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Daniel Sexton Gurney was born April 13, 1931, in Port Jefferson, Long Island. His parents—John Gurney, a Metropolitan Opera star, and his wife Roma Sexton—moved to Riverside, California after Dan graduated from high school. Dan developed his driving skills by weaving through Southern California orange groves. After graduating from Menlo Junior College, he served two years with the United States Army, most of it Korea during the war. In 1955, driving a Triumph TR2, he embarked on a racing career spanning 15 years. He became the top road racing star in America, and one of the most popular Formula One Grand Prix drivers in the world. He competed with the likes of Jimmy Clark, John Surtees, Jack Brabham, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, and many others, on the classic road courses of the Nuerburgring, the Targa Florio and Monte Carlo. Gurney holds the distinction of being the only American to win a Grand Prix in a car he built. Before he left racing as an active driver, Gurney won 48 races of 303 events (finishing on the podium 41 additional times), in 20 different countries, driving 25 different cars. His most important victories include 7 Formula One wins (4 of them World Championship Grand Prix events), 7 wins at the Indy 500 (including 2 second-place finishes), and 5 NASCAR Winston Cup races at Riverside, California. Gurney also racked up wins in Trans-Am, Can-Am, and sports car races, including endurance classics at Nuerburgring, Daytona, Sebring, and Le Mans. Over his career, he claimed 37 pole position starts and was in the front row 58 additional times. Even the races Gurney, who was usually leading by a considerable margin, didn’t win, due to mechanical problems (see my review on the #36 1967 Lola Spyder image by GMP), added to his fame and popularity. Gurney’s versatility made him the first driver to win races in cars in four different arenas: Grand Prix cars, Indy cars, NASCAR cars, and sports cars. Presently, he is one of only two drivers to accomplish this feat. The other is the legendary Mario Andretti.
As though trying to cram as much into one lifetime as possible, Gurney is one of the original founders of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), coming up with the name and the acronym. He helped bring Monte Carlo-type street racing to the United States and was co-founder of the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1974, serving on its Board of Directors for 24 years. Outside racing, Gurney became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1965, and has appeared in the films “Winning,” “A Man and a Woman,” and “Grand Prix.” Having won the Cannonball Run across the United States in 1971, he inspired his friend and co-pilot, Brock Yates, to write the screenplay for the popular “Cannonball” movies. Toyota hired Gurney in 1982 to do TV commercials for the introduction of the Supra. A long-term relationship was started that has resulted in three Drivers and three Manufacturers championships for the automaker. Gurney currently lives in Newport Beach, California with his wife Evi, who was a junior executive in the public relations/press department of Porsche, in Stuttgart, and a well-known motorsports journalist in Germany during the sixties. He has four grown children from his first marriage and four grandchildren. He enjoys reading about political and military history, loves old movies, opera, cigars, traveling to historical places, and riding motorcycles (among them his own, revolutionary, single cylinder, Alligator motorcycle).
GMP has put out two racing livery, signature images of the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II NASCAR cars, one bearing the Dan Gurney name and one the Cale Yarborough name. These racecars campaigned at a time before NASCAR cars were standardized and fans not only rooted for their favorite driver, but for their favorite manufacturer. 519 cars were to be produced with 19.5 inches of extended nose for NASCAR certification Back then, they were supposed to run stock cars—unlike today, where about the only stock item is the name stenciled on the custom-formed body shell over a tubular frame. One version bears Yarborough’s #21 on the roof and doors, along with a red roof and side pinstripes (the racing stripes on the hood are black). The other bears Gurney’s #12, along with a blue roof and side pinstripes.
There’s no need for me to rehash Rich Sufficool’s fine review, for he has pointed out all of GMP’s fine features. Let me just say that GMP improves their images each time they release a new project, the ’69 Cyclones being the third so far. It’s obvious they listen to their design engineers—and their customers—as they go. Already they have changed what might be considered a couple of minor problems, among them going from hard plastic to soft plastic seats and putting in working rear suspensions. The under-the-hood, in-the-trunk, interior, and undercarriage detailing is a good as any of the other mints. The doors open car-style and I feel they’ll eventually go to car-style hood hinges as well. Even if they don’t, GMP is clearly going the “most bang for the buck” route in producing its 1:24 images, while keeping them at a competitive price. Don’t forget, they’re just starting out in the precision, 1:24 scale arena and collector support is crucial at this stage. The only question you have to ask yourself is whether you need two versions of these sleek, aesthetically pleasing, ’69 Cyclone Spoiler II images. Whether you go for one or the other—or both versions—you’ll own limited editions that are sure to maintain their value over the years. Then again, there’s the issue of whether you could ever part with them.
(05/22/2005)
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