Lizard Racing

America's Best!!!

Wife and I went to see the Santa Box. I didn't particularly want to see it, but Wife did. It's about a young girl who believes she is cursed by Christmas because a series of bad things happened at Christmas time. Sure, it's a chick flick and geared more for the youth market (there's a bullying plot line), but there is some funny stuff in it and not too sappy. A nice little movie, especially if you are not in the mood for heavy drama.

There are a LOT of tremendous movies listed. My all-time favouritest movie is Mr. Roberts with Henry Fonda and James Cagney. I have all the parts memorized, seen the movie dozens of times, saw the live play and acted in parts of it myself. As to car racing movies I think Rush is probably the best overall (another Ron Howard classic). Le Mans is the best racing movie (made by a racer for racers). Grand Prix brought the genre out of the B-movie world.

Mel Brooks Robin Hood: Men in tights. Hilarious.

My worst was Catch 22 from 1970. The previews made it look good, but I found it plain gross. Teenagers from Outer Space is right up there. We really enjoyed it as 10-year-olds, but when I saw it as an adult, I was apalled at the acting and effects. Ed Wood was a visionary. His dream was to be a film maker. He wasn't going to let a small detail like no talent get in the way.

I'm sure this would be a difficult question for Leno to answer. He does not collect in a specific area (like era, brand, etc.). If he sees a car he likes, he buys it (a nice position to be in). This results in a very ecclectic collection. I don't know how he keeps track of all of them. Best wishes.

I always tested the Snickers, etc. from my kids' haul just to make sure they were ripe. Some looked ripe, but I tested them too. Then they got big enough to count, so the game was up.

Mr. Snake: Yes, the #11 is the Revell kit. Fit is a lot better than the AMT kit, probably due to the antique tooling of the AMT. The reason I got another AMT was for the hard top.

I had this AMT 'Vette sitting in the stash waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I finally hit on making a drag racer stock sports car. NHRA thought sports cars would have an inherent advantage over American stockers, so they ran in their own classification. it finally dawned on me why so many stock drag racers had their horsepower ratings on the front fenders (it wasn't bragging). Class assignment was based on factory power and shipping weight ratio. Having the HP rating on the car made it easier for the officials to determine legality when weighing after each run. I guess that's why. The 360 HP fuel injection Vette fit at the top of Class D, whereas the 340 HP carburetor fit at the bottom of Class E. P.S. I like '62 Corvettes. Number 11 is the last SCCA National Champion (driven by Don Yenko) before the Cobra domination. Number 4 is the Delmo Johnson Sebring runner. Number 11 is the Revell kit, the other two are AMT. Except for the lack of hard top, the Revell kit is better. AMT kit has several fit issues. Thanks for looking. Model on!!

It looks like you two are off to a good start. This is a good place to ask questions and seek tips. Model on!

Both of these cars were originally built in the late '60s and been in storage in pieces for the last 30+ years. I even still have their original boxes! The sprinter was a Grant King Sprint car made into an early '50s Indy car. Now it's a late '60s sprinter, before cages came in. This one was rebuilt with the Chevy engine and Indy tires for pavement races. Roll bar and nerf bars were fabricated from Evergreen. Decals are leftovers from Vintage Racing Miniatures extensive midget sheet. Seat is from Big Donkey. The Lola has been around a long time too. Body panels used to fit better. This was just a reassemble job to use up parts. This car represents a Lola T70 updated about as far as it can go. Adding a big-block engine and wider tires helped these veterans campaign another season before being replaced with newer cars. There's nothing older than last year's racecar. Wider tires and wheels are from the parts bin. To be more correct, I should have made some fender flares to cover the tires. I had to forego any body work and paint because I don't have a color to match and the old body mods were done in filler putty over cardboard. Very fragile after the passage of time. Two very different cars from the same era.

I had fit issues with mine too. Yours looks tremendous!

Business man, entrepenuer, broadcaster and presidential candidate. An American example. I always remember his quote from his grandfather: "Them that's going, get on the wagon. Those that ain't going, get out of the way!"

