Modelmartin

Wow! Is this turning into an informal Cougar II build-off? Toledo 09 for showdown ?

This is too cosmic! I just started a Cougar II as a result of my model club's white elephant gift exchange! I already swapped out the wires and tires for something beefier. Not authentic but looks great and is in the spirit of the thing. I will be gluing the doors and that rear hatch thingie shut. IMC kits and opening doors were not a happy marriage. I did a little research and turned up this! The Bordinat Cobra is almost a clone of the Cougar II except a Convert. Both the Cougar II and Bordinat Cobra are still extant and in excellent condition. They were displayed at the Shelby American Museum. Most references to the Cougar II say it is Candy Red. There is a feature on it in Automobile Quarterly V2 #3 which I don't have. I will continue searching my Wall O'Mags. I know I have more info on it. Meanwhile here is what I gleaned from the "series of tubes" , I mean internet. Apparently the Bordinat car is built on a 427 coil spring chassis but has a 289 engine installed.

Very cool models! Your dad certainly achieved the "look" of the time. My dad built out of the box starting in 58 with AMT annuals. Unfortunately a garage fire melted his whole collection down in '76!

That is beautiful. I have the Fisher Models kit. HMM! I must build it one day....along with my other 20 917 kits!!!! It is amazing what Spark and Bizarre and a few others have done with the handbuilt business. They moved it to China and produce very high quality "resincasts" for less than the price of of the usual kits.

Minneapolis is 5 syllables - maybe that's why we ended up tying Seattle for most literate cities in the US. We are multi-syllabic

There is a seller on Ebay that goes by the name "Stealth Wholesale" who usually has great deals on IXO bikes and occasionally others. I just looked and they still have some of those Ducati 350 for $12.99 !! You can not beat that price. They have a lot of GP stuff and they also had a real cute 1951 Peugeot motorcycle listed. I have bought a lot from this seller and their service is great! Andy Martin

Good luck to you! Anything that doesn't physically harm you and gives you material for a good story is a good life experience. You have a good story from this one! Andy Martin PS Minneapolis/St. Paul is a great place to live too. We have a number of good model car clubs and several excellent hobby shops. That's what is important in a locale , isn't it?

The Revell 1/25th bikes wre reissued in the 80s as part of the "Grease" series. Of course that is over 20 years ago now. I would think the tooling still exists. Andy Martin

Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hau'oli Makahiki Hou Gesundheit! Andy

A number of years ago TKM models made what you are looking for. It was crude but judging by what you did to the Hot Wheels you might be able to handle it if you could find one or if TKM still makes it. Andy Martin

You have a very cool collection of bikes there, Terry. It is amazing the number and quality of 1/24th motorcycles available now. Here are a few of my favorites. I mostly go for Ducatis and GP bikes. Minichamps BMW IXO Mobilette - French moped thingie! IXO MV Agusta Ixo Ducati 450 Scrambler Andy Martin

Maybe with all the factories and big money leaving motorsports it will just leave racers to race each other with real cars. Big buck motorsports have left regular people out in the cold for years now. It's probably wishful thinking. Andy

Merde! Can we use other languages? http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=Ranti...ous%20Languages Andy Martin

My father in law was wounded on Iwo Jima and he has really liked his Honda Accord and Subaru wagon. He is thinking of getting another Subaru at age 86! My 81 year old mother loves her Scion XB. Superior is in the eye of the beholder. American cars may last as long as Japanese cars but I still don't like most of the American product line. Part of the problem is that they did in fact produce a lot of garbage over the years and earned a bad rep. The Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan look to be pretty nice cars. The Mustang is pretty nice as is the Corvette of course. Ford and GM do a good job on pickups and such. I don't like all Japanese cars either. I rented a Prius last year on a trip and found it to be really weird - I didn't like it. I love Audis and VWs but I can't afford either the cars or the repairs. I have a good friend who loves his Porsche 911s, his Accord he drives daily, and his Chev Suburban. Some people are diverse! Another friend loves his Geo Metro convert and his Chev SSR. Andy Martin

