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Post by pmossberg on Dec 13, 2009 0:57:42 GMT -5
The black top car run at the 1968 Daytona 500 was such a raging success, Petty enterprises decided to try it again...this time with white paint. For the 1968 Firecracker 400 at Daytona, all the upper surfaces except the trunk lid of Richard's Road Runner were painted with a textured white paint. Did it work out? Well, we really don't know. Richard started 2nd, but finished in 21st, losing his engine at 132 laps. Promo ShotAt speed. Notice also the offset roof number.i707.photobucket.com/albums/ww72/pmossberg/1968 Daytona 500 Black%20Top%20Car/1968Firecracker400whitetopcar.jpg[/IMG] Paraphrasing from "The Cars of the King": The 1968 car was not a raging success. Richard did well with 16 wins, but they came at the short tracks and "bull rings" where aerodynamics played a smaller role. For 1969, Dodge had created a slicker version of their car, raising the backlight to form a smooth, flush window with the distinctive "sails" featured on the sides of the rear window of the 1968 car. This change helped the 1969 Charger 500 pick up five mph on Chrysler's test track. They were so excited, they unveiled the 1969 car in October Plymouth? They had nothing to show. And it was clear that Richard would not get one of the new Chargers. And we all know how that turned out, with Richard in a Ford for 1969, after 10 years in Plymouths.
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Post by ricklou on Dec 13, 2009 9:52:01 GMT -5
They painted the top of this car white in an attempt to reduce heat at Daytona in July.
Richard's 68 was fast but I am not sure that it was a raging sucess at Daytona. The FORD and Mercury's had it going on at that time. Pearson was off the hook.
It looks like someone attempted to photshop or color the 2nd pic. Would love to see a nice clean shot of this car.
The Petty's placed the roof numbers in several ways over the years. What we see here, at an angle and of course centered. That is a story in it's self, just do not know what the story is.
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Post by eddyk82 on Dec 13, 2009 11:09:14 GMT -5
Thanks for posting these pics. Up until now I wasn't even aware of the white top car.
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Post by pmossberg on Dec 13, 2009 13:06:32 GMT -5
I think the second shot is just a scan of an original photo that is overexposed. I increased the size a bit to display it here. But even the original I found is overexposed.
There are two pictures of the white top car in "The Cars of the King". Both shots were taken on pit road, where the photographer did not also have to deal with speed. One taken from the front 3/4 angle, shows the Petty Blue pretty distinctly. The other, taken from a higher angle, is as washed out as the second photo above. If that's the best they could find for "cars of the King", I doubt we'll find anything much better. But we'll keep looking!
The primary intent of the white paint was it's texture, it was not a gloss paint. But Rick is right, it had the side effect of cooling the interior a bit. Although I bet Fourth of July in Daytona, it was still pretty hot in the car.
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Post by pmossberg on Dec 19, 2009 18:56:20 GMT -5
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Post by pmossberg on Dec 19, 2009 19:01:58 GMT -5
OK now, everything I've read says the white top was run once, at the 1968 Firecracker 400. But here is a shot of a white roofed (with blue hood and trunk) Roadrunner at Nashville in 1968.
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Post by ricklou on Dec 20, 2009 10:08:09 GMT -5
I have never seen that pic. There is a lot of stuff from Nashville Speedway floating around on the internet. Nice job Paul.
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