CapSat 6

Good question! Should it fit? Well in 1:1, the 440 Six Pack engine will go where a Hemi once was. I looked at an unbuilt Fast & Furious Charger (it presumably will have the same block, heads, etc. as the new stock R/T). I pulled out a semi assembled AMT '70 Super Bee Six Pack motor (heads/valve covers/water pump/oil pan attached to the block). And found... ...that width-wise, there will be no problem. The transmission is approximately the same length. You might have to tweak how high it sits by either grinding down the motor mounts on the chassis, and/or the pads on the sides of the engine. Revell Hemis seem to have a nice way of tucking way down under the hood. Most Six Packs in scale don't seem to. Also- the 440 Six Pack block is longer than the Hemi Block by about 1/32". It's enough where it could be a problem. I myself would go for this swap. I would try to jam the whole block and tranny assembly back a little bit, shorten the driveshaft, and try to drop it down lower on the motor mounts a little. I think that will help with any problems you might have fitting the fanbelt and accessories up front, although you will have to watch where the rear of the air cleaner hits the firewall too. I would definitely try to dial this in before you get the engine wired, painted and assembled, from what I saw tonight, I would not call this a drop in, but it should be possible with some careful adjustments & fitting.

ex

Rough chronology:

I think the last of the MPC Gen II Cuda kits to have both the Slant 6 and the Hemi was the '69 Annual. IIRC, either the Judy Lilly or Boss Cuda came next in about 1972-73, and for those, they lost the Slant 6, ditched the other custom parts, and modified the body a bit (by getting rid of the molded in pinstripes / trim from the upper sides of the '69 body, as well as the '69 marker lenses and the windshield wipers). They also wiped the single exhaust from the chassis plate. After the Judy Lilly and Boss Cuda (Great Street Machines) issues, they added new custom body scoops, side pipes, and a pedestal-mount spoiler for the "Killer Cuda" issue (c 1977). The Killer Cuda is one of my favorites, as I built this one in my childhood, and it had really nice & colorful cartoon Barracuda graphics, based on some of Plymouth's advertising from the late 60's. Round 2 could do worse than to rebox the kit with these graphics. Next up was the "Avenger" Cuda (c 1980)- molded in orange, it was mostly the same as the Killer Cuda, just with different (6-lug!) modular wheels. AMT/ ERTL acquired the MPC tooling after this, and made many modifications to bring the '69 Cuda back to stock (c 1987). They ditched the Hemi engine, tooling a new B/ RB engine in it's place, that looks to have been copied from the MPC '71-75 Road Runner and '77-'78 Dodge Monaco engine. They added back engraving for the side marker lenses and windshield wipers & emblems, added back the stock "Recall" wheels, and kept the custom parts for another building version. The added dual exhausts to the chassis plate then. They reissued the kit several times in this form. The latest Retro Deluxe '69 apes the original 1969 Annual box art. It comes with decals that are enhanced copies of the original '69 sheet (but no stock stripes), and while it's mostly like the 1987-up reissues, they have opened the tooling gates so that some of the original '69 custom parts (and some, but not all of the Hemi and Slant-6 parts) are back. They also threw in some new 5 spoke mags, that look like the same ones they're including with some of their other recent issues. To me, the Hemi was no great loss from this kit (a lot of people complain that Hemis come in every kit now, soooo....take your pick, there are much nicer ones available). The Slant 6 would be a nice building option, but again, there are much better ones available now. The parts in the Retro Deluxe kit will give you an idea of the quality of those original engines. I'd like to see them improve the kit by retooling the inner fenders on the chassis plate - they just don't look right, not at all like A body inner fenders, also, the grille is very tired and the grille surround on the body is a mess. Make those changes, throw in newly-tooled "Cuda" package hood scoops & graphics, and it will have new life. Sticking a new chassis under the MPC/ AMT Gen II Barracuda does wonders. The Revell '68 Dart Chassis is excellent. Even the chassis from the MPC Dart Sport is a big improvement. Just be prepared for some cutting and grinding in order to do this...

I agree...the LA series is something of a "lost engine" in 1/25 scale. The LA's in the old MPC Darts, Dusters, Vans & Volares were way underscale. Same as in the IMC (later Lindberg) A-100. The AMT '71 Duster scales a bit better (it should be AT LEAST the physical outside size of a Small Block Chevy), but to me, that engine doesn't look quite right. I think the engines in the Monogram 1/24 Challenger T/A and '80 Ramcharger, although simplified, at least LOOKED right. I have spent enough time messing around with 1:1 LA's to know. So- Revell NEEDS to do a '70 Swinger 340, at least so we can get a 340 out of it. ? And- if they put all of the engine parts on one tree and sold it separately as a parts pack, that would truly be awesome. I'd buy as many as I could. Problem is: the last time Revell went to the well with parts packs (late '90's?), when they rolled out the vintage Ford 427/ Caddy/ Pontiac/ Chev Small block kits...crickets. I think those packs even sold for around $3-$4 a piece at the time, and still, they did not seem to sell. I think all they really did was to serve to devalue the specific old original copies of said packs.