The three most stressful events in life are divorce, taxes and MOVING (not necessarily in that order). It doesn't matter how far the move is. We have moved across the continent (twice) and two floors down. It's all the same! Everyone in our 55+ community has a downsizing story to tell. We moved from a 3-bedroom house with garage and shed to a 2-bedroom apartment. MOVING SUCKS!!

Very good representation. It looks as much a modified as any I have seen. Good work.

As requested by '70 Grande, here is a nose-to-nose comparison between '92 and '72 racers. As can be seen, the Monte looks more stock than the Lumina, which is more of a streamlined brick.

Mr. Tony Ks post of his BRE Datsun inspired me to resurrect mine from storage. It is a true survivor from the early 70s, in storage for at least 20 years. All I did was put the wheels, rear bumper and front spoiler back on. Pete Brock was tasked by Datsun to turn the new 240Z sports car into a winning racer. Once the SCCA class C Production National Championship was secured, he turned his attention to the econo-box 510. The Trans-Am series had a sub-class for under 2.5 litre sedans, dominated by Alfa Romeo and BMW. That series fell to the lowly 510 the next year. Datsun 510 became a staple competitor in the SCCA class B Sedan for many years. Not bad for almost 50 years old!

A beautiful representation of a giant killer. You inspired me to dig my survivor model from storage. See separate post.

I bought a Monogram Lumina at the GSL show without fully knowing what I would do with it. Now it's finally done. I wanted something different and had some Powerslide decals left over from the rebuild of Bobby Allison's '72 Monte Carlo. So this is sort of a fantasy car to show 20 years of NASCAR development. Most of the work on these kits is in the chassis. I had some driver figures in the bin, so I tried adding one to this car. It was more work than I thought, adding a driver to a kit not intended for one. One of the advantages of these kits is you can work on the chassis and body separately, which lessens over-handling during assembly. The driver is "Bobby," but not necessarily Allison. It could even be Ricky Bobby from Talledega Nights. The Coke livery is from the Allison Powerslide sheet. They have enough decals to do all four of Allison's Coke cars. The smaller contingencies are from the kit: old decals with the brown patina common to old decals. New and old Coke Chevys, 1992 and 1972. The Monte is a rebuild, originally from the olden days.

Really cool looking!! Where did you get the dog dish hub caps?

I wish you luck in your new life without modelling. One tip: sell the stash if you want but do not sell the tools. They represent an investment and if you decide to start up again, you will still have tools.

For mine I used Fred Cady decals purchased (I think) from Mike's. I hope they weren't one of the companies that gave bad service. You obviously have done some research on the detail work. Good luck!

Here are the two extreme 1967 Chevys: the green one is the Biscayne 4-door sedan; the yellow one a fully-optioned Impala SS427 2-door hardtop. Which one would get takers in a stop-light drag race (at least for a while)? Which one would the cops chase first?

I posted a starter thread in the WIP forum. I wanted a 4-door Biscayne that looked like an old grandma car but with the 427 engine. The only giveaway is the "427" badge on the front fender. The decal is from a Corvette sheet (thanks VRM). The kit does have a bench front seat which adds to the illusion. The molded in black was a hurdle to overcome, but is consistent with the vehicle. It started out with the Supernatural Impala hardtop kit that I modified to look like a Biscayne by adding the door post, window frames and removing the Impala tail lights. The kit has good chassis detail without being too fiddly. I still have to dry-brush the grille (chrome plating is a bit thin here) and get the hood to fit properly. I couldn't duplicate the Biscayne trunk lid, as it includes the trim around the tail lights and the center part below the lock. But I hope I at least created the illusion of the cheap model Chevy. As previously stated, this is one of those kits with a lot of possibilities. Four-door versions are so seldom done as kits. I noticed some of you are building the Supernatural version. Thanks for looking. I hope all this makes sense.

I have always liked the offset supers because they are so bizarre. Outstanding scratch building. You seem to have thoroughally thought out the car with the detailed plans.