Force

I do have a magazine article about this car and I checked it out yesterday as I don't want to give out false information, the Super Stock & Drag Illustrated July 1970 issue article says Joe Fisher was going to do the driving as you said. But the information regarding classification of the car is conflicting in this article, the text at one place says the car was built for SS/E and makes the class by less than 10 pounds...but at another place in the same article it says it will run in SS/F...a bit confusing if you ask me. I have never seen any pictures of this car with anyting else than SS/E classification on the windows and 138 or 605 numbers, or nothing at all...but on the other hand there are not many pictures of this car around...but that's not important as the car indeed ran in the SS/E class during it's short lifetime with the Sox & Martin team and we can leave it with that.

Can be true, but as far as I know the car was only used for a very short period around the 1970 US Nationals, and I have never seen any pictures of the Super Stock Superbird with any other weight break than E, and after what I have read both Super Stock Superbird's (the Sox & Martin car and Jack Werst car) were built with one purpose, to take out Ray Allen's SS/E 454 LS 6 Chevelle Convertible...if it's true or not I don't know. Sox & Martin had many different drivers for their cars, Ronnie Sox, Herb McCandless, Don Carlton and some more drove for them, I don't exactly know who drove the SS/E Superbird, the numbers I have seen on the car are 138 and 605.

Sox & Martin used both silver and gold lettering on the doors and quarter panels on their cars but I don't know if any of the colors were used more than the other. The different 68 and 69 Barracuda's had both gold and silver lettering, the 70 and 71 Barracuda's had silver, the 72 barracuda had gold, the 67 Belvedere/GTX's, 68, 69 and 71 Road Runner's and GTX's had silver, the 70 Superbird's had silver, the 70 and 71 Duster's had silver, the 72 and 73 Dusters had gold and most of the cars after that like the Colt, Challenger and Omni also had gold lettering. As I said, Slixx had a decal set for the Road Runner, GTX and Superbird but it looks like they are out on that one because I can't find it, the number is #SM3/1483. Bill: Of course they were 4-speed as was most of the Sox & Martin cars...it was Ronnie Sox and Herb McCandless driving and they were the best 4-speed shifters out there. But I don't think either the SS/E or the C/MP car had any console.

I have done some research on the subject and there are some pictures on the internet of the Sox & Martin Superbird...s...yes they had two different cars, but there aren't that many pictures around of them. One of the Superbirds ran in Super Stock / E (SS/E) and was one of only two Super Stock Superbird's built (Jack Werst got the other and ran in SS/EA), that car was not used for very long, just a couple of months in 1970 and it's the car the Jo-Han kit is supposed to be, the other Sox & Martin Superbird ran in C / Modified Production (C/MP) and it was used for a longer period. The SS/E car had no hood scoop and a painted blue metallic roof, the C/MP car had a Six Pack hood scoop and a black vinyl top. The engine setup was also different, the SS/E car had a 426 Hemi with a Rat Roaster intake manifold and dual 4bbl Carters as it was a Super Stock car, and the C/MP car had a 426 Hemi with Individual runner intake manifold and dual 4bbl Holley Dominators, pretty much the same setup as the Revell Sox & Martin 70 Barracuda has. Slixx has some sets of Sox & Martin decals and they had one set for the Superbird, Road Runner and GTX (#SM3/1483) but I don't know if they still have it in stock. Here are a couple of pictures of the cars. Note that none of the cars has the rearward facing scoops on top of the front fenders. The SS/E car. And the C/MP car.

Color pictures of the engine in the 70'Cuda from back in the day is hard to find, belive me I have looked, but from the black and white pictures I have found so far where you actually see the engine block and heads it looks too dark to be orange, and as Jake King was known to paint the engines he built Ford engine blue it's possible the engine was blue...but it's hard to tell from black and white pictures so I can't be sure. Another thing...Sox & Martin did both lots of match racing and regular NHRA/AHRA races so there can be differences between the different setups. The Revell model is patterned from the restored car wich have orange engine block, aluminum heads and waterpump so either way would work and as it's your model you do as you please.

I used Tamiya tires at the rear on this build.

As far as I know NASCAR owns the rights to the shape and construction of the generation 6 cars together with the teams who builds them so you can't do even generic cars without licensing from NASCAR, Toyota, Chevrolet and Ford, but you also may be needing licensing from Hendricks Motorsports, Toyota Racing Development, Roush-Fenway, Joe Gibbs Racing and so on even if you leave out the decals. But if the licensing is shared it could cut the cost some, the question is if it's enough to develop a new kit. It's a weard time we live in when you have to pay lots of money for exactly nothing just to be able to do a model kit of something, it was a time when there were less greed and the model manufacturers could do model kits without having to pay huge ammounts of money just to be allowed to use the name of the tires, the brand of car and so on for the model kits...it's kind of free advertising if you ask me, and you could even call it product placing, that's done all the time in movies and the brand owners even pay for it and give out their products for free. I for one learned of many of the car related brands through my models, what kid who built models back then didn't know what for example Good Year and Firestone did. I'm more into the "dark side" of NASCAR as not many of the later race cars from the 1990's and 2000's didn't look like anything, but I like the shape of the present Generation 6 cars, so if they are done I will for sure buy.

