Eddie Ivermee’s #46 Oldsmobile is a car that has been studied intensely for the last six months, and it continues to surprise us to this day.

The latest surprise is when Eddie taken a close look around for any definitive clue on who built his car as opinion is split on the builder, some say Doug Taylor built it though the man himself says he reconditioned it, and others have suggested every Oldsmobile team in the book and while some teams have recognised styles, none are certain.

‘LRP 1004 + 1/4’ was stamped on the left front lower control arm of the car which briefly raised hopes of an identification though as it is a bolt on part it was not the answer we were looking for.

There was more, a look a little further along revealed more details stamped into the metal reading ‘JR17 7 91 Road Race’

So, what is JR17? JR means Jack Roush and the 17 stands for chassis 17, the part was built for road racing and JR17 was a car driven by Mark Martin, it is actually his most successful road course car.

‘7 91’ would likely be July 1991, there was one road course run in August that year, so it is possible it was prepared for use at Watkins Glen if the need arose.

How do we know it belonged to Mark Martin’s car? Eddie messaged Mark to ask if it came from his car and shown him the picture and the answer came back ‘Yes sir. Absolutely’.

We like to express our gratitude to John Faulkner, Ian Thomas, Mark Martin, The Roush Automotive Collection, Doug Taylor and everybody who has answered questions that we’ve had about the car since December 2024.

So, the left front lower control arm of the #46 Oldsmobile was built for the #6 Ford Thunderbird of Mark Martin, specifically the one that is on display for thousands of people to take a look at every year as you can see in the above video by Stapleton42 on YouTube

How did it end up on Eddie’s Oldsmobile? There are several possibilities though the answer is unlikely to be proven, it was either put on the car by Doug Taylor or somebody working with him in the USA or the part was shipped to Australia in a container filled with other parts and when the need arose, it was fitted to the car.

Now there is something else, TB is stamped on the right front lower control arm, and it was written as well.

TB could mean anything from whoever made it to Terry Byers but rest assured, if we find out, we’ll update this to tell you.

Remember when we looked at the #46 at the beginning of the restoration effort and reported about M#2? Could that be another Roush part? We never did find out what M#2 meant, we’d have to hope for another car with a similar marking to know.

So, take a close look at your cars owners as somewhere on the car could be a part that was built for a winner like Mark Martin’s JR17.