oldcarfan

I don't think so, but those cars are pretty wild! They would offer a wide open field for the imagination. They could probably rolled into an unlimited or a race car category, I guess.

Sounds good to me. This is a busy time of year and we could all used time to think about the options! I must have missed the Peking to Paris build. Thanks for letting me know.

I'd love to see Revell bring this King Cab version out again!

Nice catch! I think I have a Pantera that came from the same company. I wonder if someone still has the molds for them? They seem pretty accurate to me.

All the ideas seem good so far. I could go for any, but a 4-bangers Run would be cheap, as I have a lot of Japanese cars. lol. Street legal race cars could go a couple of ways, a stock body on a race car chassis, or a race car with added lights to make it street legal. There is also precedent for Pickups in Cannonballs, both movie and real life. Work trucks might be cool in the same kind of way.

I wonder if a second limited time limit group build maybe a three month build or something would be popular without taking away from the annual Cannonball competition? That could cover an Alcan Alaskan Highway Rally, Panamerica or Baja 500 Mexico style rallies, or even a Paris to Dakar style rally.

A Radwood could be fun, either limited to things you might do in period, or taking an 80s-90s car and updating it. That could maybe stretched into a Fast N Furious early 90s tuner sort of thing.

I wonder if that body will fit on the MPC '73 Cougar chassis?

I think this kit was issued as a Pro Street kit originally. Not sure, but if the body is a stock Berlinetta, I'll get one and try to fit it to one of the other Camaros. I have happy memories of riding in an Aunt's brand new B'netta.

I'll definitely want a Taurus, and a Monza for sure. I had the Taurus kit back in the day and turned it into a two door coupe. Now I'd like to do one all lowered and with a tuner vibe. The only thing I really remember about the build is that it was pretty straightforward, but the ride height was way too high.

Definitely odd. The HL tag usually means the kit was bought by an individual on their 40% sale or on clearance to be resold.

I can't believe AutoWorld would send a kit like that, their standards must have really slipped! I wonder if they sub-fulfilled the order from a third party. I know there are a couple of people in even our small town who troll Walmarts and HLs looking for marked down kits and Hot Wheels to resell. A couple of times I've run across one of them sweeping a whole row of clearanced kits into a basket.

Congratulations to both you and to the magazine that birthed it! To be honest I was a little scared when I saw the notice. I clicked on it afraid it was being closed, or had been sold to Kalmbach so they could close it down and fold it into one of their other magazines. Anyway, I'm sure you're going to be busy with all the details, so I wish you all the best!

We got an Ollie's last Spring and they never had models until recently. I went by for something else and they had a large pile of kits stacked by the door. I didn't see anything I needed until I came across a Revell Lamborghini Diablo. It's funny because I've been wanting to do one up as a tuner, sort of Liberty Walk style. So now it goes on the stack to wait for time and patience.

I've switched to plain Testor's enamel paints for flocking as it stays wet longer than acrylics. I can usually paint it on a larger area and flock it without the paint drying before I'm done. As for Elmer's glue, I used that originally but I noticed that it tended to shrink as it dried, leaving noticeable gap around the edges and one time, even curling away from the edge. It could just be an error on my part, but I don't have that problem with enamels.

This is very interesting! You are doing some amazing work on a very underrated kit.

I recognize the Pontiac headlights and the cab looks like a Corvair Rampside with the door insets removed. I wonder if it is Corvair based? There doesn't seem to be enough room for a front engine so it's probably mid or rear engine.

