In Your Opinion....The Best Looking Paint Scheme From the 80's

The 80's era of Nascar has always been one of my favorite era's (Not number one, but one of the top few) This was the time when big sponsors were coming along with big names and big money. Alot of new sponsors entered this decade - Food, stores,restaurants, clothing, tobacco and beer. So my question to YOU is what was your favorite cup car from 1980-1989???

Mine? I may be a tiny bit biased here, but I've always thought that Bill Elliott's 1984-1987 Coors Thunderbird was the sleekest looking car on the track!

Then in 1988 (his championship year), the car was changed slightly with a blue stripe instead of gold, but the gold wheels were kept in place.

In 1989, the Thunderbird was changed all together to an even more aerodynamic car with now a blue AND gold stripe across the bottom. In 1990, mountains were added to the top of the coors logo, and in 1991, the last year with the family team, Elliott ran a blue Coors Light car.

So now for my honorable mentions....

I'm sure Dave Fulton will atest to this, Dale Earnhardt's 1985-1987 Wrangler Monte Carlo.

Richard Petty's 1984 STP Pontiac Grand Prix

Bill Elliott's 1983 Melling Tool Thunderbird (relativitysimple, but I like it)

Bobby Allison's 1983 Championship Miller Buick

And finally, Davey Allison's #1 Lancaster Monte Carlo from his 1985 Rookie Season.

Well, that's it for me. What about YOUR favorite???

-Cody

In his "Publisher's Corner" column of National Speed Sport News following the 1981 Daytona 500, the venerable Chris Economaki said the 1981 #2 Wrangler Jeans Osterlund Pontiac driven by Dale Earnhardt was the best looking stock car he had ever seen.

Who am I to argue with Chris?! I agree.

They hung a near life sized shot of that car at speed at Riverside in the main entrance to the Talladega office complex and International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

Me & daughter, Gwyn with the Osterlund show car - Big Ben store Bristol, VA - 1981

Best driving car I ever owned was a metallic royal blue 1973 Monte Carlo 350 with black top that I had all the pollution equipment removed from by a drag racer in Wilson, NC (who also did the state inspections on the vehicle).

We also talked International Speedway Corporation into depicting that car on the pole for the 1981 Daytona 500 and 1981 Busch Clash program cover. As the late John Lennon once said, "The Great Griff Moves in Mysterious Ways His Wordwork to Perform!" Actually, Pontiac called the shot on that happening.

This is the photo of the 1981 Wrangler Osterlund Pontiac #2 with Dale Earnhardt at speed at Riverside that ISC had blown up and hung in the entrance to the Talladega offices and International Motorsports Hall of Fame. We later thinned out the number and sponsor name with a black outline.

I always liked Sumner McKnights Winston West paint schemes... probably because the colors reminded me of the Wrangler colors.

I later got to be good friends with his former wife, Helen in the 90s. Sumner was a duPont heir from Wilmington, Delaware who went west to race.

Here's my poor ole '73 Monte Carlo leaving Wilson, NC for our honeymoon in November 1973!

Don't have a photo but I'm sure there is one on this site but two that come to mind are the Lennie Pond WIN car and the Dick Brooks Chameleon Sunglasses T-Bird.

Yeah I have always like that car. I'm guessing 1982? But now that I look at it, it's almost a copy of what Dave posted earlier with Earnhardt's #2 Wrangler car. But come to think of it, most J.D Stacy cars were like that in some way. Was this owned by Stacy? or just a coincidence?

Thanks

The 80s did have some great schemes. More prominent sponsors came aboard wanting a more identifiable look - yet it was before the days of graphics design poisoning with these nonsensical vinyl wraps that are all too common today. Among my faves are:

Tim Richmond's 1986 Monte with the black-shadowed, gold numerals. I have no idea why HMS changed to the plain white number about a third of the way through the year. But I think the switch ruined the look.

Kyle Petty's 1982 Petty Enterprises Pontiac with the prominent Petty blue on top. I think it looked better than the 43 that ran STP red on top. And I liked this look better before PE joined forces with Hoss Ellington mid-year when an UNO decal was added to Kyle's cars.

Davey Allison's original Havoline scheme with the gold numbers in his 1987 rookie season. I saw him win his 1st race in these colors in the 87 Winston 500.

The King's 1984 Curb Motorsports Pontiac. Such as smooth look. Tons of Petty blue. Chrome wheels. A great look to have when winning before President Reagan. I can't vision Cale shaking Gipper's hand after winning it that ugly orange/white Hardee's car.

