Cool ebay item of Shirley (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter SDR
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Dave
Nitro Member
I'm pretty sure these are off of the '82 car. The "Shirley" is in a script type of letter style and the "Shirley" on the '83 car was in more of a square type letter style. Hopefully these get a good home and will be well taken care of; what a treasure!!! Man, if I would have won the Lottery.....
Dave
Dave
.
Nitro Member
Those are the three I was able to make out also so I sent him the info a little bit ago.
Is there any chance that the panels came off a "movie car" from Heart Like A Wheel? If my memory serves me correctly, I think that Unique Metal Products in San Diego built the bodies for some of the movie cars.
Dave
Nitro Member
You're right, it is the "83 car. I was just off by a year, the '84 car had the sqaure font on the "Shirley".
As far as the movie car, that car is the 1980 World Champion car and thankfully it's at Big's Museum.
These panels are from the '83 car. Rich, if you've ever seen the photos of the car after the accident, there wasn't much left and the body panels were not that straight.
Dave
Just Paul
Nitro Member
That's an understatement!
I don't know that you could have saved a lug nut after that one.
The 82 car did indeed have a pink cowl by looking at some of my old photos, but it is the same shape, so it could have been painted/replaced later.
She had an accident at Indy in 83, got into the wall pretty good, it almost went over on it's side. Could have been much worse. If I recall correctly, she had to leave the track and head for a shop in order to get the chassis straight enough to run the rest of the weekend. This body could have been replaced after that mishap before the next race? Hard to say I guess.
Pic of wreckage from Sanair-
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The panels on ebay are from the '83 car, Shirley won Pomona and the Finals that year and runner uped to Richard Tharp at Columbus I believe. The car that crashed in '84 was the '82 chassis they had updated. The '83 was smacked into the wall at Indy, they had to fly in Al Swindahl and Chip Weeks. They did end up going a couple of rounds on race day. I believe the 83 car was sold to Michael Brotherton when he was just getting started.
Problems from that crash continue to this day. When Shirley had her knee done last year it changed the she walked. That put pressure on the shattered ankle, cause it to swell and get infected. In the last few months it has kicked up again. Very few people would have climbed back into a Dragster after a year and a half of painful rehab. After retireing she drives the riding mower at her house cutting 5 acres of grass........at slightly less than327 mph ( her best speed). It says 327mph. on the back of her Black Caddy SRX. At the track she goes up to the line on a Golf cart. In her book there are lots of photos of crashed car.
