Brian Austin

Well, if you want big modern brakes, you're going to need big modern wheels to fit over them. :-)

There used to be a chain in the Boston area called HobbyTown. I think they're not related to the current chain, but may be related to HobbyTown of Boston, an HO scale model railroad supplier (that's no longer located in Boston!).

I think it's likely a Chevrolet chassis/cab with Cadillac front clip.

This is precisely the attitude that irks me. It comes across as patronizing and condescending. Electric vehicles are as "real" as IC vehicles! To me, a "real car guy" finds all types of vehicular propulsion of interest. To me, gasoline, steam, and electric power all have fascinating histories and technical aspects. Heck there was even a guy tinkering with a land speed record racer powered by rubber bands. More power to him for thinking out side of the box. People complain about the "silent" aspects of electric cars, when ICE cars can just be just too noisy at times. I'm sure neighbors LOVE it when cars loudly rev their engines when exiting car shows. :-P But to me, as it pertains to the car hobby, this doesn't have to be a "this OR that" type of thing. We can enjoy all kinds. Electric cars aren't replacing IC cars in the hobby. You can enjoy your sounds and sensations driving your IC car, while other folks can enjoy their sounds and sensations as well. Anyway, I did happen to see an unusual EV-conversion this afternoon ad a microcar event at the Lars Anderson Museum in Massachusetts. This is the owner's website with the car's history. It apparently was built in the '70s. https://www.maxmatic.com/vespa_400/index.html (Counterbalancing this EV was a Trabant sedan that had also attended the Microcar meet, belching acrid smoke from its tailpipe on its way down the street as I happened to be briefly behind it on my way home.) Further EV reading: Jaguar E Type EV: https://www.jaguar.com/about-jaguar/jaguar-classic/authentic-cars/e-type-zero.html Aston Martin EV conversion (and it's even reversible!): https://www.autoblog.com/2018/12/05/aston-martin-ev-conversions-electric-1970-db6-volante/ And, for fun... Mister Rogers briefly drove a prototype EV in one of his show's episodes: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/03/29/lost-and-found-overflow-that-time-mr-rogers-visited-a-mystery-ev-builder/ (Note in the comments section,at the bottom, the builder is identified, and he seems like an interesting guy as well. Also, in another point in that episode, Mister Rogers picks up Trolley from its track and turns it over to show the TV viewer the electric motor and chain drive that runs it.)

While I try to track down the origin of the Wheel Ants illustration, here is an actual period "suggestion" from the pages of Popular Mechanics. Compiled in the volume Motorist's Handbook, ca.1948. Combine two bad tires to make one "good" one!

The 1:32 line of Matchbox kits is probably not as well known as other manufacturers' kits, but I recall they were pretty nicely done. IIRC the tooling went to Revell. This site has pictures of built-up examples. (Packard is on the second page): http://www.matchboxkits.org/index.php?cPath=86&osCsid=oopp424btq9deapgm7e59opp27

Any worse than home-built hot rods? Can't be easy to build a car from scratch.

Links for reference. Note there is more than one type of tow truck pictured here: https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/northside-performance-towing-chicago https://www.merchantcircle.com/northside-performance-towing1-chicago-il

This page has been posted a few times of late I guess, but if you haven't seen it, it has scanned dimension drawings of various Ford pickup models, and links to diagrams showing the F350 chassis (1964 and 1966): http://www.fordification.info/tech/bodybuilder.htm

I said "sadly" because the Blog reports on a variety of topics relating to the hobby, and the complaining relating to stories that don't involve internal combustion power gets a little old. The small number of EV-converted classics described in the articles won't replace all classics. I like the variety of topics presented on the Hemmings Blog. There's more to life than muscle cars! :-)

The Hemmings Blog has been running articles on classic Jaguars and Aston Martins that are being built with modern RV drivetrains. Sadly the Hemmings Blog commenters tend to be mostly negative in those posts.

Aren't Chevy Suburbans "real" SUVs? Depending on era, they came in 2-, 3-, or 4 doors. Also, does the Rally Fighter count as a two-door SUV? I've seen one like this, in plain white, driven by a middle-aged woman out in the suburbs. I have no idea whether she goes off road with it, but she does use it literally as a grocery-getter.

IIRC the Lee '58 Cadillac was not a re-pop but a mere copy of the IMEX version, at lower quality. I have two of the IMEX ones, and my impression was that the chassis and mechanicals were quite close in scale to the Revell '59s, while the body was way too wide, even for the stated 1:24 scale. The Jada '58 Cadillac does look interesting.

Bear in mind when converting the old AMT "unibody" F100 the roof and door panels need to be modified to match the separate-cab items. And while I'm at it, I've been waiting decades to build this.

