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Jim Jeffords, no stranger to fast racing cars, piloted some impressive machinery in the early fifties. The legendary Maserati Birdcage, C Production Jaguar and SR-2 Scarab were among them. But it was with this 1959 Nickey Chevrolet prepared Corvette, that he won the Sports Car Club of America championship in B Production class for 1959 and 1960. The number one pop song for 6 weeks in 1958 was Sheb Wooley’s one-eyed, one-horned, flyin' Purple People Eater. It became the perfect moniker for the Jeffords racer. Jeffords went on to be inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame in 2002. Most recently, the car was exhibited at Corvettes of Carlisle in Pennsylvania. I know of one DM design manager that was mighty proud to be on hand to see it there.
There has been a wonderful diversity of automotive subject matter flowing from DM these days. And not only have they been responsive to the desires of the Corvette fanatics among us but they have interspersed that marque with racing versions of their growing line-up of street Vettes. They have given us the 1963 Corvette Pro Mod in plain and Coca Cola® form and the 1961 Corvette Gasser. Possibly the most famous or notorious Corvette among them to date, is this Purple People Eater MK III racer, in 1:24th scale, in astonishing authentication and detail.
As you hold the model in your hands, you cannot help but admire all the detail and workmanship that went into its build. DM went about modifying this model in much the same way that Nickey and Jeffords did in the fifties. The wipers have been removed and the windshield replaced with a small windscreen held in place by four infinitesimally small photo-etched brackets with smaller simulated rivets. The pilot’s roll bar is fashioned behind the seat and the racing shoulder harness and lap belts added. They are photo-etch metal and fabric and the latch mechanism on the lap belt section is the best I have seen to date, especially in 1:24th. The balance of the interior detail is nothing to sneeze at either; the ‘Chevrolet’ and ‘Corvette’ script is delicately scaled and the dash gauges clearly readable. The doors and fuel filler door are hung on metal internal hinges while the hood has a prop rod to hold it up. Chromed rims and racing rubber are suspended on working springs; the exhaust is reworked to exit the passenger’s side of the car through the lower body sill with dual tips fashioned and inset remarkably well. Door top-edge covers were replicated. The appropriate racing emblems are applied and the moniker and numbers painted. Black plastic headlight shrouds add stone damage protection. A fabulous little photo-etched latching hinge was added to the hood and a rear license plate bracket, almost invisible due to its scale size, was fashioned to replicate the way the car was initially delivered at Nickey Chevrolet. Indentions in the body, where the bumpers were removed for racing purposes, are visible. The engine, in true DM fashion, is outstanding. All the proper stickers are in place, the plug wires feature multiple photo-etched wire looms, fuel lines are metal and the fan belt is rubber. The paint and fit of each part is impeccable.
Once more DM has done a brilliant job of presenting yet again a wonderful Corvette model easily earning a drool meter index rating of 5 out of 5.
The issue price is $115.
(09/12/2004)
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