Thought Bonner was the drag racer with the Sport Coupe-based Thunderbolt, but that car resulted from a crash when a dealer mechanic WRECKED the car during a trip home.

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Remember how the early 70's MPC NASCAR kits all had that same generic NASCAR chassis? Are the Salvino kits the same way? Are every kit the same? Or all GM's have the same or all the MOPARS the same? The old MPC kits had leaf springs under GM cars since all were same. *NM*
- The 70's era cars all share the same chassis....... *PIC*
  - Did the NASCAR MOPARS of the early-mid 70's use trailing arms (basically a GM type rear suspension) instead of factory type leaf springs? Trailing arms were not "stock" to factory made MOPARS. I hope I'm stating my question clearly. .......... more .........
    - I stand corrected. I watched the Petty flip again and took a screen shot and you can clearly see that there are no leaf springs on the rear. I think that I see 2 very short control arms. ............... *PIC* ........
      - Those look like brake cooling ducts to me
        
        Yes, you're right. I didn't think of that. *NM*
      - As far as leaf springs go, I guess that I was thinking of Pettys 68 roadrunner. ............... *PIC* .......
        
        As far as I know, all the NASCAR Mopars up into the late 1970s used leaf springs in the rear suspension. *PIC* *LINK*
        
        Thank you. What's the deal with the front suspensions on MOPAR vs GM on the Salvinos kits and the real 1:1 stock cars? Torsion bars vs coil springs. A arms vs what MOPAR used. *NM*
        
        I think that's right. Torsion bars on Mopars, both 1:1 and Salvinos kit, and coil springs on GM, though I don't have a Salvinos GM kit at hand to check for sure.
  - Dave, you say that the 70's era cars all use the same chassis. Does that apply to just the model kits, the real 1:1 cars or both? Thanks. *NM*
    - Prior to the 1981 season, the 1:1 race cars had to use the same setup as the showroom equivalent. Mopars had torsion bars and leaf springs, everything else had coil springs all around *NM*
      - Just to muddy the water..........
        
        Let's muddy it up even more...
        
        So in a weird sense, those old Southern Stocker kits were more accurate than we thought. Hmmm... *NM*
        
        Ford was four-coil '65 to whenever they stopped running full size bodies
        
        Correect I thought we were just in the 70's.........but 66 to 71 FORD's were leaf rear........ *NM*
        Mercury went to Comets for '66, Ford went to Fairlanes for '67. It must have dawned on them that Plymouth and Dodge were running intermediate bodies since '62! *NM*
        
        Doc Craft published an internal Ford memo detailing a test at Daytona in late '65
        
        Think Ford ran a prototype "NASCAR frame" Fairlane in the sports car race at Daytona in '64...or was it '63? Vaguely recall the driver was Curtis Turner...or was it Fireball? Car was built by Holman Moody. *NM*
        
        That is a gap in the Ford GN story
        
        Thought Bonner was the drag racer with the Sport Coupe-based Thunderbolt, but that car resulted from a crash when a dealer mechanic WRECKED the car during a trip home.
        
        You comment that the Sports Coupe was a longer wheelbase. I think all 64 Fairlane's were 115.5 wheelbase. *NM*
        PBJ recalls the 500 as a purchase from H-M. Thunderbolt conversion was a large deal, took a Dearborn Steel Tubing to execute properly...
        
        The first '66 Comet (Bud Moore build) had shock towers, everything after that one had the Galaxie front stub. Leaf springs out back though, same as the showroom cars *NM*
        
        Correct - and Ned Jarrett ran a '66 shock tower car briefly, wondering if Ford just gifted him the test Fairlane? *NM*