Slip's Showroom (.....of DOOOOOM!)

[DaleTona]

2004 was just a deal that the Intrepid was dropped from production and they just waited a year before they moved to the Charger. So, 2004 had the Stratus looking headlights and Intrepid Taillights, the grill setup was like the Stratus starting in 2003 as well so was just referred to by the Dodge R/T name since it was a combo of the two basically in a throw away year until the Charger was ready. Petty ran the 2004 style body in 2006 because the nose was similar to the Fusion and that is when Todd Parrott had come over to Petty Enterprises from Yates to crew chief the 43. So, with all the knowledge he had from the Fusion it translated over to the 2004 body better until Dodge stepped in and made them move to the 2006 Charger since they weren't in the business of selling older cars but new ones. The 05 and 06 Charger nose was pretty crap in traffic and was bad about picking up trash which played a part to the redesign in 2007. But the downforce wasn't as good with that nose, so teams went back to the old one again until once again Dodge tried to stop it, but teams still used it since the other one was at a disadvantage downforce wise if I remember correctly. And the whole redesign in 2007 was stupid since you had the COT car coming so a lot of the teams moved the focus over to it so another reason, they went back to the 2006 nose. Dodge was all over the place back then. They showed up at Daytona in 2001 without the upper grill between the headlights and had all kind of overheating problems so the teams had to add that grill which stayed like that until 2003 when they started using the Stratus like set up. While being an Intrepid it never actually had the name on the car and took on stuff from the Stratus until the Charger came along. Just a mess really. lol

Seems like from the off Dodge's 2000's return was a bit of a fustercluck all around.

 

[Slipster17]

2004 was just a deal that the Intrepid was dropped from production and they just waited a year before they moved to the Charger. So, 2004 had the Stratus looking headlights and Intrepid Taillights, the grill setup was like the Stratus starting in 2003 as well so was just referred to by the Dodge R/T name since it was a combo of the two basically in a throw away year until the Charger was ready. Petty ran the 2004 style body in 2006 because the nose was similar to the Fusion and that is when Todd Parrott had come over to Petty Enterprises from Yates to crew chief the 43. So, with all the knowledge he had from the Fusion it translated over to the 2004 body better until Dodge stepped in and made them move to the 2006 Charger since they weren't in the business of selling older cars but new ones. The 05 and 06 Charger nose was pretty crap in traffic and was bad about picking up trash which played a part to the redesign in 2007. But the downforce wasn't as good with that nose, so teams went back to the old one again until once again Dodge tried to stop it, but teams still used it since the other one was at a disadvantage downforce wise if I remember correctly. And the whole redesign in 2007 was stupid since you had the COT car coming so a lot of the teams moved the focus over to it so another reason, they went back to the 2006 nose. Dodge was all over the place back then. They showed up at Daytona in 2001 without the upper grill between the headlights and had all kind of overheating problems so the teams had to add that grill which stayed like that until 2003 when they started using the Stratus like set up. While being an Intrepid it never actually had the name on the car and took on stuff from the Stratus until the Charger came along. Just a mess really. lol

Ya know - I kinda makes sense that I really don't remember all of this transitional mess from that time period. I was graduating college, starting to find a full time job, moving to a new state...

The mess with the Dodge body and the move to the COT pretty much perfectly coincides with me falling away from Sim painting.

 

[mtblillie]

If I recall that whole deal with the noses was more around 2005-2006, as late in the 2005 year some Dodge teams experimented with 04-spec noses instead of the Charger Noses at Homestead, and several, such as Petty and Penske stuck with them on the downforce tracks until Dodge told them to knock it off and run the Charger bodystyle.

The main issue with the first Charger nose was while the anteater shape was great for downforce in clean air, it also sucked trash into the grill easily, and wasn't as good in traffic if I recall. Hence why Dodge overhauled the nose in 2007, which has a profile more similar to the 2003-2004 spec nose.

