Mello Yello launched in 1979 with the tagline, “World’s Fastest Soft Drink”, and started by sponsoring Frank Oglesby’s dragster. The same paint scheme was then used by Kyle Petty on his No. 42 Pontiac Grand Prix.
But even before Mello Yello became a winner at NASCAR, it was a reel-life winner, used on a Chevrolet Lumina and driven by the very dashing Tom Cruise, aka Cole Trickle in the 1990 hit, Days Of Thunder, albeit in the movie, it wore the number 51.
In fact, it was the movie premise, of a Mello Yello sponsored NASCAR car that turned into a reality the very next year for Kyle Petty, with sponsorship at SABCO Racing, wearing the livery that went on till 1994.
Coming back to that Chevrolet Lumina, it was one cool movie car actually raced by Tom Cruise, considering he loved to do his own stunts. So where is it now, and what’s the history behind it? Read on to find out…
The Time Tom Cruise Turned It Right
What most people do not know about cars made for the track, even in their stock form, is that they are designed to turn left, and not right.
NASCAR veteran Hut Stricklin was a stunt driver hired by the production of Days of Thunder at the time, and he told this bit to Cruise, advising him not to turn right. Stricklin recalled this in an interview for the website, For The Win, and claimed that Cruise basically did not heed his advice. He was doing most of his own stunts so happily climbed into the Chevy Lumina and took off at the Volusia County Speedway, a track that lies 24 miles west of Daytona Beach, Florida.
When Cruise turned the steering left, the car responded, but when Cruise turned the steering right, the car spun out, grazed a wall, and destroyed a $100,000 camera so attached to it by the crew.
From then on, Cruise listened as he drove the Mello Yello Chevy Lumina to a successful BO ending, and also gave NASCAR a sudden lift. The movie drew from real-life NASCAR characters and happenings with Cole Trickle based on NASCAR’s Tim Richmond.
The Mello Yello #51 Actually Raced
To gather footage for the movie in the Chevy Lumina, the Mello Yello #51 was actually raced in Cup races in 1989 and was driven by Bobby Hamilton made his Cup debut in Phoenix. He even led the race but with 100 laps to go, the engine blew. Later, Hamilton went on to race in 371 cup races over a 15-year career and became a NASCAR star in his own right.
Other than being driven by Bobby Hamilton, Tom Cruise as well as Hut Stricklin, the Melly Yello Chevy Lumina was also given a spin by Greg Sacks and Tommy Ellis at many NASCAR races in both the '89 and '90 seasons (at Phoenix, Darlington, and Daytona).
The Chevrolet Lumina in the movie was authentic, all right. The power came from a Chevy Small-Block NASCAR V8 engine with a billet crankshaft that could jet 642 horses on forged pistons as well as an amplified clutch, mated to a four-speed racing transmission.
Why was the Chevrolet Lumina, an out and out family car that was brought to compete with the success of the Ford Taurus, part of a NASCAR-inspired movie? Apparently, Chevy wanted to sell the Lumina and thought that giving it this kind of exposure may improve sales.
The movie came out in 1990, the same as the debut model year of the car, and some 278,000-plus units were made and sold. This was the highest production number, annually, for the Lumina and by 2,000, the Lumina had stopped shining in favor of the all-new front-wheel-drive Impala.
The movie itself was a decent BO success, although it underperformed at the time. Today, it’s a cult classic. We cannot say the same about the Chevrolet Lumina, although the Mello Yello #51 Lumina is still a crowd puller.
Where Is The Days Of Thunder Lumina Now?
According to GM Authority, one of these was listed for sale halfway across the world in Switzerland. A Swiss-based company, Classic Driver had it listed on their site in 2015, and now, if you check up on it, it does not show the listing anymore, so we assume that it was sold to a private collector.
There was another of these cars that popped up for sale in 2018, although according to the listing, this was “just like” the car driven by Cruise in Days Of Thunder, meaning this one was a movie car replica.
This car was restored by Laughlin Race Cars, based out of South Carolina, and sits atop a race-ready chassis, which makes it even better than the car used in the movie because the latter ran just on circular tracks. Listed in Venice, Florida, the listing of this car also shows it to be sold showing us that while the Lumina may not have been vaunted while it was still available, despite the Days Of Thunder marketing push, it is a much-valued movie car today.
Sources: USATodayFTW, GMAuthority, ClassicDriver, IdealClassicCars