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Junkman

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    Christian Pamp

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  1. Citroen Ami. The first car ever to sport 'architectural headlights'. America had a Nazi style headlight dictate imposed by their Central Soviet, aka "The Feds", in 1940, which dictated 7 inch (whatever that is, I guess it's half a pink Flamingo's leg) diameter round Sealed Beam headlights. This was there the only legal headlighting until 1958, when 5 3/4 inch (whatever that is, I guess it's 3/4 of a half a pink Flamingo's leg) round low beam and high beam headlights became legal. Ever wondered why all American cars had dual headlights all of a sudden in 1958? Yep. That's why. Then it took until 1975 and 1976 respectively until some square Sealed Beam headlights complying to the federally imposed tyranny became legal. This hampered American car manufacturers to issue cars with proper headlights for over half a century. It was Sealed Beam, or sod off. Meanwhile in the rest of the World, car manufacturers could do whatever they please as long as it complied with the general lighting standards set out in the Geneva convention of automotive headlighting of 1947. While America left that table choosing to stick to its even then antiquated Sealed Beam standard, which massively hampered front end design until the early Nineties, European manufacturers had a free hand, although at least initially restricted by manufacturing processes. Hence it can be argued that either the 1960 German Ford Taunus 17m, or the 1961 Citroen Ami were the first cars in automotive history that made use of architectural headlights. I tend to favour the Ami, because the Taunus merely had oblong (elliptical) round headlights, whereas the Ami's were actually part of the overall design and in addition based on scientific research undertaken by SEV Marchal, back then a major supplier of automotive lighting equipment well beyond France. Why do I know all this? I'm a miserable sod, consequently I wrote my doctorate on the history of automotive headlights. I really should get a life. Would you like to know more about the history of automotive lighting? If yes, tell me where to post it.
  2. As far as I'm aware based on personal experience, Glencoe is a one man show, run by a guy who traced his roots to Glencoe in Scotland. I once approached him about reissuing the S.S. France, which is a 1/450 scale model originally made as an assembled shop window display for travel agencies in the early Sixties. He told me well, that's actually a good idea, all that needs to be done is throw the moulds into the machine, get some plastic dye and order some cartons from the printer. This made me think, if it's that easy, then what are the likes of Round2 dicking about all the time? Anyway, not a Month later, brand new S.S. Frances were offered by the usual sources on eBay. Contact him. Not only is he a great conversationalist, but he is very open minded to boot, and a bit on the likeable eccentric side.
  3. You are comparing apples with oranges. You wouldn't be able to make a downpayment on a '69 Grand Prix for the price of a Triumph.
  4. BTT. This is my current daily. It's the newest car I've ever owned and it is just now that I begin to realise that it isn't a modern car anymore. I find that its Pininfarina styling has aged extremely well and there is a number of millennials out there appreciating that even more, going by the increasing number of comments I receive lately whenever I become stationary. After a little car/garden wall interface I had to replace the front bumper cover. I deliberately chose the one from a saloon, since I find it prettier, and the millennials do recognise that, while the giffers don't even notice it. This alone shows me that while one generation is still ignoring cars like this completely, another is very knowledgeable and appreciative. I would never have thought it'd ever become collectible, but prices slowly creeping up for the very few remaining examples prove me wrong. In France, they have already acquired some sort of cult status, who would have thought? History doesn't stop. I've been at the launch parties of chod that is now rocking up at the shows and I bet you the next owner of my Peugeot will have it bought to do exactly that with it.
  5. Well, I do understand that someone living 500 miles from the nearest twisty B road prefers muscle to handling, but I fail to comprehend that standing still while spinning the rear tyres could possibly be considered 'driving'. British sports cars? Why, assuming I were in that income bracket, given the choice between a muscle car and an Aston Martin DBS Vantage I'd always opt for the latter, is a phenomenon that will never cease to amaze me.
  6. The article is dead on. The millennials around me drive this newfangled 80s-90s chod every day and long for a brass era car for the weekends, two of them now having bought one. One a 1904 Wolseley, the other a 1916 Chevrolet. Of course they dressed in what they thought is period garb until my mother, fashion designer and historian, set them straight. They have now thankfully corrected their attire accordingly, but it's in fact even more outlandish. Those young lads have immense fun hooning their old heaps while masquerading for the occasion, all the while attracting the ladettes to join the craig. We, of course, never succumbed to such ridiculous vulgarity while still lad aged, oh no. We were sooooo much better. We drove our Fintail Benzes and '60 Buicks wearing mullets, robot wraps and loud coloured saccos with rolled up sleeves, 100% single proofing ourselves in the process. Regarding 50s cars, yes, those y00fs like to look at them, but wouldn't want to own one for exactly the stated reasons. And yes, while there will never be a cheap '55 Bel Air hardtop as long as there is a gout ridden boomer still able to limp to the toilet unassisted, look at what happened to the prices of the cars their parents drove in the 50s. The bottom has dropped out of the more door 50s tat market. What surprises me a bit is the continued interest in muscle cars, because all they ever were is rubbish.
  7. You'd be surprised. Many of the car savvy millennials I know are well aware of the Corvair and it having been bashed by Nader. It becomes apparent in sentences like 'ah, bugger off with your NCAP rating, I'd rather swing a Corvair backwards into a tree while giving Nader the two finger salute, because looking cool is much more important than all that safety nonsense'.
  8. My '13 Revell Camaro largely fits that description, and it even has an engine. Still, for the young folks it's just a model of a used car at the bottom of its depreciation cycle, rendered with an obsolete technology.
  9. I have meanwhile largely switched to diecast, because I just can't get model kits of the cars I like anymore. No big loss, since I'm not really a modeller at heart. I rather view building plastic kits as an ordeal necessary to obtain miniature representations of American cars and actually always preferred to work with metal. But if you wanted models of American cars in the 70s and 80s, 1/25 scale plastic model kits were the only game in town. Sadly it was also the time when the American kit industry suffered its first big blow, from which it never really recovered, and obsolete kits began to be traded for big bucks. I still managed to amass a sizeable collection, the stereotypical stash I'd never be able to build before my call to the eternal drive in. This is largely sold now and I only have a rudimentary kit stash left, comprising only the models I really do not want to part with. Yet. Because the day I received my Sun Star '60 Fury, I took a last look at the content of my Jo Han kit, sighed, and listed it on eBay. Being more diecast oriented of course made me join several forums catering for those and here are the good news: Car modelling is alive and well among the young folks. It's just happening on a different level. They buy the latest 260 Dollar AutoArt Lamborghini something, rip it apart and modify the living daylights out of it. Of course this is just an example, they do this with all kinds of 1:18 scale models. Another popular thing is to take those OTTO, BoS, or whatever resins and go berserk on them. And you should see what they are doing to those magazine/partwork models. Them y00fs are not less imaginative, creative, or gifted than we consider ourselves, but they call 90s stuff "retro" and if I mention plastic kits to them, they want to help me across the street to the care home. Seeing all this going on, I think the wrong question is being asked. The question is not what the future of plastic model car kits is, its why are they still struggling for survival.
  10. You nailed it. All who think I did something wrong, plesae go ahead and order from them.
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