Very cool model, I really like it.

Dave: I was talking about the drag racing kits I know it's a bit off topic but they were mentioned earlier in this thread. The NASCAR kits is another thing and I know the generations are quite different. John: I agree with you, it's not easy to keep up with the changes if they are done often...but with the TF and FC kits (except bodies for FC) it hasn't been many major changes since the early 2000's and that's why they would have still worked pretty well today if the necessary updates had been done when they were out last. But as this is about NASCAR kits we can leave it with that.

Yes of course updates takes time but the few updates Revell did to the kits over the years they were issued couldn't have taken that long as it wasn't that much, most of it were already done to the real cars several years before the kits came out and some needed things were never updated. Revell just missed out on the timing with some years...if they had done the needed updates with the last issues of these kits they would still have been quite accurate today.

Well we haven't had a for the time up to date Top Fuel Dragster since 1989-90, Funny Car since the mid 80's and Pro Stock cars since 1984-85 with the Camaro and Thunderbirds, and the Olds Cutlass from 93-94, everything released after that didn't keep up with the development of the sport as the race cars went through a lot of changes and developments under the time Revell/Monogram did these kits. Revell did too little too late to the kits and never kept up with the progress, so the later reissues of the kits were never up to date for the time they came out, the funny thing is IF Revell had done the necessary updates to the last issues of the Top Fuel Dragsters from early 2000's and Funny Cars from late 1990's to make them current for the time they would still have been close to up to date today 12-14 years later as except for the FC bodys the current race cars haven't gone through any major developements since then and looks pretty much the same. The Pro Stock cars are another story, they still changes a lot and are harder to keep up with. As for the NASCAR kits, I don't have high hopes for any new kits but if they did the Generation 6 cars I would buy, they look more like the cars they are supposed to be and a lot better than the previous generations.

Many racers use a belt driven vacuum pump on race engines today and that's what's shown here, the "crankcase evac pump" is infact this vacuum pump wich draws the crankcase gases out through the valve covers and creates a vacuum in the crankcase, the gases are released into the breather tank and vented out. There are many advantages with this system, the engine runs easier with vacuum in the crankcase, the piston rings seals better so it'll get you more horsepower, some racers even have two vacuum pumps where one pump is used just under the race and are battery powered, the other is belt driven, an engine with crankcase vacuum also seals better and woun't leak.

Very nice model. This is one of my absolute favourite kits and I have several of them...but just one built so far http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=93339&hl= I found out as you did that you have to modify the roll bar to get the side windows to fit...I found out this too late as I had allready put in the photo etched belts and didn't want to do it all over again...so I left the side windows off.

It looks like it belongs there.

I agree on the motivation bit. But work...well I was unimployed for a couple of months each year from 1990 until 2009 but I didn't get more done then than when I work full time, so if you don't have the motivation it doesn't matter how much time you have.

Looks great Chris...a jem by itself.

There are not many pictures of this pulling tractor or related rigs, as I have found out it was owned by Bud Jaske from New Berlin Wisconsin and was driven by Bud and son Steve and had 3-5 Arias engines, they also campained a couple of 4WD and 2WD pullers called Blue Ox/Golden Ox and The Miller Express. The Blazing Bison changed colors in the 90's from the Meister Bräu colors to Miller High Life gold, white and red livery and seems to have disappeared after 1995. I haven't found much else and as I said, pictures are almost as scarse as hen's teeth.

Yes Competition Resins has casted the Firestone Drag 500 / Good Year front tires from the Jo-Han Sox & Martin 71 Barracuda, they look a lot better and more period correct than the Revell tire.

It was as I suspected then...my guess wasn't that bad.

No hurry Chris, your own build comes first,

That blower looks great Chris, I can't barely wait until I see the printed version.

I've got a set of Competition Resins CRT-501 Current FC or TF Drag Slicks and they look good...they have a slightly smaller outer diameter than the So-Real/Pegasus tires but not much. The inside is tapered and the hole is slightly different on each side so most kit rims will probably fit...the ones I have tried does, some triming inside the tire might be necessary for larger diameter rims.

The frame itself can sometimes be fidly and takes time and patience to get straight and squared, at least old AMT and some Italeri kits where you have to sand the ends of the cross members to get them to fit right. As everything else such as the suspension, cab, hood and other things are mounted on the frame it's important to get it right and the chance to get the truck model to sit level on all wheels and get the cab to hood fitting good is a lot better than if the frame is croked and out of line.

Cool!

Looks nice Chris.