Richard Bartrop

If it means more sales, and there's a stock version, I can live with it.

I could definitely get behind one of these, and it deserves a kit with lots of detail. My preference would be for a '71 or '72, because, let's face it, those '73 bumpers are not pretty.

That's the other thing. Sure, the carmakers don't like to take risks because they might fail (which is why it's called a risk), but when they do take a risk, and it succeeds, everyone else copies that winning idea, and before you know it, that bold new idea is now the new normal. Remember how radical the Taurus and Sable looked when they first came out? They made all those square looking cars that were the norm look like antiques, and people bought them. Then GM and Chrysler scrambled to make their versions of this radical new vision, and pretty soon the roads are full of these futuristic jellybeans, and people are complaining that all new cars look the same. So, even if we did do like some people have suggested, and go back to building multicolour pastel rocketships, and I would be okay with this, it wouldn't be long be before we get moans about how everything on the road looks like a multicolour pastel rocketship.

And a little reminder that "distinctive" is not necessarily the same as "good"

I do like that Cadillac, and the more I see of Foose's handiwork, the more it grows on me. It's like the work of some of the early custom builders, where you can't always tell that they did anything.

No argument there. It's not 100% accurate for how they came from the factory, but a perfect example of the sort of mods owners would do in later years.

A young punk of 57 here. Well said.

Thanks for the clarification.

It's a great kit, and that turned out nice.

A piece on Danny Thompson, son of Mickey Thompson, on his attempt to break his father's record. They mentioned he officially broke a record, though they were vague about the official number, though they did mention one run of 402 MPH, and one of 411. A check through Wikipedia lists the current piston driven record at 439 and change, so I'm not too sure which record they're talking about. Then again, we are talking CNN. Still, not a bad run for a nearly 50 year old car. http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/14/us/bonneville-danny-thompson-speed-record/

And shipping that tiny part will all least double the price, just for that little extra squeeze.

If the Godfather makes you sad, then you probably shouldn't watch the original The Italian Job.

Says the guy who still plays with toy cars.

I was watching "THX 1138" last night, and the customized Lola T-70s in the film are already fairly well known. but this red number in the background looked awfully familliar It is Tom Meade's custom Ferrari, the Thomassima II. What looks like a Fiberfab Avenger in another scene

National Geographic was publishing colour photos in the 1930's, but magazines were printed in colour, and there were ads with colour illustrations that gave you some idea what the manufacturers were offering, and it does seem that people went a little nuts with colour when Duco became available. It wasn't just cars, either. Check out this typewriter ad from 1927. The late '20s saw the emergence of what came to be known as "Industrial Design" and the realization that consumers didn't just want their machines to work well, but had to look good too.

And Real Modellers have the skills to make their own parts, so instead of wasting money on making expensive moulds, just put a block of styrene in the box along with a photo of the car. Actually, the internet already has plenty of reference material, like the excellent TB&RC (Tralfazz Belchfire & Roadhog Club) forum, and www.allbelch.com, so forget the photo. .

I built one of these back when they were still being sold under the Matchbox label. At the time, I'd also picked up an Entex RX-7 kit at a clearance sale. The Mazda was not a very good kit, but it had a very nice set of rubber tires, and the RX-7 wheels looked very close to a set of alloy wheels that could be had on some Tigers. They fit perfectly on the Tiger, and looked way better than the tires that came with that kit. If you can somehow find one of the Entex Mazda RX-7s at a reasonable price, it's something to consider. It's actually 1/28, which is why it fits. It was originally released by Nitto, and has also been sold by the Taiwanese companies Blue Tank, and HR.

Sorry, but you're wrong there., THe models used to be regarded as free advertising, and in the case of car models, while you did have some licensed customs, the car companies were in fact paying the kitmakers to produce promotional models.

To me, the whole point of a progress thread is to show how it's done, so a little detail is greatly appreciated. I don't pretend to like every single thing that's posted, but I'm sure there's stuff that I like that other people could do without. It all works out in the end.

Jo-Han's Cadillac V-16s come with a very nice set of Pilot-Ray lights.

There were some nice colour combos, but I'm afraid we're going to have to agree to disagree on this particular on, though black and silver can look very classy on the right car. You did see a revival of two toned paint jobs in the late 70s and early 80s. These might work on something like the latest generation of Cadillacs, or anything else with lots of creases.

Oh yes, regardless of whatever Henry Ford's motivation, more money was good for the workers, and workers with more money in their pockets was good for everyone. Something that seems to get overlooked int he currently debate about minimum wage is the potential benefit to business of a whole new class of workers having extra cash to spend.

When I was out today, I say a new Dart in a fluorescent yellow-green, so there are people who want something other than black or silver. In fact, there were quite a few, mostly subcompacts, that were bright red, or blue. Personally, I think this stuff goes in cycles. When things get too drab, people start wanting more colourful cars, until we reach a point where they overdo it, then people want something more subdued until we miss colour again, and the cycle repeats. Give it time, and we probably will see more colour return to the streets. Whatever the future holds, you can be sure that older, wiser heads will be there to tell us we're doing it wrong.

THe $5 work day was as much about reducing turnover in his plants as it was any love of the working man. Ford built factories all over the world, including the Soviet Union. So if he saw a way to build cars cheaper without having to deal with unions, I suspect he would think it's a great idea. But yes, moving manufacturing out of the US is very bad for the country.

It is good for Canada, and it's not like a lot of what's considered "American Iron" isn't already being built there.