Jim Hurtubise 1966 Plymouth - Home Racing World & Slot Car Garage

08/18/2012

1/32 Revell/Monogram Special Edition by Professor Motor

Jim Hurtubise was a racers racer. His storied career spanned decades when racing was in its formative years and safety was sometimes just an afterthought. In those years Jim raced sideways on dirt as well as wheel to wheel competition with racing legends on ultra high speed paved ovals. He busted knuckles turning wrenches and had considerable creative influence on design features of cars he raced, something you just do not see in today’s drivers. He survived a horrific fire at the Milwaukee mile and recovered to win the Atlanta 500 NASCAR Grand National race in 1966 in the Norm Nelson Plymouth. He raced one of the last front engine roadsters in the Indy 500 in 1968 and set a closed course world speed record of 191+ MPH in 1968 with that Mallard car at Daytona. His broad background and success in Sprints, Midgets and USAC Champ Cars served him well when racing in any venue and earned him admission to the Sprint Car Hall of Fame. His good natured approach to racing and life earned him multiple sportsmanship awards and admiration from the fans. His is a great grass roots up story and this car is a fitting tribute to at least a part of his storied career.

And speaking of grass roots, we can thank Andy at Professor Motor for having this car made for us. A special order from them, plus a little over a year's work went into producing this release.

This, combined with the history of this legendary driver, makes this one of the most desirable models in this series for me.

Overall the model is very accurate. With these cars changing contingency and sponsor placements at almost every race, it is a waste of time "rivet counting" the accuracy. I have seen many photos of this car and I think they did a great job. I have had the fortune of seeing some photos that are not found on the web that also tell me the work is satisfactory. According to good friends I know who raced/pit crewed in USAC/NASCAR, how the car looked on race day depended a LOT on how bad the car was wadded up the weekend before :) The only thing some might notice is that the numbers, hood and trunk are little more on the red side. But this is getting very picky. The bottom line for me is that it represents this historic driver and car very, very well for my eyes.

The paint work is very well done with clean, crisp lines throughout the model. Revell/Monogram may need to hire new people in the chassis departments, but the folks who are in charge of body and paint do one heck of a job.

The price on this model is of course higher than a normal release. I feel it's worth it. It is not everyday we see a special run like this produced by one of our own. There are certainly some companies charging even more for outdated molds of classics that do not even resemble a real race car, not to mention an American icon like this one. But it all boils down to you and your own taste, like it always does.

I will have two. One will be destined for my shelf. Yes, a shelf. I want to save one to look back on and share it with others in the future.

Because the one shown here is going to get raced and raced HARD. When Jim was badly burned in 1964 after a bad crash, his hands took a lot of the fire and had to be literally re-built. When asked how he wanted them he replied: "The doctors told me that they were going to have to pin them in place, and they asked me how I wanted them pinned. I told them to make them so that I could hold a beer can, that's all. But I knew that if I could could hold a beer can, I could hold a steering wheel."

The best way I know how to honor that attitude is to take this car out of the case, tune it the best I can, and race it hard :)

I owe Andy and the rest of the crew at Professor Motor my gratitude. Without them, this legend would likely have never seen production. Thanks to their efforts I do not have to try and paint one myself, which is exactly what I had planned the day the first version was announced.