2025 Cannonball Entry #15 1975 Volkswagen Golf- As this strange and hectic year winds down, so does our annual Cannonball. Here's hoping for a more peaceful 2026. My 2025 entry was a change from last year's Ford Expedition and this project practically built itself in my head before I'd even finished the Expedition. I've always loved small fun to drive cars, so I went with the prototype for every hot hatch to follow, the VW Golf/Rabbit. Here's a link to the build page if you're interested: A little history. By 1970, Volkswagen was in a fix. The Beetle was old tech and sales were half what they had been just a few years before. Volkswagen really needed a hit and the Golf was a Hail Mary. The car came to market as the gas crunch hit and ended up being the right car at the right time. I always like to have a theme for my builds as it helps keep me focused. The theme for this build was that a couple of crazy German Volkswagen engineers decided to do a Cannonball in the company's new Golf. They managed to get hold of an early car right off the assembly line and with unofficial backdoor factory help they built a contender. The donor kit was an ESCI Rally Golf that I've had forever. It's a decent older kit and if you've ever built AMT's Rabbit, that came out a few years ago, it's the same kit. I don't know if AMT bought the molds or just put it in their boxes. I had both the ESCI and AMT versions which comes into play in the next part of the story. I got started the week after the New Year and made good progress. The body and chassis had just been cleaned up and painted in Model Masters Go Mango when disaster struck. I took the painted body into the house from my shop and set it on the counter. When I came back it was gone. It was eventually found in the back yard. Below is a picture of how it looked when I found it. Still don't know where the paper towel came from. After a thorough investigation, evidence pointed at Fia the cat knocking it off the counter and Bernie, our little girl Corgi taking it outside and chewing it up. They both claimed to have alibis for that time, so the trail went cold. For reference, here are the unrepentant suspects: Luckily I had that AMT kit and got it painted and was back on track in a week. I had just enough Go Mango to do the new body which saved a lot of extra trouble. The rest of the build was fairly simple. I actually did some research on VW's being raced and found that they were getting some serious for the times power out of that little engine. Trivia fact, the Dodge Omni initially used the Golf 1.7 liter engine. At around 90 horsepower, the cars were built more for economy than speed. Following the theme of a backdoor factory entry, I knew those clever Germans would have some tricks up their sleeves. Here's the result, a 1.7 l bored out to 1.9 with some Porsche 024 internals, turbocharged with a rams horn exhaust. This was based partly on work done in Germany by racing teams and the engine should put out 120-125 hp. While that doesn't sound like a lot by modern standards, a Golf only weighed about 1700 pounds when stripped down for racing so the power to weight ratio was pretty good. According to some articles I read, a Golf in this form was capable of 115 mph sustained. The little car's interior was stripped down for weight and only some heat insulation was added for the occupants. A round fuel cell was put in to supplement the regular tank for extra range. The interior was built according to the tech available in 1975, with a CB radio, a police scanner, and a Fuzz Buster. For safety, a rollbar was added and Porsche seats and heat/sound insulation covers the passenger area. Despite the pet inspired delay, I finished the build in record time. Here's how the car looks, fueled up and ready to go. All the guys have to do is load up their gear and head for the Red Ball Garage.

Has there ever been an 'Unlimited' Cannonball? The idea would be a vehicle you would build and race if you won the lottery and money was no object.

I've got too many models too. I started buying in the mid 90s making weekly stops at Walmart, KayBee Toys, Toys R Us, and other places looking for clearances. I kept it over the years and have kits stored in my shop and in the in-laws garage. I really need to go through them some day.

Some good ideas so far! Run What You Brung, or off road, or work vehicles any of those would be cool. Movie cars would be fun too, but I'm not good at doing replicas mine always end up looking like they were "Based On A True Story" rather than actually being a replica. This might be too complicated, but how about a 'Low-Budget Build" thing? Sort of like LeMons. I don't think that's been done has it? Set a price limit, say $2025 for the basic vehicle. It could be any vehicle as long as you could find one under that price. You'd pick an example of your chosen vehicle on Marketplace or Ebay or the local newspaper, and do a screen shot of a super cheap 1:1 example as proof. This is what I was thinking, but any vehicle would work. Maybe allow engine transplants, body work, even body swaps onto a different chassis, brakes and safety and whatever else as long as a good low budget shop could theoretically do it on their own from used parts.

If the police mechanic shop can keep them running and get the bugs worked out, it could be a decent option for policing. Range depends on who is testing, anywhere between 200 and 300 miles on a charge. Most officers don't cover more than 150 miles and a lot do less than that on an average patrol. I do wonder about shift changes, though. If the charge is getting low, it's not like they can gas and go when the night shift comes in.

The MPC Ram 50 is a good option, but you might also look at the MPC 1975 Datsun truck as it has been reissued not long ago and its also coming back out soon. Another option could be the AMT Ford Courier, too. Any of those could work and they could also donate frame, rear end and other parts if needed.

Nice start, Rockford was my dad's favorite show and I grew up on the reruns . I really wish Round 2 would add a stock flat hood and some side vent plugs to this kit or maybe even do a new kit with a base model and a Formula option.