garagepunk66

I believe the same seller had decal sets and odd lots of loose spares for the X-EL Promos

I have a 1972 release sans box. IMHO, the quarter windows are mis-shapen and the grille is pretty wonky...

The tooling inserts were made from Beryllium-Copper alloy. Beryllium is a semi-precious metal and has considerable scrap value. No Buicks were made from them, but they certainly were melted down....

I never knew that the Cutlass was in the HSO series as well.

Not a terribly common thing to see, but basically the magneto base bolted to a special bevel gear drive unit that the fuel pump also bolted to. In the case of the SWC Swindler II, it was needed because the stock 394 water pump and timing cover were retained. Most of the later gas class cars used aftermarket timing covers with the provision for driving the fuel pump and used Jabsco electric marine bilge pumps to circulate the coolant

The Jo-Han block and heads are a 385 series, and the Boss 429 specific parts are quite nice. The SOHC attaching parrts were a compromise as I am sure the small, cash-strapped company could not afford a separate set of engine inserts for the Maverick/Comet tooling

A good number of the Otaki kits of that era list scale as 1/28 on the box. I would presume the Capri is also

I am happy to have this kit available again despite it's obvious shortcomings. It's great raw material to start with although I probably would never consider using the existing chassis and engine. I also feel that it is one of the better representations of the sedan roofline. It has the appropriate amount of crown in the windshield header area, whereas I feel that the AMT 55 sedan is too flat there, giving the roof a wedge shape in profile

Steve, I would agree. The grille looks to be of correct size and proportion. I think what might be throwing folks off is that filler panel below the grille that seems to be molded as a part of it (should be body color)

The Cooper Monaco (AKA King Cobra) was a tube framed car, very different in construction than the steel monocoque tub of the GT-40 cars.

Little known fact. KS Pittman drove for Fred Stone in this car before Doug Cook came on board. Has anyone made decals to reflect that livery?

Awesome build on this old chesnut. It's always nice to see ideas for retrofitting an older kit like this. Dusty Mojave, have you gone to the FIA website to look up the homologation documents pertaining to the Barracuda? That might provide some insight. All that stuff is online and downloadable there. I'm not really sure when the rules were changed to require sealed panels between the fuel tank and passenger compartment but you can bet when those rules went into effect those panels would not have been used any more.

The McLaren Documentary is essential watching for fans of the Can Am. I'm also reading "The Last Season" McLaren biography by Jeanne Beeching. Very good also. As far as Revell issuing "found" stock of the Corvette GS kit trees, how in the world did they wrangle the legalese behind that? Or was it part of a bankruptcy liquidation?

Just wondering aloud if the tooling is still around and if we may ever see it again released by someone else. It's a bear to build but it's the only game in town on the subject matter, and arguably the best 1/24 or 1/25 Can Am kit ever.

Bill, in effect, they are inside out, yes; but because the wheels are spindle mounted on the 22jr roadster, they were actually made that way. Almost all of the Halibrand wheel patterns created castings that could be machined either way to create any combination of offset desired. The smooth wheels on the Orange Crate do have the 8 ribs shown here on the back side. The 17 or 18 inch wheels on the Thompson Challenger LSR car are actually Indy roadster wheels machined with the smooth side facing inward also. My presumption is that more negative offset was needed on the Challenger application.