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USA-1 Camaro Funny Car


GoatGuy

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I had the opportunity to spend 2 and a half hours at Bruce Larson's barn taking pictures of some of his drag cars. A very hospitable, terrific guy. He said he recently contacted a model company about reissuing a kit of his USA-1 Camaro funny car and is waiting to hear back from them. I say we make our voice heard to the powers that be about reissuing the Camaro kit. It is one of the first funny cars to hit 200 mph. Here are some of the pictures I took.

He is finishing a restoration of Tommy Ivo's Honest Charley dragster which is headed to Mecum Auction May 19 in Indy. I can post those pictures if someone is interested.

I also got extensive pictures of his Sentry Olds funny car from 1989. I'm sure many of you have built the kit of this car. AND a couple pics of his Corvette funny car which has dual magnetos but one plug per cylinder. post-9531-0-83577600-1335223751_thumb.jppost-9531-0-83577600-1335223751_thumb.jppost-9531-0-36929700-1335223788_thumb.jppost-9531-0-26433700-1335223820_thumb.jppost-9531-0-74496700-1335223856_thumb.jppost-9531-0-58607100-1335223893_thumb.jppost-9531-0-61195400-1335223928_thumb.jppost-9531-0-34293100-1335223963_thumb.jppost-9531-0-95737300-1335223998_thumb.jp

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He is finishing a restoration of Tommy Ivo's Honest Charley dragster which is headed to Mecum Auction May 19 in Indy. I can post those pictures if someone is interested.

I also got extensive pictures of his Sentry Olds funny car from 1989. I'm sure many of you have built the kit of this car. AND a couple pics of his Corvette funny car which has dual magnetos but one plug per cylinder.

Yes post them

terry

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He called back and answered my questions-

1. He sent photos of all his cars to Revell and is waiting to hear back.

2. It is the second saturday in November that he hosts the Drag Fest at his barn in Dauphin, PA, just north of Harrisburg about 12 miles or so.

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Hey KB- I put two batches in the 1:1 Reference forum. I was really happy with the way they came out. The camera hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with me. Ha . I hope to go back over and get more detailed shots of the Camaro, Vette, and Ivo dragster, and get one of his t-shirts.

While I was there, he showed me models that people had made and given him. Nothing like what Tyrone, J Teresi, Brad, Rom and other masters can do, but still very nice. I looked on ebay this morning and found one USA-1 Camaro for sale at $250.00 !! Wow.

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1. He sent photos of all his cars to Revell and is waiting to hear back.

Interesting. The only one Revell could issue with existing tooling is the Olds. They don't have a body mold for a '69 or a '70 or later Camaro FC - although at NNL East Revell was asking what kit we'd like to see from them, and I said a '71 Camaro FC. Wonder if they are considering tooling a new Camaro body, or if Bruce is just hoping they will so one of his cars can be issued......Chris
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I can tell you that the sales of the Hawaiian and Chi Town Hustler funny cars that Revell did were not very good at all, so I don't think they would do another new tool that can't be reused for other things,

like the Chi Town Hustler it was a one off car that can't be used for anyone else's car... BUT !! the Hawaiian funny car kit could be used for many other cars... and they even could do a Camaro body for it and do Larson's car. Yes there are differences and it would need a lot of new tooling such as engine and wheels but it could be done.

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Chris and Jim - Not good to hear that those kits were slow movers. I believe Bruce is hoping they will do the USA-1 Camaro AND Corvette. I know I would buy both. He told me that someone had been there one time and took extensive measurements to make a model, but wanted Bruce to pay several thousand $ to do it. He told me who it was, I can't remember who. I hope to go back to his place next weekend and I'll ask. I plan to write Revell and encourage them to make the kits. If enough of us make enough noise, they should realize it might be worth it.

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The Camaro might sell. Revell does have a 1971 Camaro funny car in their stash, the Funny Hugger/JJ Camaro. Not a good model, but a Camaro. The 68/69 body would require a new tool including body, tin and hopefully engine. The most logical choice to lobby for an early Camaro is AMT/MPC. MPC's Dick Harrell Camaro, while a multipiece frame design, was a high water mark in the early funny car releases. The Johan kits may have been better but the MPC kit lacks only decals to make a good representation of the 69 Camaro. It really should be re-released as it has NEVER been re-issued.

As for the '71 Camaro, MPC released it in the early 70's. I had one and sold it as I was disappointted in its lack of accuracy. With the amount of correction needed, I felt it would be better to scratch build it. It is a much better box to display in the box than build.

MPC's Vette model, while a logical choice for USA-1 decals, doesn't compare to Revell's funny cars of the era that derived from the Duster/Charger chassis or the later Monogram funny cars. I don't think it would sell anywhere as well as either Camaro due to the inaccuracies. I hope Revell would release a host of other bodies before a Vette although a new body for the old Monogram Firebird/Olds funny car chassis would be a fairly accurate model. Remember Corvette funny cars were the exception rather than a rule. The only really successful Vette funny car was Tom McEwen's which did win the NHRA funny car championship. Most other 'Vettes self destructed.

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I am sorry to hear the Hawaiian and CTH did not sell well. Revell made a lot of hoopla when they announced those kits while at the same time announcing a partnership with the NHRA to launch some nostalgia nitro kits. We got those two new kits, and since then it has only been re-issues - JJ's Vega and McEwen's Duster and rear engine dragster - altho the dragster had not been reissued in many years, if ever. Revell does have a thing for nitro cars - they tooled up the Blue Max body about 10 years back to go on their exisitng '70s era chassis, so they could tool up a Vette for that. Did the 70 Camaro USA 1 sit on a logghe or a digger chassis? If the latter, they could use their 70s chassis, and if the former, the Hawaiian logghe. I don't see them using the Heavy Hugger Camaro body - it was cool but completey un-prototypical. I have long hoped for a 70 Camaro from Revell with JJ decals. I probably will be hoping for a long time.....

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The USA-1 Camaro I am refering to is this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MPC-Bruce-Larson-USA-1-Camaro-Funny-Car-/160735196607

Its a 1970 - I could not find a pic of the real thing, this is of the kit that MPC offered. I think that kit had a logghe chassis and it had a stock body - what did the real one have for a chassis?

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From all the pics I could find of Bruce's 1970 car, it had a Logghe chassis, a "space"-style with the square style roll-cage, like the polar light models, a lot of the F/C's in the early 1970 still ran the square type chassis, most ended up switching to the "digger" style chassis later in 1970.

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