Corvette Model Gallery
NART CORVETTE
Until the recent dominance of the C5-R Corvette in international GT racing, the Heinz & Johnson Team could previously lay claim to being the most successful Corvette racers on the world stage with a grand-slam of the big three GT endurance races in 1972. Racing with the controversial Confederate Flag livery, Heinz & Johnson won the GT class at both Daytona and Sebring. To contest LeMans, Heinz & Johnston joined up with the North American Racing Team usually just referred to by it initials. NART was Luigi Chinetti's USA based Ferrari racing team which was very experienced racing at LeMans. Apparently Leo Mehl the racing director of Goodyear wanted an American at LeMans and said he would pull Ferrari's worldwide Goodyear sponsorship unless NART gave up one of its entry slots. Chinetti relented but insisted the Corvette wear a NART/Ferrari badge and the same livery as the Ferrais entered. As a driver Luigi Chinetti won LeMans in 1934 in an Alfa and in 1949 won almost single-handed in a Ferrari. In 1972 NART entered three 365 GTB/4 Daytonas, one Dino 246 and the Heinz & Johnston Corvette which was the GTS over 5000cc class to finish and fifteenth overall. One of their Daytonas was sixth overall second in GTS under 5000cc driven by Sam Posey and Tony Adamowicz while the race was won by a Matra driven by Henri Pescarolo and Graham Hill. To learn more about this car, see Corvette Fever June 1992 http://www.corvettearchive.com/images/1972/CFJune92/lemans_l88.jpg
The model
Phil Dauphinee built this incredible racing Corvette to replicate the Heinz & Johnson car as it raced in LeMans in 1972, as part of the NART team.
Modifications to the 1971 Revell Stars & Stripes
Corvette
- Filled vents on rear deck and in front of windshield. The subtle rear vents
were filled in consideration of painting and decaling.
- Removed headlight doors. Fabricated headlight boxes. Found some chrome wheel
hubs that would do as headlights once lenses were added. The headlight covers
can be installed two ways and both look correct for different cars. I chose to
install mine with the more streamlined part forward. Used pins and two part
epoxy for installation.
- Removed side sills to expose frame.
- Removed emblems and door handles. Some Model Car Garage photo-etch added after
painting.
- Front flares were cut from a Monogram 427 Cobra. Both front and rear flares
molded to body and old wheel well radius removed.
- I did not find out until the model was nearly completed that the interior on
this car virtually stock except for the racing seat to comply with Lemans rules
in 1972. Additional roll-bar braces were fabricated. Scale Motorsports racing
harnesses were added. The steering wheel used on the racecar was from a Vega. I
managed to find a reasonable facsimile in my parts box.
- Removed bumper from grill kit supplied unpainted grill and filled in openings
in body pan below grill. Driving lights fabricated from styrene and attached by
wire to horizontal grill over-riders.
- Fabricated front spoiler from sheet styrene, which, was painted and then
covered with floppy-disc slider sheet metal.
- De-chromed rear license plate mount.
- Side exhaust made from aluminum tubing. Header chromed with Alclad.
- Removed and filled spare tire well on chassis
- Mounted four of the same size Goodyear Blue Streak Sports Car Special tires
from the parts box. Front wheel hubs shortened so tires would fit inside
flares.
- Separated engine block from transmission to paint separately. Cowl induction
under hood panel had to be modified so it did not interfere with distributor and
ignition wires
- The decals are no longer in Fred Cady's catalogue but some are still in stock.
He missed a few according to my research photos but the parts box came to the
rescue again. The stripes look different at the front than how they appear on
the restored car. At LeMans in 1972 the front end was severely damaged in an
early practice session and the car raced with virtually the whole front-end
covered in duct tape. I wish Fred had provided some extra length in the stripes
however as there was not enough to completely cover the cowl and to reach all
the wall to the front peak. Extra length could have been gained by not have the
stripes under the hood number. I also found these decals to be extremely fragile
and thin. All things considered, I should have ordered two sets of decals. In
addition I made up the BP and "license plate" with my Testors decal
program.
- After applying decals a deflector was installed on the hood and number
illuminators were added to the doors and rear deck.
- Paint
- Because the car was built from a wreck many components were painted white
including areas normally black on stock Corvettes such as the frame and engine
compartment. Humbrol paints were used almost exclusively on the model.
If you would like to contact Phil on this model his e-mail address is: pdauphinee@shaw.ca
Page updated 10/30/04