MPC also did Cudas in 1/25...they did every year annually from 1968 to 1974. The '68's, '70's and '71's were never reissued in stock form, so they can be pricy, but you can still find reasonably priced builts once in awhile. The '68 was turned into the '69 annual kit, which, while altered a bit from it's original form, is still mostly a stock '69. It was changed into a pseudo- '68 Super Stock for awhile in the '70's, but these kits really were '69's with a few Super Stock parts and '68 turn signals (the grille & taillights were never converted back from '69 form). The '70 was issued stock for one season (most of these in lime green plastic, maybe a small few in white?). The body was used for a funny car kit (I think Candies & Hughes, definitely blue plastic), then turned into the '71 annual (Mostly in white plastic, perhaps offered in another color as well), then the '71 body was used as a funny car body for the Don Schumacher funny, again in blue plastic. The '71 body was then revised for the '72 annual. For 72-73-74 annuals, the body was mostly unchanged, I think the differences between those years were mostly in the bumpers and custom parts. The body was again used as a funny car body (red plastic, the Dunn & Reath car), and also, a Motown Missile Pro Stock kit was done, using mostly a new hood, intake and wheels, but still the same stock interior and stock chassis with full exhausts (incorrect for a pro stock car). Things get interesting from here. The body was revised to drop onto a common stock car chassis, as a "super stock" racecar. The body was wiped of all emblems, door handles, etc. The headlight buckets were paneled in. After that, in the early '80's, MPC tried to restore the stock appearance of the '74 body. The headlight buckets were never fixed right, as the headlights now sat flat on the buckets instead of being slightly tunneled in. There were two issues: a "Hemi Cuda" in blue, with stock chassis and various street and drag options, and a "Pro Street Barracuda" in orange, which had a new tubbed chassis, race interior, and the old Motown Missile hood. They weren't done with this tool yet: in the '90's, the kit was revised into a promo-style "Snap Fast Plus", with no custom parts or engine detail. This was issued at least twice, now branded as an AMT kit. I saw that Round 2 was talking about reissuing this kit again, maybe they're working on improving the tooling a little? Most of these are fairly common at swap meets and auction sites. The detail might not be be what you're used to with the new Revell kits, but personally, I think the body shapes on the MPC kits are MUCH better. (I think the Jo Han kits have great body shapes too). You could combine the MPC bodies with the guts of the Revell kits to make a nice '72-'74. The only real caveat is that you would have to work on the shape of the headlight buckets to tunnel them in more for any of the '80's and '90's issues, and also, the engines and chassis that come with those MPC kits are REALLY dated now.

Dis you ever see the Mopar rim blow for '71?:

This is why I pick up Revell '68 Darts whenever possible, especially if I see them at Michael's or A.C. Moore (hello- 40% off coupon!), especially the Hemi Dart kit (that one comes both with a Hemi / 4-Speed combo and a wedge with Torqueflite). I must have about a dozen of those engines ready to go... The fun part in having all of these Hemis is: puttIng them in cars which usually don't have them. I have a '78 Magnum (resin), a '74 Charger SE (being converted) and a '77 Monaco that will all get Hemis eventually... ?

Still missing the center caps on the Rallye Wheel. I can't unsee it!!! ?

The way I see it, we're not going to see tons of optional parts any more. The trade off for the past 25 years or so has been more detail. I don't mind that most new kits only come with one engine, set of wheels, or intake any more. I happen to like the greater detail, better chassis, etc. For that matter: yes, the product planners are going to keep pressing the Hemi button, as that will get the most attention for their new, risky, costly products. If that's what it takes to get new products to market at a reasonable price, then I guess I'll be building more Hemi cars!!!

Ok, here's what I know: - The caps in question were on one of Paul's builds. From what I remember of the listing, he mentioned the wheels being resin, but he could not remember where he got them. - I saw a set on eBay maybe about a year ago. The seller only listed them the one time as far as I could see. I would buy them if the listing ever came up again, but I have not seen them come up. The seller was from Germany. They looked like very good quality. Maybe he mastered these for his own use and sold off a few sets? It might be that the seller is really not a commercial caster. Many years ago, a friend of mine tried to scratch build these caps to cast. They looked pretty good from what I remember. He might still have the master for all I know. He's not really a car modeler anymore. I think at this point, Chief Joseph would be our best bet for these. I could see a LOT of '70 Coronets, Chargers, and Challengers using these, as well as '71 Chargers. I have a Modelhaus 4 Door Coronet that would look great with these caps.

Hubcaps usually get no consideration from the manufacturers for new designs if there was a styled wheel option available. Maybe Fireball Modelworks will come to the rescue with this one? It would be nice also if they came with either decals or photo reduced items for the centers- either saying "Dodge" or "Challenger" optionally... ...and I always thought it was funny that almost all of the '70 lit showed Rallye wheels without center caps. There are several factory photos of '70 cars with Rallyes and no center caps. I can't imagine that these were designed for the caps to be optional??? They just look too unfinished without center caps...

Yeah, but...that's how we used to like to build them!

I'm figuring we will never see a 318 in scale (except in 1/24, in the Monogram Ramcharger) but a 340 would be easy enough to dress to look like one. ?

The hood blackouts & callouts would be stock, although rare. I'm glad they're being included!

Oh- this SOOOO begs for a new-tool 1970 Dodge Dart Swinger. Hey Revell- we need one of these even if it's just to supply us with a nice Mopar small block. I bought LOTS of AMT '71 Dusters and Revell '68-'69 Darts for their A-Body chassis and engines!!!

Do I detect a note of sarcasm? These are instructions, after all... If so...then good one!

I'm really excited about the separate door scoops. For absolutely once, a manufacturer has made it easier to make a lesser model by leaving parts off. Grab a '68 Dart for the engine and rear, and you're on the way to a 383-powered Charger, SE or Charger 500. Also, I'd like to try those scoops on some different cars...

Thank you! And I agree- I would have liked to have seen a plastic kit, even a promo- style snap kit. As long as the body proportions are right, I would prefer a plastic kit. If engineered right, it could be offered as a '76 Royal Monaco (Illinois State Police from the Blues Brothers, also, many other agencies used Royals in the mid 70's), and / or a 70's Gran Fury (also used by many State, city, and county agencies back then).