OVERVIEW
1988 Buick Regal Coupe Winston Cup NASCAR
VIN: 12
This car was built and owned by Stavola Brothers Racing, and was first driven as the #12 Miller High Life by Bobby Allison in 1988, his last racing year. After Allison's retirement this car was driven by Bobby Hillin. For both the 1988 and 1989 NASCAR seasons the car wore the Miller High Life livery.
In 1990 the sponsorship at Stavola Brothers changed to Snickers. The car was driven first by Bobby Hillen and the later by Rick Wilson.
1992 the Stavola Brothers changed to Ford, so the Buick was sold to R&S Oval Track. It was purchased by Robert Ham, Auburn Alabama who raced car in the 1992 Arca season as #18.
The Buick would pass through a few owners in the '90s who kept the car as a collectable until 2003, when it would be fully restored by Bill Elliott's motorsport shop in North Carolina. It has been driven minimally by its last owner, and has a fresh engine / transmission / differential with only about 2 hours on them.
The car is currently set up in its road course configuration, making it ideal for historic racing events around the world.
Specifications:
Hendrick built engine, 725-750 hp, 18-degree cylinder heads, 12:1 compression, 8,000 rpm max
Rankin transmission
9" Ford differential, 3.40:1
Road course setup
Original body
Larger brakes
About Bobby Allison:
During the course of his NASCAR career, Bobby Allison would race 778 races and accumulate 84 credited victories and 2 uncredited victories making him fourth all-time winner, tied with Darrell Waltrip, including three victories at the Daytona 500 in 1978, 1982 and 1988, where he finished one-two with his son, Davey Allison. In 1972 he was voted national Driver of the Year for winning ten races and taking 11 poles (including a record 5 straight), and again in 1983 when he claimed his only championship. He was NASCAR Winston Cup Champion in 1983 driving for DiGard Racing. The 1982 Daytona 500 was fraught with controversy that became known as "Bumpergate". He also won the Firecracker 400 in 1982, making Allison the fourth driver to sweep both Sprint Cup point races at Daytona in the same year. Of note, after Allison accomplished this, no driver repeated such a feat until Jimmie Johnson did it in 2013.
His NASCAR team owners included DiGard, Junior Johnson & Associates, and Roger Penske, for whom Allison scored four of the five NASCAR wins for American Motors' Matador. The other AMC victory was accomplished by Mark Donohue also racing for Penske in 1973 at Riverside. He raced in NASCAR as a driver/owner of an AMC Matador.
Allison was involved in an accident at Talladega in May 1987, that saw his car cut down a tire, turn sideways and go airborne into the protective catch fence that separates the speedway from the grandstands. The impact, at over 200 miles per hour (320 km/h), tore out over 100 yards of fencing. Parts and pieces of the car went flying into the grandstand injuring several spectators. This was the same race where Bill Elliott had set the all-time qualifying record at 212 mph (341 km/h).
In response, NASCAR mandated smaller carburetors for the remaining 1987 events at Talladega and Daytona. The following year, NASCAR mandated restrictor plates at Daytona and Talladega to keep speeds under 200 miles per hour (320 km/h). Allison won the first Daytona 500 run with restrictor plates in February 1988 by a car length over his son Davey Allison, rendering him the first driver to have won the Daytona 500 both with and without restrictor plates. He is the oldest driver (50 years) ever to win the Daytona 500. Bobby and Davey Allison are the first one-two father/son finish in the Daytona 500. As a result of permanent injuries in a crash at Pocono that ended his career, Bobby now has no memory of the final win of his career or of celebrating together with his son in victory lane.
Bobby Allison was elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.
