Mark

The first Revell issue had a roll bar, slicks, and mag wheels for the rear only. It also had five stock tires (one for the spare). It didn't have the supercharger or straight axle. When the blower and straight axle were added, the mags, spare tire, and roll bar were taken out. The hinges on everything were changed too.

I have heard and read about vehicles being totaled by insurance companies, instead of providing a rental while waiting for parts. Insurance company saves the cost of the rental, meanwhile they auction the wreck for (probably) more money than they'd get for it in "normal" times...

Asking prices on eBay are pretty much ridiculous for everything...the free listings keep rolling over, some items are out there for a year or more. Finding the parts I'd like to have aren't a top priority, I'll trip over a built one at a show or in a collection someone I deal with picks up...

I'd imagine a sealed or mint original might have some value, the reissue might turn up cheap on occasion. I've had an eye open for one, but I'd want it for cheap as I only want the engine for a 1/20 scale funny car.

Maybe the driver identified with British or Japanese drivers.

The wheel discs had portraits of politicians...Democrats on the left side, Republicans on the right side. I remember it being promoted as the "Archie Bunker car" for a short time.

Looks like the MPC (1/20 scale) Hard Hat Hauler. There was a 1:1 version that toured the show circuit as a feature car. Both the kit and 1:1 car had THREE superchargers, stacked vertically. (Of course three wouldn't work as well as just one, but the car probably didn't run anyway.) The kit had a big chrome hard hat (similar concept to the Red Baron, with its German helmet). It also had a "forklift" setup at the front. MPC issued another, football themed kit (Gridiron Grabber) which used the same basic car but with a football helmet and shoulder pads over the rear tires. That one had two superchargers on one of those "pyramid" intake manifolds.

One of the "factory guys" had to give his car back over the wheelstand thing. I don't remember who it was, but I believe the car involved became the Mr. Norm (Kraus) car after that.

135" wheelbase was probably never legal in NHRA for a funny car. Pretty sure about 115" might have been the limit back then. The dragster chassis cars and other outside-the-rules creations were strictly match race or local track stuff.

Look in model car magazines from that period, and you'll see lots of builds with exaggerated front end stretches like that. AMT probably had the kit designed and ready for production before sticking Ronda's name on it. Bright side: to get a moderate stretch, the chassis would be cut down instead of lengthened as was often done back then. In the "not everything has to make sense" sweepstakes, it might be interesting to join two of these kits together to get an even longer one...

I built a Yenko a few years back, as what would probably amount to a more altered "historic" version: fully gutted interior, vent window frames removed, and so on. I believe that, when new or near new, they had to run wheels and tires pretty close to original equipment, but as time marched on the rules opened up a bit. I wound up using MPC Minilite wheels, which came in early Seventies Vega and Mustang kits. All of them were five-lug even though they should have been four-lug for the Vegas. The R&M resin wheels pictured look like they are modified from MPC wheels. For tires, I used four of the smaller Goodyear racing front tires that were included in a number of kits including the SSP reissue Monogram slot car body sports cars. Their racing version Shelby Mustang fastback had four of them too. Another tire that might work would be either size of the Round 2 hollow Goodyear Polyglas tires, which can be had with other lettering or striping also. The Fireball 500 Barracuda and Warren Tope '73 Mustang have good looking versions of these tires. First step might be to try tires you already have on hand...if you find something you like, they're already paid for!

Round 2 (more recent) reissue of same kit.

Piece of clear plastic, to cut a windshield. You sure it isn't lodged in the side of the box bottom?

Those AWB cars were converted by an ambulance builder, they didn't necessarily brace everything up as much as was really needed. Front fenders were fiberglass, short production run things, so all of that leads to the body lines getting a bit wonky on some of those cars. The wheelstands didn't help at the back end either!

Nope, you'd just have to drown it out with a couple of speakers that sound like someone beating a rubber raft with an oar. Cops pull up, just tell them you're trying to loosen some trim fasteners in your car interior...

One of those "mantlepiece" kits. Most companies tried at least one back then. Revell's were larger-than-normal scale sailing ships, Monogram's were usually World War II aircraft. AMT were "the car guys", so logically theirs was a car. MPC tried theirs later, (probably) first with their boxing of the Airfix large scale "blower" Bentley, later the "General" locomotive. A second loco was announced but never released.

I'd better get mine further along by the time this one comes out. All of the parts are already acquired/paid for, so I may as well finish it. Polar Lights body (modified a lot), MPC grille...

Maybe Daimler-Benz needs the money...they've probably burned through the funds they got by looting Chrysler...

The Cad engine is a good one, but using it backdates the car a bit compared to the Hemi. No big deal, the AMT Fiat includes a 392, and I've got a couple of the Revell parts pack Hemis anyway. If anything, I was hoping Atlantis would dust off the parts pack Buick mill and include it. I figured the 392 wasn't going to make it into this kit.

It's the ex-Revell kit with hinged hood, doors, and trunk. I built one a few years ago from a Nineties issue (the Roth issue came out after I had started it). It doesn't just fall together out of the box, but the pieces do actually fit for the most part. Just resist the temptation to redesign or re-engineer it other than to fix the hinges which are on the sloppy side. Window fit on mine was tough, but I'd bet Atlantis is taking a bit more care in molding the kit than Revell did so that might not be as much of a factor. Bottom line...not the best nor the easiest to assemble '57 Chevy kit out there. But if you like Tri-Five Chevies, you should take a swing at sticking one of these together. I used to be bothered by the scale and accuracy differences between different companies' kits of the same car. Now that stuff gets me interested in seeing the differences.

General Mills owned MPC, and also Lionel, back then. They also owned other companies that made wooden kits and paint-by-number sets.

The Revell Hemi engine never came with a carburetor setup of any kind. You sure that's not the Cadillac engine?

Yes.

MPC often used photographs on the boxes of its drag car kits. When they used artwork, it was either because there was no 1:1 car, or the kit was so far off from the 1:1 that they couldn't retouch the photo to match the kit. Windshield wipers added to Pro Stock cars, moving hood scoops forward on the hood, changing wheels, adding shaker hoods to funny car bodies, things like that.

Mr. Gasser.