Starter 1/43 1993 Bojangles Ford Thunderbird

The #98 car was operated by Cale Yarborough Motorsports after CYM purchased the #47 team from Race Hill Farms in 1986. Though carrying several different numbers, in 1993, the car numbers was switched to 98 and driven by Derrick Cope during that season with the Bojangles sponsorship. Unfortunately, the best Derrick Cope could do with the car in 1993 was an 8th place finish at Talladega.

The team's history until it closed up in 2000 had a few high spots, but generally a mediocre finishing history despite several different drivers over the years. The best the team was able to manage was a third at Dover in 1990 with Dick Trickle driving the car. The vast majority of time, the team finished 20th or worse.

Starter kits are well known for being fairly accurate representations and fairly easy to build. The molding of the resin is excellent until you get to the underside and that is where you will find your air pockets. Easy enough to fill and generally unseen in the finished product.

This kit has the interior cast onto the floor pan and it fits nicely into the body shell. You have a plastic steering wheel and you'll use a pin for the gear shifter. The kit comes with a piece of mesh to use for the driver's side netting. What isn't in the kit is a roll cage and since there are no instructions, you are on your own for building one.

You are provided with spun aluminum wheels and metal axles. Resin wheel inserts are provided as well as rubber/vinyl tires. The exhaust section is also resin. The windows are vacuformed. They are to be cut out and placed in indentations around each window. This is nice as it means you don't have to mask them to paint the body. The single photo etch part is a rear spoiler. The decals are nicely done and even after all this time, should work fine. Note that large sheets like this are often curled from sitting in a small box, which is why I have the one in the image clamped. Two full color images of the car are provided to help with decal application and painting.

1/43 is really a niche market when it comes to car kits. However, their small size makes them easy to display and they fit in with the die cast crowd as well. If you are looking for something different and are at ease working with multi-media kits, give these a go. These can often be found well under retail, unlike the F.1 and Sports-Racer kits.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cale_Yarborough_Motorsports

June 2020

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