife and told her that #18 had some fans coming to the race. During Car and Driver introductions the Gang whooped and hollered for #18. The car did OK in the race but suffered a mechanical DNF.

Three days later I got a phone call from the owner’s wife. She was very nice and full of enthusiasm for racing. She told me that we were the first fans that cheered especially for their car, and that she would send a press kit to each member of the Gang. The press kit contained a neat portfolio of pictures of #18 and information for potential co-sponsors of the car.

I had given the Gang some car models as gifts, and it occurred to me that a model of #18 would be a nice Christmas present and that I could give one each to the driver and owner. At that time I was doing a quite a bit of mail order purchasing from a discount hobby shop in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Unfortunately the shop closed down after a hurricane dumped rain over of the eastern part of the state. Rising floodwaters from the Tar River flooded the shop. (By the way, does anyone know if the Univ. of N.C. Tarheels got their name from the River?).

I’m happy to report that the shop reopened, because one of the reasons I bought so much from them was their selection of $5 bagged car kits. No box, decals, or instructions-just the kit, folks! I thought this would be a cheap way to get two car kits to build model #18. So I ordered a couple kits (the Monogram 1/24th scale 1995 Monte Carlo) and when they arrived they looked good-complete sprues, clean windows free of scratches, etc. But no wheels or tires! So I wrote to the shop and they pointed out some “fine print” in their ad-which naturally I’d missed-explaining that the kits came without wheels and tires. I COULD, however, order a couple sets of wheels and tires for $4 per set. So much for the cheapskate method of acquiring a couple of kits!

So I started work on the Monte Carlos and began thinking about custom printed decals for my new project. I figured there must be some guys out there that could create artwork from my pictures and then print several sets of decals. Wrong. There are any number of guys are out there with ALPS printers to make decals if YOU provide the artwork. I finally found Mr. Jim Boutaitis of London, Ontario, of JBOT Decals (www.jot.ca). He will create decal artwork from pictures you provide for a $150 fee, and then print the decals for a separate charge. This REALLY put an end to the “cheap” concept.

Jim did a great job on the artwork! Although I did not see it in the pictures I provided him, he noted the “Summit” sponsor decal on the hood included white highlights, which sort of resembled Seattle’s skyline.

So I got the cars finished and delivered. The owner’s wife was not home at the time, so I left the two cars on their stoop. The next day she called me, gushing with thanks and telling me how great the models were. The conversation ended with her asking me how much it would cost to make a dozen cars she could use as gifts for sponsors and other crewmembers.

I sent her a quote based on my out-of-pocket costs, with a per-item breakdown of the prices paid for the models, tires, decals, paint, glue, etc. I told her I would build the models at no charge for my time.

I have never heard back from her…..