bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
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J-Body Racer
- Thread starter bremereric
- Start date
A38Valiant
Well-Known Member
Kinda interesting that the car is wearing Chrysler skin but has Dodge sponsorship.
bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
Buddy Arrington raced 2 1981 Chrysler Imperials in the Winston Cup stock car series of auto racing. Although he received no Chrysler support, he finished eighth in the NASCAR points total for the 1982 season. Unfortunately, Buddy's Imperial was the last Chrysler product to run in the NASCAR Winston Cup series.
bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
The Imperials were first run at the very end of the 1982 NASCAR season, and in only 2 races. Buddy Arrington campaigned a 1981 Dodge Mirada for all of the '81 and '82 NASCAR seasons (save the two races he ran the Imperials in). After finishing eight in total points for the 1982 season, Buddy alternated between the Mirada and the Imperials in the '83 season. For '84 and '85 (until May '85), Buddy campaigned the Imperials on the superspeedways and the Mirada (which he converted to a Cordoba by changing the nose cone/bumper assembly) on the short tracks. He never won a race, but finished as high as 6th in a few short track races.
The picture at left is from sometime in 1983 and shows Cecil Gordon's '83 Imperial running with Buddy's '83 Mirada. Take a close look at both cars, as they have been tricked up aerodynamically. The Mirada body shell has been lowered on its chassis to the point that the wheel-well openings are almost at the top of the fenders. Cecil's Imperial's front and rear fenders are puffed out similarly to lower the car down as well. Cecil ran 13 races in '83 (with 15th being his best finish).
bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
Buddy sold one of the Imperials (the other is at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame's Motorsports Museum in Talladega, AL) and the Cordoba to a racer named Maurice Randall in June '85. Mr. Randall raced them in NASCAR until Dec '85, at which point they came afoul of the NASCAR 3 year body rule. The Imperial and Cordoba were then used on the ARCA circuit until Dec '88. Mr. Randall never finished in the top 10 of any race he entered with either car.
Buddy's #67 Imperial became #93 after being purchased by Maurice Randall, and was used 2-3 times in 1985.
bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
Shown here is another NASCAR Imperial, Rick Baldwin's 04 car that he ran fairly often in ARCA races in '82-'84 and in NASCAR in '83. Rick only ran it four times in '83 because he didn't qualify for the other races he tried to enter, or couldn't find sponsorship.
When Buddy wasn't running the Imperial, he used this Mirada (he actually had 2 of them) on the short & medium tracks, etching up several top-10 wins from '81-'84.
Thanks to Jim Hannaford for contacting Mr. Arrington's assistant at Arrington Racing to obtain this information!
Rick did some driving for Buddy Arrington in the late '80s after Buddy switched to Ford T-Birds. Sadly, Rick crashed during qualifying for the June, 1986 Winston Cup race at Michigan (while driving Buddy's car). Rick was badly injured and remained in a coma for eleven years until June 19, 1997, when he passed way at the age of 42.
Thanks to Jim Hannaford for contacting Mr. Arrington's assistant at Arrington Racing to obtain this information!
bremereric
FMJ Body Moderator
In May 2005, Mr. Joe Machado took this picture of Buddy's Imperial at the International Motorsports Hall of Fame's Motorsports Museum in Talladega, AL.
MiradaMegacab
Well-Known Member
You guys remember the movie, "Six Pack", with Kenny Rogers?
There was a Mirada running the Nascar circuit in that movie.
Strange thing is that the track announcer was calling it a buick.
There was a Mirada running the Nascar circuit in that movie.
Strange thing is that the track announcer was calling it a buick.
Dago Red
Well-Known Member
Weekend at Atlanta
Turk Logan: Sounds like a punk:thefinger:
Turk later went on to be a dead guy named Bernie......(actually Terry Kiser:eusa_dance
Turk Logan: Sounds like a punk:thefinger:
Turk later went on to be a dead guy named Bernie......(actually Terry Kiser:eusa_dance
Dago Red
Well-Known Member
It No Wonder We Hate The French
I have an old college buddy who works for Chrysler in Highland park. He called to tell me of an interesting mound of paperwork he came across while purging thirty year old files.