Of course in 2007 Evernham then went back to the 2006 style nose, but that was more the fact that they had somehow lost all of their data on the new nose, and as such were forced back to the old nose, but of course since that "package" hadn't been actively developed since the end of the 2006 season, it further hindered the teams performance in 2007 and was one of many reasons that Evernham's season was such a "dud"

Petty also used the 2006 style nose starting mid-season as well, as they were aligned with Evernham, so made the switch around the same time.

Now on the subject of the 2004 nose conundrum, I'm not as certain, but I'm guessing since they had already planned on discontinuing the Intrepid, and the Stratus would follow soon after, as well as the Charger being another year out, they just slapped something together to run so their factory teams could still race in the transition..

I think maybe you are referring to Dodge's interaction with the nose and headlights thing, but this issue actually started before that, which is why you see 2003 Chevys with the pressed in headlights even though the real car didn't change much between 2002 and 2003.

 

[Petty4345]

You are right mtblillie. I also checked out around the same time from sim painting and nr03 when the COT car came along. From 07 to about 09 I hardly painted anything and still have several cars I kind of started but never finished. lol And yeah, it was a bit of a cluster fudge from the original Intrepid to the final Charger before the COT. As crazy as all that was the original car was changed even more from the announcement to Daytona 2001. As you can see even from the show car, they showed in 2000 when it was first announced how much the car changed by Daytona. Nose and tail are totally different than what was ran. Evernham running the races at the end of year with Atwood in a Ford let's just say they borrowed some ideas from Ford and changed the Dodge. So, they ended up basically making the car more like a Ford in a lot of places. That red 43 was the first one built at Petty and as you can see the bottom of the nose is slightly different than what was ran so that was close to the final version but not quite and also still has the tail similar to the show car but still changed. So, from the very start they were all over the place with just about every version of the car. Evernham and his people actually worked out of Petty Enterprises until his shop was finished back then so both Evernham and Petty did a lot of the work on the Dodge program. But it seems like from the start Dodge was chasing its tail and couldn't make up its mind on anything. lol Do find it funny as well that the Intrepid name was actually on the car in the beginning. lol

 

[Ben Althen]

One of the other issues of the 2005 Charger is that it was designed for the 2004 rules package...which ended up getting changed drastically for 2005. This messed up the balance because it didn't work well with the new rules.

 

[psugorilla]

Talking about the Evernham modifying the car deal. There was a reason why the Dodge R/T name was used. And the running joke back then was R/T meant Really a Taurus. But even when they made the switch to the Charger, which arguably was the better looking car even if the performance had issues, that car changed a ton from it's initial reveal to what hit the track.

 

[Petty4345]

Talking about the Evernham modifying the car deal. There was a reason why the Dodge R/T name was used. And the running joke back then was R/T meant Really a Taurus. But even when they made the switch to the Charger, which arguably was the better looking car even if the performance had issues, that car changed a ton from it's initial reveal to what hit the track.

View attachment 159747

Totally forgot how much the Charger changed as well from the announcement to hitting the track. I remember the really a Taurus joke, was funny with each version it lost more of the Intrepid styling cues and just became a knock off Ford. lol I wonder why Dodge didn't have more success.....lol I do remember Petty at the time told Dodge they were killing them with all the changes from year to year. Basically, had to start all over every year and was one of the reasons they ran the 2004 car in 2006 until Dodge stopped it. Even the COT they started with the Avenger so basically every year they were changing things. lol

 

[Slipster17]

Talking about the Evernham modifying the car deal. There was a reason why the Dodge R/T name was used. And the running joke back then was R/T meant Really a Taurus. But even when they made the switch to the Charger, which arguably was the better looking car even if the performance had issues, that car changed a ton from it's initial reveal to what hit the track.

View attachment 159747

Jeeze - that just illustrates how much the snout 'drooped' over the course for the year after the initial reveal......

