GMP 1:12 Vintage Dirt Champ #1 Sheraton Thompson- AJ Foyt

A.J. Foyt was voted the “Best Driver of the Century” by the Associated Press and GMP’s gorgeous 1:12 scale model of the car he used to win the dirt track portion of his 1964 USAC National Championship is a fitting tribute to his importance as a driver! Foyt received this honor by being the most versatile and winningest race car driver of his era. He won the “Triple Crown of Motor Racing” by winning the Indianapolis 500 (’61, ’64, ’67 & ’77), the 24 Hours of LeMans (’67), and the Daytona 500 Stock Car Race (’72). He also won the 24 Hours of Daytona in ’83 & ’85, the 12 Hours of Sebring in ’85 and had 67 career Indy Car victories. In the early 60’s, Foyt made his reputation on the short one-mile dirt “bull rings” as well as the mile, mile-and-a-quarter and mile-and-a-half paved ovals. And as part of the “USAC Championship Trail”, he would also spend every May at the two-and-a-half mile oval at Indianapolis preparing for the Indy 500. A.J.’s zenith year was 1964 when he won the USAC National Championship by winning 10 of the 13 scheduled Champ Car races on pavement and dirt (this included winning the Indy 500). He also won 5 USAC sprint car races and 3 USAC stock car races. His record-setting 10 Champ Car wins in one season and his winning percentage (77%) has never been surpassed! To win the USAC National Championship, drivers had to race in two very different cars: one for the paved ovals including Indy and one for the dirt tracks. Almost everyone knows the Offy-powered Watson roadster A.J. used to win the ’64 Indy 500 and race the other paved track races that year. But there was another car he raced in this championship year that is less well-known. This is the Offy-powered, Meskowski-chassis’ed dirt car A.J. used to battle for points on the short one-mile dirt tracks at state fairgrounds across the country against the likes of Mario Andretti, the Unsers, Parnelli Jones, Johnny Rutherford, Mel Kenyon, Roger Ward and many others. Where the paved ovals required finesse and control, the dirt tracks were conquered with guts, determination and sometimes blood.

GMP has created a beautiful 1:12 scale model of Foyt’s 1964 USAC National Champion dirt car as it was raced in the Hoosier 100 on September 26th at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis. This is the same car he raced in ’64 at Langhorn, PA, Springfield, IL, DuQuoin, IL, and Sacramento, CA. When you take this model out of its packing, the first thing to strike you is its enormous size and its beautifully detailed paint job. The car is painted with lustrous pearlescent white paint accented with blue and metallic red scallops and sports three large, gold “1”s, each telling everyone he was the previous year’s (1963) USAC National Champion. In the days before race cars became “high-speed billboards”, esthetics ruled and “Sheraton Thompson Special” is tastefully gold-leaf lettered on the hood giving credit to the car’s primary sponsor.

With the hood off, you can explore the Meyer-Drake Offenhauser engine which is a little jewel in itself. The body side panels are also removable to get an even better look at all the exquisite engine detail. On the left side of the car, four aluminum velocity stacks protrude beyond the body work connected by rubber insulators to the Hilborn injection. Separate fuel lines connect the individual injectors to a fuel block and ultimately the Hilborn injector pump on the front of the engine. The fuel pump sits directly below the bright red Bendix/Hunt magneto with four separate orange plug wires leading to the individual spark plugs. Ahead of the engine, the brass radiator sits between the frame rails connected to the engine with a rubber hose on the bottom and rubber hose & chrome tubing on the top. The chromed exhaust header exits the right side of the body and ends well-aft of the driver’s cockpit. The working front torsion bar suspension holds the front axle in place between the torsion arms and the chrome control arms. The front suspension has four working shock absorbers to control the pounding the car took on the rutted dirt ovals. The rear suspension features trailing chrome control arms and aft-positioned torsion bars and arms locating the live rear axle that’s equipped with a Halibrand quickchange center section. Two hydraulic shocks dampen the rear axle.

Disc brakes are located on each corner and are actuated by a long hand brake lever located on the outside of the driver’s cockpit. Halibrand also made the magnesium knock-off wheels that were shod with Firestone bias-ply racing rubber that looks “wimpy” by today’s standards. The cockpit is the essence of simplicity with an upright seat, Bell Equipment Champ Car steering wheel and hub pad, hand-operated dog clutch and gas pedal. The steering wheel operates a right-angle gear box that drives the Pittman arm and drag link to steer this monster. The steering ratio is fast, just like it would have been in the real car. Two Stewart-Warner gauges…… for oil pressure and water temperature and a Jones-Motorola mechanical tach told A.J. all he needed to know about how the engine was doing. I love this car and what it represents! This car does a magnificent job of making the dirt portion of A.J.’s career come alive to me. It’s a beautiful presentation of the dirt car A.J. campaigned in his most successful year. You can’t get much better than that!

The work that Tom Long and the GMP crew have invested in this car is incredible! The fit and finish of each part approaches perfection. The 1:12 scale allows them to present details that would be hard to attain on a smaller car. As mentioned, all of the suspension works and because the car was so basic, pretty much everything else on the real car has been captured. Every little nit of a detail is there! If you look hard, and you’ll have to, you’ll notice that they’ve even included the gas tank inside the tail section and the driveshaft with universal joint covered by the driver’s seat ….you have to peer into a hole in the bottom of the car to see them….. two things that few would miss if they were omitted but a credit to GMP for their obsession for detail! And it looks right! When it’s sitting on a table, it looks like the real thing had been shrunk. If you’re a racing fan, whether it’s NASCAR, NHRA, SCCA, IRL or something in-between, this is a car that you’ll be proud to add to your collection because it represents such an important part of the rich history of classic American automobile racing!

Way to go, guys!

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