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Indy turbine


Brudda

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Art, I'm sure your comments above are right on, for when the kit was new. But, how about today? The scale is still not my favorite. But, the subject is interesting enough that I would ad one to collection today. But, when this kit was first out I didn't have as much interest in as I have now. My tastes have changed. My budget has changed. I've grown up, a little. And that maybe true for the rest of the market today too. Do I think the Indy Turbine would be a big hit today? I doubt it. But, I do think there are a few of us who would go for one now. 

Scott

 

A big problem with this kit (and the subsequent 1968 Lotus 56 Turbine & '68 Gurney Eagles, was the hollow tires.  Back in the day, it wasn't unheard of to have at least one badly misshapen tire in each and every kit--I know, because my then-employer, Weber's Hobby Shop in Lafayette IN, kept getting hammered by buyers of those kits, complaining about tires that were warped beyond saving.  MPC's people were of little help, simply refusing to replace those defective tires as well.

One thing that I found sadly interesting back in those days: While Indy car model kits were highly popular here in Indiana (I wonder why? ;) ), apparently once one got out of say, a 500 mile radius of Indianapolis, the popularity of those kits apparently dropped dramatically (which was pretty much the same with NASCAR kits in those years before flag-to-flag network TV coverage).    Interest in Indy car model kits (back then) began to come alive about the 1st of May, and by the end of June, pretty much evaporated.

I can say this, because Weber's (just 65 miles NW of the Speedway) sponsored an annual "Month of May" Indianapolis 500-mile race model race car window display, which at its peak in the late 1970's annually had more that 200 1/24-1/25 models of Indy cars, from 1911 to the then-previous-year's race field. That display grew in importance to the point that the guest registers that Weber's maintained each May reads like a "who's who at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, indeed having signatures of people from all over the World, in Indiana for the race.

Six different modelers (myself included) participated in this annual "Month of May" exhibit (Weber's show window had a single pane of plate glass 16-feet wide, the "floor" of the display window being that long, and 4' deep.  We had a 10' long plywood platform, on which we glued down red brick-pattern "siding paper" from the Wm K. Walthersc company, in O-scale, which gave a brick pattern very close to 1/25 scale, to represent the original bare paving brick front stretch, with a representation of the original pit all, painted in concrete, with the dividing lines between each pit, and car numbers & sponsor names on it, just as with the original pit wall through 1956.  Behind that stood an exact 1/25 scale model of the original "Pagoda" timing and scoring tower, as well as a full set of starters flags, that had been used in the 1950's at Indianapolis by the late Pat Vidan.   In addition, our local Firestone and Goodyear tire dealers provided us with Indy car wheels with current race tires mounted on them.  For a couple of years, the late Bob Higman (legendary USAC Midget owner and Offy engine builder, loaned us a 110cid Offenhauser Midget engine (with no crank, rods or pistons to cut down the weight) for display (Hey, it looked very much like a 255-cid Offy Champ Car engine!).  It was back then that a short young kid would press his nose against that plate glass, every year, and drool--his name?  Chris Etzel, the creator, a quarter-century later, of the fantastic "Etzel's Speed Classics" series of Indianapolis 500 winning cars (Chris grew up here, just south of the city of Lafayette).

I was an enthusiastic Indy car model builder in those years (1966 to the last display in May 1984), doing Indianapolis cars almost exclusively.  Another builder, the late Alan Bingaman of Lafayette, accurately modeled such cars as the 1911 Marmon Wasp, the 1912 National, along with several Indy cars from the 'teens, through the 1940's.  Mark Wick, who was a contributor in the Carl Hungness Indianapolis 500 Yearbooks (successor to the now valuable Floyd Clymer 500 Mile Race Yearbooks) built a number of 1970's winners for those displays--Art DeCamp, son of the Late John DeCamp, long-time statistician for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, built a number of the winning cars from the late 60's through to about 1976 or so.

But, back to the model kits:  When I was doing my opening buys for my then-new hobby shop here in Lafayette IN in June 1984, upon visiting Trost Modelcraft & Hobbies (where the late Bill Lastovich of Monogram fame worked before joining that model kit manufacturer), Michael Trost (the very first hobby wholesaler in the US--staring in the late winter of 1932!) who showed me a stack of case-lots of the MPC Indy car kits, 1967-68, and even several cases of the original AMT "flat box" 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl's, and AMT's flat box kit of he 1963-64 Indy Lotus kits.  I bought 6 cases of each, at their ORIGINAL net price, sold them in my store at $5 a pop!.

I have one of the MPC '67 "Silent Sam" Turbine kits, and have managed to fill out a full set of perfectly round tires for it--one of these days, it will get built, and correctly painted in Krylon Rocket Red Dayglo (STP teams, for years, had 33-gallon drums of that paint in Gasoline Alley, repainting those Dayglo Red cars almost every evening after a day of practice runs on the Speedway.  In 1975, I was invited by AMT Corporation to review their test shots of the 1974 McLaren M-16C and Gurney Eagle Model 6 Indy car kis, but it was too late for them to correct some significant inaccuracies in both kits.

 

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Thought I would include a pic of 1/20th scale survivor builds from the 60's and 70's. Doesn't everybody have a 1/20th scale set display. Still have a group of 1/20th Tamiya F1 cars I need to build someday. Yes, the Indy turbine had mildly warped tires but I tried to turn the best side up.

 

Edited by magicmustang
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  • 1 year later...

When I was 6 or 7, someone that was a friend of my dad gave me a completed kit of this model. It was painted rust red for some reason. At the time I had no idea what it was or it's real significance in racing. I don't know what really happened to it. I know it was eventually parts and pieces in a box and then gone. It was only years later when I saw an article about the turbine cars in a magazine I realized what that model really was. It's too bad it's never been reissued. I mean they reissued the Rupp Super Sno-Sport. How more 'obscure subject' can you get?

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This I suspect would be a decent seller considering the subjects that have been released in 1/20th lately and have sold. And this is a very desirable kit for race car collectors and I am sure a more friendly price than auction site prices would greatly help sales. 

As for the molds, I am sure they are around somewhere, but who know what shape they might be in. 

 

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