 

[DaleTona]

Totally forgot how much the Charger changed as well from the announcement to hitting the track. I remember the really a Taurus joke, was funny with each version it lost more of the Intrepid styling cues and just became a knock off Ford. lol I wonder why Dodge didn't have more success.....lol I do remember Petty at the time told Dodge they were killing them with all the changes from year to year. Basically, had to start all over every year and was one of the reasons they ran the 2004 car in 2006 until Dodge stopped it. Even the COT they started with the Avenger so basically every year they were changing things. lol

I guess it is no wonder none of the Dodge teams could find long-term sustained success. Usually the Dodge teams would have 1 car running well, maybe 2 if the team had a good year.

The best Dodge had sustained success wise was probably Penske, and even then they didn't win a title until they had already announced leaving the manufacture and immediately the first year of running Fords they were a legitimate powerhouse. Still, easily the closest Dodge had to a regular title threat.

Outside of Penske, Ganassi's #40 was good the first 2 years, then the #42 was solid, but could never get all teams firing on the same level.

Evernham the same, only in 2005 did the #19 outrun the #9, and outside of 2004 usually one car was a dud(Usually the #19), the #10 never amounted to anything beyond a few solid runs with Riggs in it's first year, and from 2007 onwards they basically regressed to just being "there" outside of occasional Kahne heroics.

Bill Davis decided to leak secrets to Toyota, and that basically ended them there and then, not really much Dodge could do there.

And Petty never really got anything going outside of a few decent years with Andretti/Labonte in the #43 and Kyle Petty's oddly good 2002 season, which considering one of the drivers they built the program around tragically passed away, they were rattled before they even started.

Dodge's second stint in NASCAR really is a large what-if, and the more you look at it, the less they seemed to have thier ducks in a row, despite the "all together as one" method they used when building the program. Several teams and drivers that coulda and maybe shoulda been champions under thier reign, but never to be. (2002 Marlin, 2003 Newman, 2006 Kahne, to name a few I can think of that had speed to win the title, but were derailed by inconsitency or injuries)

 

[Slipster17]

Another finished set available for download! From Kenny Wallace filling in for an injured Steve Park.

Looney Tunes - Sylvester & Tweety Characters

High Res fully layered assets for Kenny Wallace's special 2001 paint scheme from the Monte Carlo 400 @ Richmond. Kenny was in the Pennzoil #1 for several races during that time period filling in for an injured Steve Park. Scanned and traced into...

stunodracing.net

 

[Slipster17]

Occasionally the innerwebs makes my job easy and offers me up readily available versions of the character artwork to work from. I like when that happens!

Looney Tunes - Roadrunner & Coyote Characters

High Res fully layered assets for Terry Labonte's special 2001 paint scheme from the Monte Carlo 400 @ Richmond. Scanned and traced into vector layers from die cast box art, promotional material and various other online sources. Great for use on...

stunodracing.net

 

[Slipster17]

Happy Friday everyone!

Budweiser Background Graphic

Once again - I drive myself nuts so you don't have to! Here is a layered vector file of what is my best recreation of the background graphic seen most recently on Kevin Harvick's throwback car at Homestead in 2023. This was also used on his...

stunodracing.net

 

[Slipster17]

One more while I'm at it!

M&M's Characters from 1998 and 2022

Nothing much else to say! High Res fully layered assets of the M&M's characters as they appeared on both Ernie Irvan's 1998 paint scheme and Kyle Busch's Darlington throwback in 2022. Scanned and traced into vector layers from die cast box art...

stunodracing.net

 

[Slipster17]

I've kept starring at these boxes when they come through the house and thinking about fun little fictional schemes they could be used in. So I put these together!

Target 'Bullseye' cartoon graphics

These aren't a part of any actual NASCAR scheme - but I've been eyeing up this box art for a while and keep thinking that someone might be able to do something fun in the fictional realm with them! Layered vector files of Target's mascot...

stunodracing.net

 

[Slipster17]

Another! There were A BUNCH on this paint scheme! @Riviera71 helped me track down the final pose I was missing (the one on the rear of the car).

