Dick Pierson will be racing with Chuck Briggs in a Porsche 928 at Laguna Seca Enduro on the coming week-end. Dick is taking the Chevrolet Monte Carlo with the Porsche in order to display it for the fans. He might even do a couple of parade laps on the California track. I wonder how the Monte will look in the (in)famous corkscrew!
While our Chevrolet Monte Carlo is again allowed to race, we are also busy researching its history. We are doing our research based on the best of our knowledge and on the facts about the car that we know for sure.
Next to the #11 and #12 Budweiser Monte Carlo's from Junior Johnson's team, there are a few other famous race numbers, associated with Chevrolet in NASCAR. There is of course Dale Earnhardt's most famous #3, which will probably not be raced in the next couple of decades. And there is #8!
In order to refuel in the pits, NASCAR racecars use what is called a "dry-break" nozzle. This goes right in here and racing gazoline flows in at the rate of a gallon per second. Two big 11 gallon fuel jugs are emptied in the 22 gallon fuel cell in less than 25 seconds! What ever overflows, comes out of the little tube that you can see near the rear spoiler.
It seems that fans of the Aerocoupe are all over the world! Here is the former Hendricks Monte Carlo that was driven by Tim Richmond. It now belongs to Alain Ruede of Switzerland. It certainly is one of the finest Aerocoupes around. In the current NASCAR collector car market, we estimate its value at $75,000!
While doing some research on where our #11 Budweiser Monte Carlo came from, I also found some links to NASCAR Aerocoupes that are still around today. These cars are now 20 years old, even though to most of us, it feels like we just saw them on ESPN yesterday. Here is a fine example from Ohio. It is currently for sale on Ebay.
Another interesting fact that may help us identify the original team that our Monte Carlo came from is the red painted chassis, interior and trunk. When Dick worked on the car to fit the new safety equipment, some chips of the paint came off here and there. It is all and only red to the bare metal!
While Dick Pierson had to spend most of saturday to do a so called "open house" at Olympia, he used the occasion to park the Monte Carlo in front of the mansion that is to be sold. Needless to say that quite a few people stopped by to take a closer look. You don't see a Winston Cup car parked in the street very often, do you ?
Dick Pierson has updated the Monte Carlo's safety equipment. The former NASCAR Superspeedway great is now ready to go back on the track!
A french journalist was recently able to locate a well preserved NASCAR Chevrolet Monte Carlo Aerocoupe. Built as a super speedway cup car by Hutcherson Pagan in 1986, this Aerocoupe is a true NASCAR survivor.
When you slide behind the steering wheel of a NASCAR Aerocoupe, it's all business. You won't find any cupholders, but all you need to go around a Superspeedway at 200 mph!
Continue reading "Aercoupe cockpit: all business at the wheel" »
During our recent trip to North Carolina, we stumbled upon the prototype that Junior Johnson's team built to develop the Aerocoupe out of the notchback Monte Carlo.
In order to be able to compete with Ford’s slick Thunderbird in the mid-1980s, Chevrolet added a bubble rear window and dropped down the snout of its notchback Monte Carlo. Dale Earnhardt won his 1986 and 1987 Winston Cup championships in Monte-Carlo Aerocoupes. Numerous NASCAR greats, like Tim Richmond, Darrell Waltrip and Terry Labonte, also drove Monte-Carlo Aerocoupes to victory lane.
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