Post by mitchum on Feb 26, 2007 20:41:28 GMT -5
What with needing some rest after my carpentry work on Saturday and getting involved with Sunday's race broadcast (got to catch up on my sleep, right? LOL) this historic car just slipped through the cracks I guess.
While the first installment of the Cale and LeeRoy show made news in victory lane for the '68 Daytona 500 there was more than a little buzz in the garage area about a certain "Mayflower" that sailed down from Level Cross, NC for the race.
The fastest qualilfying Mopar had a full belly pan, alledged acid dipped body panels and a few "questionable" body contours to help close the "aero-gap" between it and the sleek new FoMoCo entries. But the most noticable feature was the black vinyl roof that some said was an "air flow enhancer" while others said it was to help hide some creative streamlining measures.
Whatever the truth was Richard still came up short when a piece of metal thrown up by another car pierced the roof just above the windshield and started the sheetmetal peeling back . Petty learned his lesson about trying to run a covertible at Daytona in the first 500 back in '59 so he spent the rest of the race in and out of the pits using 200mph tape to try to keep the top on his new Plymouth.