Seems that NASCAR was doing some wind tunnel work with the "new" GM cars as they were very unstable at high speeds (re 200+) while the Thunderbirds were not quite so loose at speed. It turns out that the notch rear window would cause a low pressure vacuum that would, literally, pick up the back end of the car. As a result came the Monte Carlo SS and the Grand Prix 2+2.
On a lark somebody suggested seeing what a Mirada would do. Turned out that, even in stock trim, it was slicker and more stable than the GM's and generated better down force than the T-Bird. The Mirada's angles generated downforce, while the rounded edges of the T-Bird actually generated lift (kinda like NASA's lifting body flying machine).
NASCAR sent the info to what was left of Mopar's race division, after Iacocca had gutted it and put in charge one Francous' Chastang, a leftover from Chrysler's buyout of Renault. He said NO! He wanted to go F1 racing. At a cost of 35 million dollars a year...for ....get this...ONE ENGINE. They could have easily had a dozen NASCAR teams for that kind of money, plus some leftover to drag race with. We wasted the entire 80's with this idiot, until Bob Lutz fired his ass in 1992. About the same time we saw a return to the drag strip, the NASCAR trucks, and Lutz's baby: the Viper. The Intrepid even had a two door design to go with the four door that made it into production. There were two each test mules: two Dodges and, how cool would this have been, two Eagles.
We're still playing catch-up.
Can you imagine if Chrysler had seen fit to go up against the 5.0 Mustangs and Camaro/Firebird platforms with, say, 80's and 90's RWD/V-8 versions of the Dart and Duster or Volare'/Aspen?
I have an old college buddy who works for Chrysler in Highland park. He called to tell me of an interesting mound of paperwork he came across while purging thirty year old files.
Seems that NASCAR was doing some wind tunnel work with the "new" GM cars as they were very unstable at high speeds (re 200+) while the Thunderbirds were not quite so loose at speed. It turns out that the notch rear window would cause a low pressure vacuum that would, literally, pick up the back end of the car. As a result came the Monte Carlo SS and the Grand Prix 2+2.
On a lark somebody suggested seeing what a Mirada would do. Turned out that, even in stock trim, it was slicker and more stable than the GM's and generated better down force than the T-Bird. The Mirada's angles generated downforce, while the rounded edges of the T-Bird actually generated lift (kinda like NASA's lifting body flying machine).
NASCAR sent the info to what was left of Mopar's race division, after Iacocca had gutted it and put in charge one Francous' Chastang, a leftover from Chrysler's buyout of Renault. He said NO! He wanted to go F1 racing. At a cost of 35 million dollars a year...for ....get this...ONE ENGINE. They could have easily had a dozen NASCAR teams for that kind of money, plus some leftover to drag race with. We wasted the entire 80's with this idiot, until Bob Lutz fired his ass in 1992. About the same time we saw a return to the drag strip, the NASCAR trucks, and Lutz's baby: the Viper. The Intrepid even had a two door design to go with the four door that made it into production. There were two each test mules: two Dodges and, how cool would this have been, two Eagles.
We're still playing catch-up.
Can you imagine if Chrysler had seen fit to go up against the 5.0 Mustangs and Camaro/Firebird platforms with, say, 80's and 90's RWD/V-8 versions of the Dart and Duster or Volare'/Aspen?
Ollywood
Well-Known Member
I remember seeing the Arrington Imperial at the Mopar Nats a few years ago. Amazed to see it was still in existance.
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Jack Meoff
Mopar Maniac
Very cool to see Imp's and Mirada's tearing it up.
Thanks for another education Eric.
Keep 'em coming.
Thanks for another education Eric.
Keep 'em coming.
