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Reissue of Warren Tope's '73 Trans-Am Mustang


'70 Grande

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I've seen in descriptions of this soon-to-be-reissued kit, that it'll have pad-printed Firestone tires inside of it. (I believe the original issue of this kit came with Goodyears).

My question is this: has anyone seen 1/25 pad-printed Firestones on the market recently that may very well be the same tires, (Trans-Am, racing-style), that will be inside of this kit? Or, do you think that it's possible that these will be new Firestone racing tires that we haven't seen before?

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That's a good question(s), as AMT's only new tire parts pack is #13, which is supposed to be "1/25 Red Line Tires." Maybe they are printing the "Firestone" lettering on an existing set of their newer, smaller diameter drag slicks? Not sure how well that would look, though. I wouldn't expect an all-new set of period correct T/A tires, though.

AMT896WarrentTope1973MustangSellSheet.jp

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Guess I just need to be more patient and wait for this kit's January reissue release! I pretty much know what to expect in this reissue; I remember building the original release long ago and liked it then. This is a pretty straight-forward and basic kit that can be built into a fairly-accurate race car with a little extra effort.

The one thing that I am puzzled about are these "pad-printed" Firestone tires. I feel as though tires can "make-or-break" a kit, and I'm really curious what the tires inside this reissue will look like; I hope they do a good job of representing a 1:1 Trans-Am racing tire.

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It's all about exposure, these boxes display well at a hobby shop, where the standard sized ones, just get stacked and blend in, with other kits on the shelf.

Yet in both of my LHS the larger "art" boxes, as well as the collector tins Round2 has done have all been exiled either down to the end (or on the hand onto a separate shelving unit entirely) with the similar sized import kits and large scale domestic kits are lurking. That might not be drawing the correct eyeballs if you personally don't buy import and/or large scale kits.

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The original kit was a modified "stock" 73 Mustang to replicate the Transam raced by Warren Tope. As such it had a stark interior with a roll cage and seat and not much else. The big three pulled out of sponsoring the TA series after 1970 so it pretty much died out a few years later and was "replaced" by IMSA. The ponysite website has more info about this car and the history of TA racing in the 60's and 70's. I'd love to see the original car restored and raced again. http://www.ponysite.de/transam_tope.htm

This site is incredible http://www.racingsportscars.com/type/photo/Ford/Mustang.html?page=3

http://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/results/Warren-Tope-USA.html

I wonder if he has some "in" with AMT as best I can tell Tope raced this car five times and his best finish was 26th in the 1st race at Atlanta in 1973. He finished 1st in three races in 1970-1972 but that was in a 1970 Mustang powered by a Boss 302.

http://www.darkhorseracing.net/warren_tope.htm

http://www.supermotors.net/getfile/858939/fullsize/tope-lime-rock-pits--copy.jpg

You can always get out the hot knife and build a dirt track racer too.

http://thirdturn.wikia.com/wiki/File:Stick_Elliott_,Mustang_Late_Model,_1977_Metrolina_Speedway,_Charlotte,N.C..jpg

http://www.randyayersmodeling.com/modelingforum/viewtopic.php?t=36828

Edited by vamach1
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Yet in both of my LHS the larger "art" boxes, as well as the collector tins Round2 has done have all been exiled either down to the end (or on the hand onto a separate shelving unit entirely) with the similar sized import kits and large scale domestic kits are lurking. That might not be drawing the correct eyeballs if you personally don't buy import and/or large scale kits.

Ah the lost art of window-dressing

;)

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The original issue of this kit had the hollow Goodyear Stock Car Special tires (tooled in the late Sixties, last seen as rear tires in the Meyers Manx kit) with plastic sidewall caps (similar to those included in a number of mid-Sixties AMT kits) with Firestone lettering.

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Can this kit be built stock? I remember there were two different kits of this body style Mustang released about 10 years ago, one could be built stock, the other could not

The yellow one (ex amt), RC2 put on the market, not, only the ex mpc kit

Edited by Luc Janssens
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  • 2 weeks later...

The "yellow car on the box" RC2 issue Mustang (called a '73) is the AMT kit, the same one that is being reissued as the Warren Tope racer. The built model shown on the box is an MPC kit however. Around the same time as that yellow one was issued, RC2 also issued the ex-MPC "1971" Boss 351. That kit's box art featured a metallic blue car, again built from an MPC kit (but, unlike the '73, this one matched the contents of the box).

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That's the '73 annual. It could be built stock, and there was a drag version included too. The Warren Tope racing issue deleted the stock parts, gutted the stock interior bucket, and replaced a few things like the wheels. The roll cage in the annual and Tope versions was hacked together from the drag roll bar. A better cage was tooled for a later issue; that's probably what will be in the reissue.

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Where does this kit fit in? Is this considered the AMT '73 Mustang "annual" so to speak, even though it appears it can only be built as a race car? Did this kit precede the Warren Tope version?

d1f88c4d-aee9-45a4-ac85-d3fb624a5ecf.jpg

Here is a picture of the body out of my issue of this kit.

DSCN2368-vi.jpg

Edited by afx
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  • 2 weeks later...

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