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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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 Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:53 pm Post subject: Bobby Unser IROC II champion 1974 Camaro |
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Finally got this one finished. It took 333 hours to complete or 8 months, whichever way you want to look at it. It is my first totally brush painted model. I used Vallejo acrylic paint throughout the build. The 1974/75 IROC season was the first that the Camaro was used as the make for the series of 4 races. Two were at Riverside and one each at Michigan and the finale at Daytona during the 1975 Speedweeks. Unser just beat Foyt by a nose to win the race and the series championship. The Camaro was basically a stock car with unibody construction. They did not use a Banjo chassis till 1977. It had a Traco Chevy 336 cubic inch engine pumping out 440 horsepower. The engines were built within 5 horsepower up or down between them and tuned for longevity not raw power. Revs were kept at 7200. Roger Penske and Les Richter came up with the IROC series and decided after the first year using Porsches they would switch to the Camaro. 15 identical cars were built for the series with 12 actually competing and 3 kept as backups. Unser had to use a backup after crashing his car at the start of the first Riverside race. He was lucky to have escaped without any injuries. The right side of the car was caved in right to the transmission tunnel. Dave Marcis, Jim Sauter and Dick Trickle set the cars up for competition. The 1974 Camaro body was used for the 1974 through the 1980 seasons. Unser won 50,000 dollars for his championship. I learned a lot about IROC from doing this build.
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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Dennis O
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Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 879
Location: Louisville, Ky.
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| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:44 pm Post subject: |
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Very nice build. Would you care to share details? Kit used, chassis used, how your flared the fenders etc etc.
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Dennis
Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity....... |
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
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Henryjint
Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 1968
Location: NY State's Hudson Valley
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| Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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Very nicely done!!
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Pierre Rivard
Joined: 25 Feb 2021
Posts: 378
Location: Montreal, Canada
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| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 9:30 am Post subject: |
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What a beauty Mark!
So much work into this one. Making a 74 out of a 70 in something very few could pull of. Hats off to you for your vision and resilience.
I can't get over these great Minilite wheels knowing that you actually scratch built them.
Impressive build.
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gks1964
Joined: 01 Feb 2020
Posts: 263
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| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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Followed the whole process!!
Awesome job!! |
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Dennis O
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Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 879
Location: Louisville, Ky.
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| Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2022 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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All I can say is WOW!!
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Dennis
Artificial Intelligence is no match for Natural Stupidity....... |
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Pierre Rivard
Joined: 25 Feb 2021
Posts: 378
Location: Montreal, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 7:59 am Post subject: |
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Mark, are these the bumpers you did with the chrome pen?
They look spot on!
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"When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it" - Yogi Berra |
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:51 am Post subject: |
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| Pierre Rivard wrote: | Mark, are these the bumpers you did with the chrome pen?
They look spot on! |
Yes, they are, but I learned that I should have futured them after 24 hours because they tend to rub off and dull when they are handled. I had to redo a lot of places like the drip rails because I have a bad habit of picking the model up by the drip rails when working on it. I also used the pen on the grille. To me it's a lot better than the molotow pens because it is actually an enamel paint pen not an alcohol pen like the molowtow. As usual, I'm seeing a lot of things that I missed that should have been sanded better or made smoother before applying the pen. Getting too old, I guess. |
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hawk22
Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 296
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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Cool model but to be honest these were not very good looking race cars. Saw them run at Daytona (back in 75?) & the biggest memory was how easy those guys would destroy those fender flares against the front stretch wall.
But it was fun and I’m glad to have been there.
People that don’t built models would never believe the amount of hours involved. 333 is a lot!!!
I probably average around 80 per model.
Nice work. And unusual choice for sure…
Also saw the Porsches run The first IROC series at Daytona.
Remember David Pearson complaining there was no room inside the car.
He was as quick as anyone but seemed to get boarded with the road course
And just stayed on the speedway.
The Porsches were very pretty & colorful little race cars… |
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 9:53 am Post subject: |
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| hawk22 wrote: | Cool model but to be honest these were not very good looking race cars. Saw them run at Daytona (back in 75?) & the biggest memory was how easy those guys would destroy those fender flares against the front stretch wall.
But it was fun and I’m glad to have been there.
People that don’t built models would never believe the amount of hours involved. 333 is a lot!!!
I probably average around 80 per model.
Nice work. And unusual choice for sure…
Also saw the Porsches run The first IROC series at Daytona.
Remember David Pearson complaining there was no room inside the car.
He was as quick as anyone but seemed to get boarded with the road course
And just stayed on the speedway.
The Porsches were very pretty & colorful little race cars… |
That is cool that you got to witness these early races in person. apparently Foyt and Unser did a lot of bump drafting because by the end of that championship race in 75 both of them had their grilles caved in.
In this artist conception of the finish of that 75 Daytona race you can see how close the finish was and the caved in grilles they shared. I'm guessing their bump drafting got them both to the front. I don't know if the color photographs I used to determine the color was wrong or the artists memory of what the color of Unser's car was. I figured the photograph would probably be more accurate. Most of the reference pictures I found were black and white.
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hawk22
Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 296
Location: Northern Virginia
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| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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Those older Indy drivers just wanted to show off or just didn’t care.
That was my thoughts when watching the race.
Cars were fast and I don’t think nearly as safe as the grand national cars of
This era.
But of course I was there for the Daytona 500.
So this race with the funny looking
Camaros was a bonus !!!
Long time ago. Memories fade. But I do remember fiberglass all over the place!!! |
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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| hawk22 wrote: | Those older Indy drivers just wanted to show off or just didn’t care.
That was my thoughts when watching the race.
Cars were fast and I don’t think nearly as safe as the grand national cars of
This era.
But of course I was there for the Daytona 500.
So this race with the funny looking
Camaros was a bonus !!!
Long time ago. Memories fade. But I do remember fiberglass all over the place!!! |
Yes, those fender flares were bolted on, but I did not want to take the time to model it that way. That would have been a bridge too far for me. |
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wildbill72
Joined: 28 Jan 2018
Posts: 112
Location: Grand Rapids, Mi
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| Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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Looks awesome! Great job!
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Toys4Don
Joined: 31 Jan 2018
Posts: 226
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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| It turned out great. Worth all those hours!! |
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MarkJ
Joined: 29 Jan 2018
Posts: 1300
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| Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2022 12:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks, guys. I really enjoyed the positive feedback. |
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Bob B
Joined: 22 Nov 2020
Posts: 67
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| Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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SWEET! Well done Mark!
Great builds take time and patience!
Bob B |
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halfbreed999
Joined: 31 Jan 2018
Posts: 181
Location: Just west of Chicago
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| Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2022 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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Awesome work Mark. Glad to see someone tackled one of these builds. Now thst was racing.
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