(Johnny) Lightning Strikes Twice Building the S.M.T.S. 1970/’71 Indy Winner by Wayne E. Moyer By 1970 Indy-car racing was firmly back in the hands of American race-car builders and drivers. The rear-engine revolution was complete, American race-car shops were turning out cars which, although based on the Lotus, Lola, and Brabham designs of the mid-60’s, were better “tweaked” and less expensive, while American oval-track drivers had learned how to cope with the characteristics of their new cars. There were only four “foreign” cars in the starting field for the 1970 Indianapolis 500; the remainder were “Eagles”, “Colts”, “Hawks”, “Coyotes”, “Mongooses” (“Mongeese”??), “Scorpions”, and a single “Kingfish” whose driver must have felt very lonely among all those predators. Jack Brabham and Mario Andretti were the only drivers not “born in the USA”; Mario, of course, had been a citizen since childhood. USAC itself was becoming more protective of its car-owners pocketbooks; the rear-engine revolution of the early 1960’s had caught them unawares and forced everyone to buy expensive new chassis and engines, but when the turbine engine threatened to do the same in ’67, rules were changed to keep the turbine from being competitive. The 4-wheel drive Lotus turbines of 1968 and the 4-wheel drive Lolas of 1969 posed a similar threat, and this time USAC simply took a conscious step back from the leading edge of technology. Although there was a long history of 4-wheel drive cars at Indy, they were simply banned. American racing oval-track would never again compete with Formula One on technical merits. Enter Johnny Lightning, George Bignotti, the Vel’s Parnelli Jones team, Al Unser, and the Colt-Ford. The Firestone-Goodyear tyre war was in full swing with each company busily creating the best “factory-backed” teams they could afford. Parnelli Jones and Ford dealer Vel Miletech joined forces to create the “Vel’s Parnelli Jones” team with Ford engines, Firestone tires, their own chassis, George Bignotti as Chief Mechanic, Al Unser and Joe Leonard as drivers, and toy manufacturer Mattel as the major sponsor promoting their new “Johnny Lightning” line of “Hot Wheels” sized cars. No one could have predicted how successful this amalgamation would be. Depending on whose story you believe, Bignotti either rebuilt a 4-wheel drive Lola T152-Offy into a rear-drive Ford-powered car or built his own copy with appropriate modifications; in either case it became the “Vel’s-PJ Colt-Ford” and two cars were built (plus, I suppose, backups) for Unser and Leonard. Like most of the American-built open-wheel cars of the period, its aerodynamics were determined more by experimentation than calculation and it was somewhere between the low-drag “cigars on wheels” of the mid-’60’s and the “wing cars” of the later ‘70’s. Although its aerodynamic devices were obviously “tacked on”, they worked; Al put the bright blue #2 “Johnny Lightning Special” on the pole and Joe started 18th in the similarly painted #15. It wasn’t much of a race as the only time anyone else led was when Unser made a pit stop. The Johnny Lightning cars ran 1-2 for a while until Leonard dropped out with what was later determined to be a minor electrical problem. Just a day after his birthday, Al collected $271,000 in prize and lap money for his first Indianapolis 500 victory. He went on to win 10 Championship races in 1970; 4 more in the Colt-Ford and 5 in a King dirt car, which made him the 1970 USAC National Champion. Unser and the Colt-Ford were back at Indy in 1971 with the car wearing the National Champion’s #1 and a couple of more small wings, but basically unchanged. The new McLaren M16s were the class of the field, and the best Unser could do was to put the “Johnny Lightning Special” in the middle of the second row. Leonard put the second Vel’s-PJ Colt-Ford into 8th position wearing “Assonate” colors. Al settled into second place behind Mark Donohue’s McLaren and inherited the lead when transmission failure put Mark out on Lap 67. Once again, the only time anyone else led was after Unser had pitted. 133 laps later Al Unser became the 4th driver to win back-to-back races at Indianapolis, and this mild-mannered, unassuming driver would become one of only two to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” four times. Until just a couple of years ago, the “Johnny Lightning Special” was one of the most-neglected Indy cars; there were no models of any kind in any scale of this two-time 500 winner. I thought that the gaping hole in my collection would be filled when Johnny Lightning themselves announced a model in their 1/43 scale “Magna” series, but that diecast was a terrible disappointment with vague shapes and incorrect graphics. Fortunately S.M.T.S. announced models of both winners shortly thereafter and all I had to do was wait. When the kits and factory-built models finally appeared in FSW, I emailed my order for one of each; after all, it was a Ford-powered Indy winner. GPM sent the 1970 winner in built-up form (RL067M) and the ’71 car (ref RL068) as a kit; the factory-built model is, as always, very nicely done but it turns out that there are a few things you can do to make the finished model even better if you build it yourself. Here’s how. Upon opening the box I found 27 clean, very nicely cast white-metal parts, 21 more chrome-plated pieces, including all the suspension arms, 18 photo-etched detail pieces, and 4 rubber tyres, along with the usual vacuformed windscreen, great-looking decals, and an instruction sheet with an exploded drawing, complete list of parts with painting information, a two-view decal placement guide, and a short history of the car. There is no paint chip, though (come on, SMTS) and nobody has the slightest idea what the suggested “Ford RAC Blue” is on this side of the ocean. That’s a problem.

