Ragtop Man

The '70-74 were about as extreme as a muscle car / pony car got in the era. Road testers like C&D were in seventh heaven with the handling and acceleration - "A hard-muscled, lightning-reflexed commando of an automobile that can't be duplicated anywhere in the world for even twice the money..." FWIW, Jamison is on the case with some popular items for the other iconic versions of the F-Body - '77-78 nose {Smokey} , perhaps others - and there is a drop dead 1/12 3D SD 455 that would seem to be easily upsized to 1/8. Add in a blindingly expensive sheet of Ray's Decals and you have the makings (assuming you assiduously collect the bits) for all the 'headline' '78-'81 cars - '77-'79 Special Edition, 10th Anniversary, Turbo TA Pace Car, SE, and Indy Pace Car.

The Monogram book by Thomas Graham has the who-shot-john on the 1/8 adventure. Revell had the idea to do a large scale version of the SBC engine as an assembly kit unto itself. - with multiple build options. They also had a 1/4 (!) scale slant 6... but I digress. The engine kit was a hit, and soon the mailbags were flooding the lobby with "great piece, what do I put it in now?" At some point, leadership reached out to Darryl Starbird with the idea -"hey, make a big hot rod taht kids will like so that we can scale down to 1/8." Thus was born the Big T. Their timing was fortunate, and the kit was released in time for holiday sales were it broke all the records. Even today, it is a dour modeler indeed who looks at that original package and doesn't get the "holy cow!" jolt. As long as you were patient, and followed directions carefully, you could have a serious conversation piece. The versions that spooled out built on the idea - Drag, Tub, etc - then branched into the Vette and Jag. Real problem with 1/8: More than one or two of them eat up all the space on the shelf.... eight will take up the space of the real thing (well, not really, but you get the rub.)

The golden mean of '32s, along with the Doane Spence highboy. Superb rendering of a historic car!

Love it!

To be fair, there are inexplicable gaps in the modeling universe of cars and trucks that were and are popular subjects. "Box" Chevy Caprice... a modern-tool Squarebody... '67-8 Cougar... Colonnade Cutlass/Regal ... Mk1 Cadillac Seville... current gen Ram pickup ... 'pagoda' Mercedes-Benz ... deTomaso Pantera... 3-series BMW .... FERKRISSAKES a stock, modern, new too '56 Ford Pickup .... that would be great new subjects that would wear out the tools before they would wear out their welcome. Yes I know a few exist in the corners of the universe, but frankly are not accessible to a wider group of modelers.

Yes on the Chevy V8 in the Firebird - confirmed with the son of Pontiac historian John Swaruk (also a modeler and collector.) Underhood architecture of the thirgend Firebird was engineered to fit the low-deck 265-301- 301T. Select structure is different compared to Camaro as well. One of my books has a pic of a '82 dressed with the offset "Formula" hood and Appliance "Turbo" wheels, with minor spats for front and rear wheelwells.... coulda, shoulda.... The backstory is that Pontiac was seeing sales declines in the 50%-70% range in major metros, and facingcancellation and full absorption by Buick who outsold Chevy for a few quarters then. Killing the full size Bonneville/Catalina and midsize LeMans as well as the 301 engine was an act of self-sacrifice to pave the way for a more efficient future, symbolixed by Fiero that would occupy most of the facilities that would be idled. Have also heard Pontiac was not willing to share the 301T powertrian with Chevy - having absorbed all the development costs. Regardless, the 301T Firebird was an easy 7.5 0-60 / 15.0 level performer, outstanding in the era. Planning to build same in 1/16 and 1/24 when the shop is set up and running.

At risk of repetition - the Bobby Issac Torino absolutely nailed the look of a Bud-Moore-Massage '72 Fastback body. Super well done. That said, the chassis is as generic as Wal-Mart asprin, and needs some love (see articles from the late Bill Coulter) to bring it up to speed for a semblance of accuracy. Sure would love to see a proper 3D 351 Cleveland one of these days, gets a little spendy blowing up Revell B351s.

Looks like a very 'euro' parts breakdown - should pop together very nicely. Hope this stimulates some outreach business with younger builders, and I'm certain this will have a wide international following. RoG seems very dialed in on that cohort. Probably won't be adding it to my stash, tho. The 'flying doorstop' supercar trend really doesn't float my boat.

Mean as a two-day hangover. Really like it!

Dorothy to Toto: "We're not in 1965 Detroit any more!" Who WOULDN'T want stacks of new subjects every year? Recall the stated purpose of the original AMT Trophy series - to have an evergreen lineup of kits to keep production churning until the next wave of promo work came through the door. I would argue they were planning for the inevitable day when promos would dry up, and the tool bank would be all that was left. Today, even with entirely new development and sales paradigms, a new kit is very expensive to produce and not all subjects are guaranteed sellers. The supply line is long, the politics of international trade and tarrifs are unstable and counterproductive. Would love to see more new subjects, but knowing how the cogs turn, glad to see what we have.

I love stuff like this - what chassis did you end up using? Saw one a long time ago using a cut up Corvette chassis plate (prolly MPC) tapered to fit the Willys body. Flat six is fun, and I don't care where ya' from.

I have a few - but I don't recall seeing black. Never regarded it as all that special, more as a frame swap donor for early pickups. Alas, though, none seemed like particularly good opportunities for a bash. So, backinnabox. Knowing most of the who-shot-John on this, I will be keeping eyes open for a few more. Have resisted the monster truck so far - because, well, monster truck - but I can see about 2/3 of the standard longbed in there.

For an early work, you really nailed the stance and the look. And there could be a great thread on modeling misadventures all unto itself - I can totally relate to chasing the overspray. There was a definite small engine trend in those days - a mild bolt on hop up program for a 2.0L or 2.3 Ford would be plenty of scoot for a lightweight rod without a lot of accessories.

It was priced pretty much at scrap value.

Did MPC have one of these, too? How did they compare?