The Melling/Coors #9 secret

H

HardScrabble

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Was reading an article on the history of Talledga and came across this claim. Have heard numerous claims to knowledge on this over the years, but not this one and certainly never stated as a fact.

How bout ya'll?

1986 TALLADEGA 500 - 1985 was all but monopolized by Bill Elliott, who erased a two-lap deficit under green to win the 1985 Winston 500; it came with a racecar only 7/8ths the size of any other car, Ford or otherwise. Once NASCAR and other teams figured out what was going on Elliott lost his edge (and his "small" car) and struggled, winning at Michigan in June 1986 but otherwise not showing the muscle he'd once had.
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I have heard a lot of silly claims regarding Bill's dominance in '85...but never this one.Most attributed Bill's dominance to Ernie's 'secret tuning'. :)

Look for the revisionist historians to tear Elliott apart.No magic bullet has ever been found on this subject,just a lot of speculation.


Hey Nascarvrolet:The hick from Georgia kicked your tails out of your complacency didn't he? :lol: Get over it.
 
And it wasn't even enough to get him the championship that year. :rolleyes:
 
I dont know if Bill and Melling did this, but Smokey Yunick did this one year
 
Originally posted by HardScrabble@Apr 5 2003, 07:56 AM
Was reading an article on the history of Talledga and came across this claim. Have heard numerous claims to knowledge on this over the years, but not this one and certainly never stated as a fact.

How bout ya'll?

1986 TALLADEGA 500 - 1985 was all but monopolized by Bill Elliott, who erased a two-lap deficit under green to win the 1985 Winston 500; it came with a racecar only 7/8ths the size of any other car, Ford or otherwise. Once NASCAR and other teams figured out what was going on Elliott lost his edge (and his "small" car) and struggled, winning at Michigan in June 1986 but otherwise not showing the muscle he'd once had.
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Wasn't it right after this that NASCAR outlawed the Cleveland Engine? There was nothing illegal about that engine except that Ernie did a hell of a job building it.

Then a few years later NASCAR decided to allow Chevy to bring the Lumina to Winston Cup. The Lumina was a front wheel drive car, when all the others were rear drive cars & NASCAR let Chevy extend the wheel base to match the Thunderbird. I've heard DW say that when NASCAR allowed Ford to bring the Taurus into WC, that it was the beginning of the end & that is why we have so many common templates this year. When I heard that, I said "Hmmm, I would have guessed it was when the Lumina came to WC."
 
BTW...Ernie Elliloit builds the engines for Chippy (the #40, #41 & #42 cars)...& we know how dominant the #40 was last season until his wreck at KC.
 
Originally posted by 17_Fan@Apr 5 2003, 02:53 PM
I've heard DW say that when NASCAR allowed Ford to bring the Taurus into WC, that it was the beginning of the end & that is why we have so many common templates this year.
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DW said it was because the Taurus was a 4-door sedan & all the allowed models in WC up to this point were 2-door coupes. :rolleyes:
 
NASCAR, to my knowledge, never outlawed the Cleveland, but Ford ceased making the blocks long before they dropped out of common use in the WC ranks. Towards the end of the Cleveland's reign the teams were getting many of their blocks from Australia.

If Windsor drops by, he might know more of this history than I do.
 
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