Lizard Racing

Just like the Little Old Lady from Pasadena! Only she drove a Dodge.

The birdcage is one om my favorites also. Pure racing car. I can't even find all the chassis tubes, let alone build one! You seem to be off to a good start with the tooling.

Your attention to detail is staggering!

I just started on this project. I plan a mid-60s example of a gasser. As something different, I wanted to use the Stovebolt Six engine instead of the Big Block V8. I didn't want the old crash transmission, so I removed the B&M Hydrostick from the big block and grafted onto the six. Se the pix below. Right now I plan to use three Weber carbs for the intake. Not exactly a low-buck gasser, but that topic is open for now. Any suggestions? Before: And after:

I think I built one of these back in the day. A car like the Rat Packer was a transition from A/FX to funny cars as we know them today. When running in a class they were in the Altered category. For match racing, it was "anything goes." Thus as stated before, it's up to you as to whether you add this equipment. It depends on what you are replicating.

I just retired from a 30-year career as an Aerospace engineer. Now I clean up after the wife and work 2 days a week as a church missionary. I seem to be busier now than when I was working!

Continuing my habit of building specific race cars, here is the 1967 DX Corvette L-88. It won the GT class at the Sebring 12 hours in 1967. Following the race, the car was turned over to Dave Morgan who campaigned it in SCCA national races, winning the class AP Midwest Division Championship. I saw this car at the Lake Afton (Kansas) races that year, but I didn't realize I was looking at something famous. Refusing to retire, the car was taken to the Daytona 24 hours in 1968, where it also won the GT class. It beat the new '68 model Corvettes. The kit was Revell's '67 Corvette pretty much OOB except for racing modifications.

Nice start! I think you may have the oil pan reversed. Chevy engines had their oil sump/pickups at the rear of the engine. Check the instructions, there will be a fit problem.

The Lola T70 is one of my favorites too. I have one in John Surtees livery, the first Can-Am Champion.

We had a nice Hobbytown USA in Bountiful, but it had to close in July. If you are completely new to the hobby, first assemble a few basic tools. An X-acto knife and a sprue cutter will do to start. Them get a skill level 1 snap kit. This requires no gluing and is fairly easy to assemble. Build what you like so you will like what you build. Pay attention to this forum for advice and tips.

Nice effect with the packing crate. Interesting subject.

There's never been anything like Gremlins before or since! Check out my '75 I call a '74 in this forum.

To answer everyone's questions: The Ramchargers car, on which this is based, ran A/FX. The S/S cars had the four headlight grille and other "stock" features. In 1964 the S/S cars started with the 426 Max Wedge engines, until the Hemi came out mid-year. Don Schmid was my uncle. He lived the American dream. He and a buddy fixed up a car right after the war and sold it. Don took his share and bought another car and fixed it himself. That grew into Don Schmid Garage. When he was done, there was Don Schmid Motors (new & used), Don Schmid Salvage and Don Schmid Auto Recyclers. The contingency decals are "store bought" but I made the sponsor decals. Thanks for the kind comments.

My uncle used to have a Dodge dealership. I recently bought a Lindberg Ramchargers Dodge, so I decided to do a "what if" tribute. The kit is great, so it's pretty much OOB except for detailing the engine and adding the hood pins instead of the hinges.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I think everyone's done something similar. Like when I forgot to fully mask for the second of a two-color body.

I have the Revell '66 Penske and the '67 coupes. Both have the roof vents gone and an egg crate grille. I've been building the AMT annuals since '63 and find the Revell versions superior in quality and detail. The last AMT I got had lots of flash and mismatches.

Looks good, but this project brings back some bad memories for me.

Fittipaldi has always been one of my favorite drivers; a unique combination of skill, brains and guts. I kinda miss the sideburns and bell bottoms.

No matter what class it is, it looks tough. I remember Hot Rod doing a feature on a two-engined Fiat.

Luckily, Gremlins didn't change much in the early years. Some research can be done to see what styling changes need to be made to achieve the desired year. Or you can do what I did and call a '75 a '74. Ours was a base model with 6 cyl and auto. We were even too cheap to pay for an installed radio. We just hung a transistor (AM only!) from the mirror. Thanks for the kind comments.

For those of us still using rattle cans, how many cars do you paint per can? Do you get a new can each time, rather than trying to chance stretching a can too far? Is can weight a reliable indicator of how much is left? Or am I trying to be too cheap and get an airbrush?

I would assume the 1:1 still exists for scaling purposes.

Our LHS is closing and they had this AMT '75 Gremlin on sale. Our first new car was a '74 Gremlin, so I decided to do a homage replica. First, I had to call it a '74. The 1:1 car had a bench seat instead of the skinny kit buckets, so I modified a leftover seat from a '59 Chevy. I didn't have any narrow steel wheels, so i stripped the chrome off the kit wheels and painted them body color. I paper-punched some .030 sheet to simulate the dog dish hub caps. The '74 Cheapo had a different stripe from the X model, but it was an easy stencil to make. Anyway, I did meet my goal of completing it before our anniversary in August.

I've always liked the '60s Altereds. They're probably the most bizarre dragsters. I noticed you changed chassis from the Tony Nancy to the twin-engined AMT Double Dragster. I built a number of those in the day.

I once did an MPC Sportsback and it had a Vega engine. I don't remember what year it was. Yours is a nice representation. Everyone does the plush models, but the econos fall away.