The only body mould lines were along the lower edges and were easily removed, as were those on the engine cover - the instructions say to be sure to use the correct cover as they differ between the two cars, but my kit had only the correct 1971 piece, as indicated by the number engraved in the underside. There was some thin flash between some wheel spokes that had to be cut away with an X-Acto knife. I glued the lower front (photo-etched) and lower rear (cast) parts in place and filled the seams before the body was primed, and also glued the front wings on and attached the engine cover with its screw. The first primer coat showed just a couple of small surface blemishes that were easily eliminated by simply sanding the area down to bare metal. Other than these seams filled before priming, no putty or filler of any kind was needed. After failing to find what shade of blue “Ford RAC Blue” was, I decided to match the colour of the factory-built model. I mixed approximately equal amounts of Model Car World’s #2027 “Sunoco” Blue and #2005 “Benetton” Blue, both non-metallic colours, to get a good match. Shortly after painting the body I saw both the 1970 and ’71 winners at Ford’s “100th Anniversary of Racing” show and found that my mixture was very close; obviously the factory-built models are painted the correct colour. I also noted that the shock absorbers on the 1970 car were metallic blue while those on the ’71 version were yellow; factory-built models have black shocks. The S.M.T.S. decals are very thin (but completely opaque) and the large lightning bolt that covers the nose and sides is a single decal. The decal tended to “grab” onto the surface (OK, it may have been just slightly tacky) and stick, regardless of how much wetting agent I used. I never could get it exactly where it should be and if I were to build a second kit, I’d cut the decal into three or more pieces before application. S.M.T.S. does not include any instrument faces in the decals, nor are there any seat belt decals and the “Firestone” sidewall logos are incorrect. I added all these from my “spares” box and they make the model more realistic. S.M.T.S. sidewall logo decals (not applied to the factory-built models) are just small yellow “Firestone” names but photos clearly show that the sidewall markings consisted of gold circles around the outer edges and large white names. Fortunately, these are available on a Virages sheet (VIR151) and that’s what I used. A coat of Testor’s “Acryl” semi-gloss clear sealed the decals to the rubber tyres and blended them in nicely. The spring/shock units were painted yellow and then the springs were scraped to bare metal to provide additional detail. Finally, I polished the brake disks with a wire brush chucked into a Dremel Tool, and then painted the brake calipers “steel” and the uprights “magnesium”. The funny-looking cover over the top of the engine is some kind of metalized “blanket” which has lots of wrinkles and is sort of a semi-gloss metallic color, not real shiny chrome. Assembly was very simple as the parts go on pretty much in numerical order and everything fitted quite well. I didn’t even have to do any “tweaking” to get the model to sit on all four tyres. I think S.M.T.S. erred with the turbo cooling scoops (Part 38), though. They have the 1970 car correct with two small scoops, one on each side. The instructions for the ’71 version show only one scoop, on the left side of the body, while photos from the race show a large scoop on the left side and one the size of the ’70 car on the right. My kit had both ’70 scoops and an extra one of the same size and shape for the right. I could have scratch-built the accurate larger scoop but settled for symmetric scoops like the ’70 winner. One last touch was to paint the knock-off hubs. Here again, photos from the ’70 race show plain chrome knock-offs, as S.M.T.S. has them, while ’71 photos show anodized blue knock-offs on the right side. I assumed standard color-coding and painted the right knock-offs with transparent blue and those on the left transparent red. Little things like this add a lot of realism and when you build the model yourself, you can take the time to add details that it’s just not feasible for the manufacturer to include at a competitive price. I’m very pleased with my finished model of the ’71 Johnny Lightning Colt-Ford. Overall lines and the colorful graphics match photos from all angles, and all the details that make it different from the ’70 winner are present and correct. I couldn’t find any dimensions, but it’s so close to those of the ’69 Lola 152 that I’m sure that S.M.T.S. has those right, too. I found no problems during parts preparation, painting, or assemble, and I think those I had with the decals could be resolved by cutting them into smaller pieces. Building the kit not only saved me some significant cash, but allowed me to add some small, but noticeable details that the factory-built model lacks. Two more very significant gaps in my Indy winner collection, which now totals 51 models, have been filled with very attractive and highly accurate models.