Looney Tunes - Marvin the Martian and K9 Characters

There's a bunch on this car right? High Res fully layered assets for Bobby Hamilton's special 2001 paint scheme from the Monte Carlo 400 @ Richmond. Scanned and traced into vector layers from die cast box art, promotional material and various...

stunodracing.net

 

[mtblillie]

All of these are amazing!!! It is one thing to create or modify images to make a replica car look good, but going through this much effort to make them available to the rest of us is a step beyond. I also really love the idea that you are able to create decals for model cars out of the work you do. It is so incredible

 

[Slipster17]

All of these are amazing!!! It is one thing to create or modify images to make a replica car look good, but going through this much effort to make them available to the rest of us is a step beyond. I also really love the idea that you are able to create decals for model cars out of the work you do. It is so incredible

Thank you! It's super fun for me to take some of these and turn them into physical creations. Just about my 1st anniversary of working with Print-It to produce the decals. I do intend to work on all of the 2001 Looney Tunes schemes eventually - this is on my table currently

 

[Slipster17]

WHAT IN TARNATION?!?!?!?!?

Last, but not least!

Looney Tunes - Yosemite Sam Character

High Res fully layered assets for Mike Skinner's special 2001 paint scheme from the Monte Carlo 400 @ Richmond. Scanned and traced into vector layers from die cast box art, promotional material and various other online sources. Great for use on...

stunodracing.net

 

[BriscoeFan14]

And my random discussion topic of the day........

What is the world was going on with the 2004 Dodge Intrepid / RTs used in NASCAR?

A thread on Reddit piqued my interest and while I never though about it at the time - it certainly begs an explanation. Dodge 'officially' branded their NASCAR model as an Intrepid between it's introduction in 2001 and 2003. And it looked like one with the headlight and taillight decals used. Even though they altered the placement of the grill openings in 2003 to roughly the same place they'd be in 2004 - they kept the same headlight and lower grill / foglight decals as 2003. My Bill Elliott car directly above is a 2003 model.

Then - for 2004 - they updated the headlight/ taillight decals and got rid of the lower grill and foglight decals. Made for a really sleek looking car! I just always assumed the Intrepid road car received a similar refresh towards the end of it's model cycle - but that is apparently where all of the conjecture comes in. The Intrepid road car received NO updates between 2001 and the time the model was discontinued during 2004. So, the Dodge model the 2004 NASCAR is based on isn't really the Intrepid - and it seems that Dodge never even really referred to the 2004 NASCAR model with any specified name, preferring to just call it the RTs?

The theory put forth seems to be that Dodge had intended to use the Stratus as a one-year stop gap between the Intrepid in 2003 and the switch to the Charger in 2005 - but that was vetoed for some reason by NASCAR? The grill placement and light decals would seem to support this idea as they do appear to be based on the blackout headlights used on the sportier Stratus RT model. But the overall body shape for the Dodges' seems almost exactly as it was for the 2003 Intrepid.

So - 2004 Dodge Stratus headlight / taillight decals on a 2003 Intrepid body shape but not really 'officially' called either?

Any more info from you guys? Thoughts?

View attachment 159622

View attachment 159623View attachment 159624View attachment 159625

So NASCAR basically called the 2004 Dodge the Dodge R/T actually. Because of the Stratus/Intrepid deal. It was so awkward to realize it wasn't an Intrepid. Yet in 2006 when some Dodge teams ran the 2004 body as the science project.... Qualifying for the 2006 Auto Club 500 called it the 2004 Intrepid when in reality it was the 2004 R/T. Attached are pictures of the 2004 R/T for the 2006 Auto Club 500

 

[Slipster17]

Hold onto your (fishing) pants guys..... I'm going for it!