Alan Barton

Hi Bill, I've built two of these and have three more on the go. They are a very nice kit and IMHO compare well to the much later Monogram sprintcars. Like all kits they do have their idiosyncracies! Give the driver figure to a kid to play with - it is easily the worst driver figure ever placed in any model car in history - seriously! Generally, the tyres are rubbish and need to be replaced. I have used Monogram sprint car tyres as a believable replacement, also the Firestones in the Revell Dobbertin series of kits (J2000, Beretta, C4 Corvette pro street). The Grant King was not the prettiest of sprintcars, especially the hood and the nose. I have one on the bench at the moment where I have grafted the V8-60 nose and grill over the Grant King nose and it is looking pretty cool for a late 50s, early 60s car. Recently there was a good article in another model magazine about improving the nose with the track nose and hood tops from the Revell Rat Rod 29 Model A pickup kit. and the grille from the Revell Offy midget. THe GK hood is very level and parallel - if you file the lower edge down towards the front to produce a tapered effect it will improve it out of sight! The chassis is a bit fiddly but the jig works very well and if you take your time it comes out nice and square and looks great. The one piece tail is magnificent and has a separate two piece fuel tank to fit inside- accurate for the era I believe. However there is no evidence of a fuel cap or filler. Engine is not bad but the headers have a strange arrangement where one port in the centre of the heads opens into two pipes - very odd but on the other hand isn't screamingly obvious till someone points it out. Biggest failing in my eyes is no rollbar to go behind the seat. Fact is, the old Monogram Hot Shot midget is the only open wheeled dirt car I am aware of that ever had a proper roll bar. This omission would be correct for the real GK but If you leave the cage off you are going to need to make a rollbar. What makes it worse is that they are so awkward to make and keep the right and left hand sides symmetrical, or maybe that's just me. Hope that helps Bill. I have had a variety of releases and they are all basically the same under the skin witt minor cosmetic changes as described in the earlier posts. Cheers Alan

Ray, this is looking fantastic and the choice of Li'l Coffin chassis was a great idea - the funky coil front end is perfect for this kind of build. For headers, you might try looking for a pair that come from , I think, the AMT 32 Phaeton or possibly the 32 Vicky. They work well with a hemi and stand a fair way out from the frame - I suspect this is what you are trying to work around. Another wide set of headers are the ones in the old Eldon or Dyoshu Invader twin engine show car - probably not so easy to find but maybe some-one on here has a pair in their parts box. Boothill Express pipes are 1/24 and suit a hemi but they would pass under the car so you might have to fill in the visual gap between the firewall and the front wheels some other way if you used those. If you're still thinking bubbletops, the Beanik Bandit unit would have to go close. Cheers Alan

Yep,Tom, that'd be me!!! Check your emails - got lots of news! Thanks everyone for the compliments - it was a great team effort with abouit a dozen guys responsible for the display and the models on it. It went down really well at the hot rod show. Cheers Alan

Forty nine this year, been building models since I was eight, and eyesight is the only thing I can imagine stopping me (thats why I'm leaving my 1/8th stash for a few years more!)

Drew Hierwaterr did a nice one in Scale Auto a few years ago with some very good comments and tips. Both of mine are still half built!