Mark

Someone could have come up with a wiring harness to plug a cheaper alternator into a Yugo. No telling if they would have sold enough of them to make it worth the effort, though. If someone did think of it, they obviously never followed through on the idea.

I'd bet it hit the anticipated sales target. It's aimed primarily at the TV/movie model crowd, the car guys wanted it too but that's really a secondary market for this kit. And, like the Batmobile kits, there will be follow-up versions with added items like display bases and collector tins. It's a shame it took so long to get a 1/25 scale kit, but it's still an iconic car. Not quite up there with the Batmobiles or 007 Aston Martin, but very close.

A guy I worked with bought an X1/9 new in '79. He initially wanted a Mazda RX-7, but that was a hot item at the time, and the Fiat dealer talked him into the X1/9. I rode to work in it every other week for much of two summers (and in the winter every so often), and even got to drive it once. Fun car. I tested a Pontiac Fiero when those hit the market, and it wasn't nearly as lively. I believe his X1/9 was a carburetor car, if it had FI he probably would have had problems with that. Everyone bags on Fiats being unreliable. That one never, never left him stranded. But, there were never, NEVER two weeks straight where everything worked on that car. More than likely it needed electrical attention: A/C went out often, and the gauges (which, I remember, swept from right to left) were intermittent on occasion. It got worse after the car hit a deer on the way to work. After that, the headlights had to be raised manually. After a while, he just left them up. The dealer that sold the car folded, he found the other area dealer. Even for incidental repairs, that guy couldn't count to numbers less than $100. That car fought that poor guy right to the end. He sold it in the mid/late Eighties for $1,200. He handed the title over before trying to cash the (rubber) check.

Imperials were not Unibody until 1967. The BB is a '65 or '66, that generation actually goes back to 1957 underneath. Revell's Imperial kit has incorrect Unibody chassis detail. There were styling studies and clays done for a proposed '62 Unibody Imperial, but Chrysler had to drastically revise its '62 plans due to their financial situation. Neither the Imperial nor the Chrysler got a new body for '62, and the Chrysler got a hasty restyle using new quarter panels and some Dodge panels, to get rid of the fins from '60-'61.

I don't know about Europe, but over here there are probably fewer people waiting for this, than were waiting for Alfa Romeo to make a comeback here.

Drag racers didn't understand aero in the Sixties or early Seventies. The streamlined dragster bodies were mostly teardrop shaped but were then going down the track backwards. The "canard" funny car spoilers and dragster front wheel "pants" were disasters waiting to happen.

1972 sounds way early for the demise of the Gas classes. I believe they were in place through the end of the Seventies. Most of the Js built for Gas ran in the early/mid Sixties, they weren't the greatest choice (decent engine setback put the engine partway under the dashboard). But, being an orphan car, they were cheap because they had no resale value back then. None of them ever won any high-profile meet, but there were a bunch of them running at the local and regional levels. There was one high-dollar, show-quality J in the early Seventies, I'm not sure if it was a Gasser or Altered. I don't recall it having a spoiler. NHRA was on the arbitrary side in some ways back then. George Montgomery wanted to run a front air dam on his Willys after testing it in a wind tunnel, NHRA wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow laying the windshield back on a top chop saying it would be "streamlining", disregarding the fact that the chop in and of itself was "streamlining".

Some dealers called those fiberglass shells "hats". The installer would just drill holes in the roof to attach it, to give the padded roof an attachment point. Cadillac dealers would sell cars with "a hat, a (fake Continental) spare, and a spear" (hood ornament). But when they started leasing more cars, they wouldn't let lessees put that junk on because it dragged the resale value of the returned car down to near nothing.

AMT knew they were on to something, as kids were customizing those early promo models. They took it a step further with the customizing kit, a '55 or '56 Thunderbird that included clay to do the "restyling". Molding the whole car in styrene (ditching the metal chassis, pot metal bumpers, and cellophane windows), adding an interior, plating the trim pieces, and adding a few optional parts got them the rest of the way there.

