---- Robert Whitman wrote:
> Racing Champions is coming out with a few more finned Mopars in 1/64th scale
> (Hot wheels and Matchbox size). As you may know they produce racing cars
> and stock classics. They currently have a '57 Fury (very nice for $4!) and
> a '60 Fury. They have come out with a Petty history series with most cars
> raced/owned by Lee and Richard Petty. These include:
> 1953 Coronet
> 1954 Coronet
> 1955 300-B
> 1956 Coronet
> 1959 Plymouth Plaza
> 1960 Fury
> 1962 Plymouth Savoy
> 1963 Plymouth Savoy
> 1964 Belvedere
> 1965 Barracuda
> and almost every other Petty car raced to present. More may be added
> (hopefully a '57, '58, '61 Mopars, too).
The Pettys had a factory deal with Oldsmobile in '57.
GM "officially" quit direct factory support later that
year, tho some Chevy and Pontiac teams continued to get
GM support waaaaay under the table. Olds simply sold
Lee Petty their entire supply of NASCAR stuff at an
incredibly low price, which he continued using through
'58 and into early '59 (Lee ran a '59 Olds in the '59
Daytona 500, but was back in a Plymouth shortly thereafter). In fact, Richard's
first race car was an
Olds, I believe a '57 convertible (NASCAR had a short
lived convertible division).
They definitely ran Plymouths in '61. I believe this
was the year Lee had the bad accident that effectively
ended the driving part of his career.
Petty Enterprises stayed MoPar through the middle of the
'78 season with the exception of '69, when they ran a
F*rd Torino Talledega. This was the year Dodge got a
couple of aerodynamic NASCAR models (Charger 500 and
Charger Daytona). Chrysler expected the Pettys to keep
running Plymouths but did not give them the aero help
the Dodge teams got. The announcement of the Superbird
in 1970 was accompanied by a press release welcoming
the Pettys back, with a quote from Richard along the
lines of "Plymouth is, well, like family..."
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