Ask Richard Petty what his favorite race car was and he will tell you without hesitation it was his Dodge Charger he ran from '72 to '77 when it was no longer allowed to race in NASCAR competition. While his 1967 season ended with 27 wins - including 10 in a row - with his '67 Plymouth Belvedere, his Dodge Charger led him on a tear for five years, with championships in '72, '74, and '75, as well as Daytona 500 wins in 1973 and 1974. In addition, almost 40 of his 200 wins were in this Charger, including 10 in 1974 and 13 in 1975.

A Mopar man for most of his career, Petty came back to the Plymouth fold after a 1969 season of running Fords when he was refused by Dodge to run their new winged warrior, the Daytona, wanting to keep him in a Plymouth. Plymouth created a sister car, the Superbird to bring Petty back for 1970, and gave him Roadrunners for the '71 and '72 season until he was given the Charger. The Charger was a dominant car for Petty in the '70s and ran log after the particular body style was long gone from production. '77 was the last year it was allowed to run however, and after switching to the ill-handling Dodge Magnum for '78, a year he finished with no wins, Petty left Dodge for good, except for a brief test session with the Dodge Mirada in 1981, which also proved to be a miserable race car.

This is Polar Lights' kit, which was a great model to put together, aside from the awful instructions.