Just as I thought...a few items hit the shelf right after the Valentine's Day themed coupon expired. Kenworth mixer, 1/16 scale '57 Thunderbird, Falcon drag team, and Sandkat dragster. I grabbed one each of the latter two. Still wish they'd get some Duplicolor sprays in, though...

There's no real way of knowing if/when it will be reissued again. Each issue is produced in batches of a particular number (say 5,000 at a time). The last few hundred are where the profit is. If the most recent production run was slow to sell out, they would be reluctant to issue it again so soon afterwards. But only Round 2 has the info regarding sales of each item.

Yes, the GTX did have that hood. It, and the grille, were pretty much the differences between it and that year's Roadrunner kit.

That's a first issue kit, it doesn't have the cut line engraved on the underside of the hood for the supercharger option. The chassis screws may be in a subsequent issue or two, the separate taillight lenses went away in the mid-Seventies as did the "1965" on the bumpers. I'm not positive on the promo, but the kit always had bucket seats. It's not an SS though. El Caminos could be had with the bucket seats and (later) the 396 engine. But they weren't available as an SS until '68. The wagon and El Camino are different tooling from one another, though parts do interchange. The engines are a bit different here and there, as are the chassis. The little parts tree with the supercharger parts is the same, and floats back and forth between the two kits.

Those fake convertible tops look even better with a sunroof. I have seen a couple of them...

The really dumb thing about the under-the-bed spare is that cable holding it up, with the little metal piece that goes through the center of the wheel being crimped on. There ought to be a swing-down cradle underneath the tire.

If you do some digging, one of the previous issue kits should turn up at about the price of the average currently available car kit.

The Imperial chassis and inner body were pretty much the same 1957-1966. SMP made the kits through '61 but none had an engine. The '62 (a handful of convertible kits came in SMP boxes, but the vast majority were AMT) did have an engine. The same engine and chassis were used with some minor changes through '66, then in the Hero/Western Pickup version. If you could find one of those with a damaged or missing body, those parts would work. You would not want the Revell '62 Imperial (or a possible Atlantis reissue of same) as it has incorrect Unibody detail (and maybe even a manual transmission, I'm not 100% certain on that though).

I've never seen a single engine with two crank-driven blowers, but there was a dragster with two engines (inline, not side-by-side) with a single blower.

I'd bet that, wherever they are now, at least a couple of them still have those window stickers in place...

That sectioning job looks great, it reminds me of that 1:1 early Fifties Oldsmobile that Valley Custom built. Regarding the sprue filler: I was big into that stuff and did use it properly (not winding up with warpage due to its shrinking while setting) but have since moved on to epoxy putty. Pick a good one (white Milliput ain't bad) and apply it properly, and it's great. It's the closest thing to the styrene itself when it comes to trying to scratch in panel lines, which is one part of these jobs that I don't look forward to.

The "for '68" box might show a stock-looking version, but it's closer to a '67 than a '68. That kit did have stock bumpers, as well as stock ('67) rally wheels and taillights. The grille was the '67 piece with a bar added going across. The interior pattern is not stock either. In fact, that Camaro kit was issued later as a custom Firebird with a lot of parts changed, but the interior was the same as the Camaro's custom unit.

Have they been using those in their undersize truck engines? If so, it's probably a factor in the F-series not being the best-selling vehicle after close to 40 years...

Those were the same as in the Badman. The Monogram '55 never had red lenses for any of the taillights included, stock or custom.

The '40 has a sectioned hood, but the body actually appears to be channeled (floor raised within the body) with the fenders then being installed higher up on the body. The running boards are eliminated also. I'd go the same route with the '36: channel the body (don't take a horizontal section out of it to reduce its height, but rather raise the floor which will lower the entire body). Then install the fenders in their original position relative to the frame, lose the running boards, then section the hood side panels and grille to tie it all together.

Stirred, not shaken...