And as a Petty fan, it pains me to admit this may be my favorite 80s scheme. The 1988 Miller High Life of Bobby Allison. (photo credit to RR's Jerry Bushmire)

Cody,

I will have to say that since I am the guy that painted the Allison/ Lancaster Monte Shown, I am biased towards it..This car was a ''take off'' of the Chattanooga Chew Pearson car in 85...Pearson left Ellington in June 85 after Pocono and I had to have this car repainted and graphiced in one week for Talladega...I hand lettered the entire car also as we had no such decals. By the way, Davey's very first cup race netted a 10TH. place finish...

RIP Davey...

Thanks! I remember that T-Bird but the one I was referring to was the one with the blye nose that faced into a white body. I have a photo but no scanner. Thanks again.

Some super nice looking work.

Dick Brooks/Junie Donlavey #90 1984 Chameleon Sunglasses T-bird

One of the weirdest moments I remember at a racetrack involved Phil Barkdoll and the Helen Rae Special. On the very first lap of the second 7-Eleven Twin 125 mile qualifier for the 1986 Daytona 500, Phil got out of shape coming off turn 4. The car went airborne and he crossed the start finish line upside down about 10 feet off the ground, before hitting and sliding on up toward turn 1. I have never before or since seen a car just seem to float through the air like that.

Ol' Phil had his share of accidents at Daytona. He was also involved with the frightening wreck by the 43 in the 1988 Daytona 500. Here is the one I think you are referring to.

Well, I'd have to disagree Ms. PK!

Cody very CLEARLY prefaced his question alluding to all the new sponsors, etc.

QUOTE from Cody original post:

new sponsors entered this decade - Food, stores,restaurants, clothing, tobacco and beer. So my question to YOU is what was your favorite cup car from 1980-1989???

I took that to refer more to sponsor paint scheme than manufacturer. But, that was my interpretation.

I do remember one thing... Earnhardt loved the Monte Carlo and hated the Thunderbird. He didn't even want Bud Moore to build the new style car. Remember Elliott went to the Daytona 500 with the old shoebox T-bird. Earnhardt called the new T-bird the "Football."

I'd have to say that my favorite 1980s Monte Carlo was the Billy Hagan / Terry Labonte 1984 Piedmont Airlines Winston Cup Championship car. It was pretty sweet revenge for Piedmont Airlines, which had just been dumped by Childress so Wrangler could return to his cars.

Not ugly or least tasteful, Jim, but I'd guess the 1981 Ranier Pontiac LeMans that was brought to Daytona for Bobby Allison would rank in NASCAR's top-10 as one of the cars from the 80s they'd most like to forget!

Wow! That is amazing! Awesome job you did on it! Like I said in my original post, I like the colors and the lines of it. Not too intricate, but not too simple either.

Ha ha ha Jim. I'm sure to this day, the key folks from that Ranier team still ask "Are you KIDDING ME? We lost to the King and Inman on a splash and go? But we dominated that week. Are you SURE we lost that race?"

I was a Dew drinker in the 70's and always like the Mountain Dew logo so will have to go with Tim's favorite all-time hero's Dew Crew Buick. However, my hero, Junior Johnson - owner

Jim Reep mentioned on this thread liking the gold chrome numbers which NASCAR later outlawed.

That made me think of our trip to Martinsville in April 1986 for the first outing of our Derrike Cope/Warren Razore RABANCO Racing Western Peterbilt 1986 Ford Thunderbird. The door numbers on the car (#79) were painted a silver/gray, matching some of the car's paint scheme.

Later, when we went to Riverside in June, NASCAR VP-Competition, Bill Gazaway told us we'd have to change the color of the door numbers before Sunday's race because he didn't think they'd show up. On Sunday morning crew chief Jackie Johnson re-pained the door numbers red by hand to match the red on the car's paint scheme.

Below is a picture taken at Martinsville before the race with the original silver/gray door numbers we were made to change by NASCAR and a photo taken later in the year at Riverside with the red numbers.

ABOVE - Martinsville - April 1986 - Silver/Gray Door Numbers

ABOVE - Riverside - June 1986 - Red Door Numbers

I agree with Cody regarding the Bill Elliot cars. We did a lot of work for Bill in the '80's and I thought that his cars looks very nice, even before adding the 'artwork'. The first photo is one of his leavingour shop. One is in the Henry Ford Museum. There is a different one before delivery to Bill.

Soory, I am not able to make these pictures appear with the post.

Here is another car that we did that was refered to in some above photos.

Also attached is what I liked best of our personal race car. It was understated from a 'flashy' standpoint, but I really liked it.

We did this car for Buddy, I loved the numbers.