There's also the Boeing-Kenworth partnership that experimented with turbines. Lighter weight and more compact design were said to be advantages, but were offset by poor economy among other issues. Also, three American LaFrance fire trucks were built with turbines.

https://fuchsia.bandcamp.com/album/fuchsia-2 Fuchsia, 1971. Fuchsia recorded one album and then split up. The band's leader, Tony Durant, then became aware of the album's resurgence in the internet era. The original album has now been reissued and new material recorded. Scroll down the linked page for band history and a documentary film: http://www.fuchsiamusic.com/

Today's big wheels may not age well either. :-)

Uh-oh... They're bringing out the eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows And a paragraph on the back of each one, if I may paraprhrase Arlo Guthrie. :-)

Today I'm in the mood for this one. Part of Ghia's "Supersonic" series, a single Aston Martin chassis was given the treatment in 1956. Similar bodies were fitted to Jaguar and FIAT chassis, with slightly differing proportions and details. https://www.motor1.com/news/38458/one-off-1956-aston-martin-db2-4-mkii-supersonic-by-carrozzeria-ghia-up-for-auction/ also https://rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/ny13/new-york---art-of-the-automobile/lots/r101-1956-aston-martin-db24-mk-ii-supersonic-by-carrozzeria-ghia/296142

This appears to be a Buddy-L station. This display is set up every year at the show in Taunton, MA (formerly known as the MassCar show).

Is that livery authentic?

What are the two small models (#7, #8) in the middle-bottom row of the display?

Yup that's a film/TV trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMountainsOfIllinois And it's a known fact that films are shot in locations nowhere near the setting. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CaliforniaDoubling Countless productions were shot in Toronto that actually took place in various places in the US, and then there were movies taking place in New York City that were actually shot in Boston. A recent film set in the '60s in Detroit was partially filmed in the Boston area. I happened to watch a herd of period-dressed extras head toward a local courthouse for courtroom scene shooting. Women wore beehive wigs. I wished I had grabbed my camera. Other towns had period police vehicles and other cars parked around for exterior shots.

Here's a kit that doesn't have much of a chance of reissue. It was produced here in Massachusetts in the late '40s or so, in a range of old-time horse-drawn fire truck kits and other wagons. These were produced in rough cut wood shapes, plastic wheels and other materials such as cast plaster items and rubber hose sections. Small detail parts come packed in a war-surplus field ration wrapper. Two members of my model club knew the son of Mr. William H. Low, the manufacturer, who produced these kits in his basement. There was even a brief period magazine article on him and how he made his kits. I borrowed this kit and three others for study and photography. I have seen a small number of built-up models of these kits in the collections of area fire museums, though the staffs there don't appear to know anything about them. I have also stumbled upon a blog of someone who kitbashes these kits into various types of fire wagons, so there's at least one person building these.

I'm reading a lot of the complaints here with a shrug: "Yeah, so?" I can picture a bunch of typography fans on some forum rolling their eyes at signage shown in movies: "That typeface wasn't used in 1961! How dare they!" :-P It's going to be virtually impossible for a film maker to 100% accurately re-create the past, and the general audience won't know the difference. Is the story itself compelling? That's what's important. So, sure, we'll have classic cars bearing current-day license plates, inspection stickers and other anachronisms, slightly-too-modern trains in Western movies, aircraft rebuilt to resemble rarer types, etc.. Actual buildings used as sets are often re-dressed, with certain modern details covered over. Results are often not graceful, but they made an effort. Watching movies involves a bit of suspension of disbelief. As someone who graduated art school with a degree in photography, one scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang jumped out at me. The photographer at the 1:45 mark is using his camera incorrectly: He puts the cloth over his head and shoots the picture. The problem is, when you have the film (or glass plate) holder inserted in the camera, you can't see through it to focus the image on the ground-glass screen on the back of the camera (when the photographer ducks under the focusing cloth). There doesn't appear to be there's even a film holder in the camera any way. There are a few steps involved in shooting a large-format camera that are omitted in the movie. Point and shoots they are not! How dare they! :-P Shifting gears, be sure to check out the old film serials of the '30s and '40s, often referred to as the Republic Serials. These often featured vehicles. The legendary Lydecker brothers filmed the special effects sequences for many of these serials. Large models were used, and at least one miniature vehicle has survived, a '30s Ford woodie wagon: https://www.yourprops.com/Miniature-Car-from-3-1940-s-original-movie-prop-Spy-Smasher-1942-YP55035.html Background info and pictures: http://nzpetesmatteshot.blogspot.com/2010/09/big-boys-toys-howard-and-theodore.html Film reel of special effects sequences involving their miniatures...and lots of explosions! (Skip to around the 3 min mark or so). One final note, regarding "classic" vehicles wrecked in modern films: Many of these vehicles are owned by "picture car" rental agencies that can build or modify vehicles to suit, often rebuilding a car numerous times to repair stunt damage.