by goosenapper » Tue Dec 13, 2016 8:11 am
I would like to not talk about the Piper car, focusing instead on the NART entry.
All the case states of the car is that it is "North American Racing Team, 'No.18'" yet does not specify which race it is modeled to represent. Accord to N.A.R.T. A concise history of the North American Racing Team 1957 to 1983, a 365 P2 only ran sporting the number 18 twice, both times at Le Mans. The release by Carrera represents the 1965 entry driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Nino Vaccarella which finished in 7th position.
The car returned to Le Mans in 1966 wearing number 18, but this time painted white and rebodied as a long-tail, which lead to the nickname of White Elephant. Masten Gregory and Bob Bondurant gave it a good run, but the car failed to finish.
This probably doesn't matter to most, but I'm the kind of guy who buys a toy car and then goes thumbing through his library in search of information on it. I can't figure out why Carrera did not just say "Le Mans 1965" on the case. Licensing maybe? :think: