My uncle Larry was the first in the family to own one, my Dad borrowed it to ferry my great aunt's belongings from Trafford Pa to Amherst Va in 1981. One of the memories I have is passing a guy on a motorcycle on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in a full blown blizzard. Dad got his own a couple of years later, same color. I had trouble driving it because it was a five.speed and all I'd driven till then we're four speeds!
Nearly all gone except my truly prized pieces. I'd like to have gotten a better return,but they were never an investment in anything but entertainment. Funny how many duplicate builds I started! I'm going to do another purge, this time of parts. I'm going to keep a core of often used pieces and offload the rest. East coast show goers will be seeing my old stuff soon enough. Please refrain from referring to them as gluebombs when you spot one or buy it. I put my name inside many, along with the date.
I had a 78 Rallye 5.0. factory, 150hp. The factory had little to do with what I had under the hood. As for any deficiency, it could take a turn at better than 45mph without losing traction. It had better brakes and steering than my 66. It rode better, and was built better. It hadn't rusted away from the cowl down.
It's occurred to me that a close approximation of the correct engine could be sourced from the Revell 320i kit, along with the engine compartment. They're very similar. Just thinking out loud.
That was the factory color of my 76. My wife's was originally brown, I repainted it Massey Ferguson grey metallic. I happened to work for them at the time...
I hope that they follow through with a square tail light version. I've owned nine of them and would like to replicate the main two my wife and I drove. I only had one round tail light version. BTW, the black trim doesn't go onto or in the chrome, it is a lower body rub strip.
I've been working with a vendor selling the majority of my last forty years of building, so don't be surprised to see some kits you might recognize come up for sale. They aren't stolen! I'm coming to realize that my skills and eyesight aren't a match for my imagination, and adjusting my itinerary. Inventorying the collection revealed almost a dozen AMT 49 Fords not including the two I'm currently working on, as well as six Revell Mercs... I have never finished one of those. Lots of replica stock and mild customs. A few sixties style gassers from a couple of years ago. Hopefully he keeps them intact and doesn't part them out, but that's up to him.
I caught several of these at big lots twenty years ago, never investigated any inaccuracies, just built them so they've got problems.... I didn't care. Still don't. I'd build another.
Rummaging through my parts bins, I managed to locate a few villa Riviera pieces, but they are hardly accurate. The grille, especially, is too thick in the bars, and without the extended hood and fenders, looks heavy.