I don't have a "want" to believe any particular thing. I just stated that those were the numbers I heard. $1000. to 1500. on a car ranging from $15 to 30+ grand isn't that big a factor to my mind as a consumer looking at buying a car. If they made the cars better all around( and not just JD power quality stats) I might consider them. I don't completely buy the labor cost argument. Something else to keep in mind is that of course everyone is caterwauling about the sky falling if they don't get the bailout. Bull! It's just a bunch of histrionics to get the money. The pro-bailout folks present the most dire possible situation to advance their cause. Remember killer bees and Y2K? This is a tough economic time for everyone but Detroit has the double whammy to deal with the economy and inferior product! I think we would be better off handing GM and Chrysler over to Honda and Toyota. They know how to make great vehicles. Honda already has a hydrogen car in production. ( Ya, I know, they are selling them at a loss right now. The point is they are doing it now and laying the groundwork for the future.) Once years ago I was in a Toyota dealer helping a friend look for a car. They had a sign in the showroom crowing about about how the average Toyota only had 1.5 warranty claims per car while some competitor had 1.8. Real world means you had either 1 or 2 warranty claims. I never had a .5 or a .8 claim!!!! To quote Mark Twain,"Lies, darn lies, and statistics!" Detroit defenders cite their improved quality stats but I scoff. As far as fleeing the craziness I say stop the planet and let me off!! Andy P.S. The swear word filter is a little too sensitive -I couldn't quote Mark Twain accurately!

Interesting discussion going on here! I want to throw a few things into the mix here. I have heard from a few sources that labor accounts for about 10% of the cost of a car. How can wages and benefits be such a crucial factor in the automakers survival in that case? 10% price difference won't influence me when deciding to purchase a car from one manufacturer or another and the actual difference between US and Foreign makers would be less than that 10%. Also, Foreign cars assembled overseas have higher transportation costs! I focus on the car and its styling, comfort, performance, reliability, durability, cost to repair and maintain. In other words - product! Several people in this thread have said that some of us bash American cars and love foreign cars for unexplained reasons. The reason is we don't like the product from Detroit! They make a few decent cars but I am generally unimpressed with most offerings from them. Lately I drive Mazdas but have had Toyotas, SAABs and VWs. I was a diehard Chevy guy in my youth. My first car was a 63 Buick Riviera . I have sampled driving a few newer American cars as rentals over the years and they have left me disappointed . American car companies also are offered big concessions for locating new plants and even for not closing old ones! Remember when GM was deciding where to locate the Saturn plant? Even Minnesota offered up hundreds of millions in tax breaks! Where did they locate? Tennessee. Gee! Lower wage, younger labor, anti-union, south! Our Pols are now trying to get Ford to not close the Ranger pick-up plant in St. Paul. It seems that argument cuts both ways. Naught! My personal opinion is that Chrysler should go away. They are adrift with a crazy product line and being run by money people. GM needs to get its act together pronto to survive. If the Volt fails to work or sell, they are toast! Ford looks good and has the best domestic product line at the moment. My attitude is that people need cars and someone will provide them and that someone will need people to make them, sell them, and service them. May the best manufacturer win! I agree with Harry about private business succeding or failing on their own. I didn't get a bailout for Aardvark Models! One thing to remember, Harry, as you contemplate fleeing all of the craziness here, is that no matter where you go -there you are!! Andy martin

Great visual metaphor for the US auto industry! Andy Martin

That is hilarious! Not too far off the mark, either. Andy Martin

You wore us out! You are King of the Hill !!! Andy

Very cool! I like it a lot. Andy martin

I was going to say cupholders. Andy

Ok Art! I will take a stab at these not using reference material - strictly memory!! Viking ?? Pontiac Oakland Mercury (2nd hint! This is not a Ford product!) ?? Lafayette Nash Erskine Studebaker Rockne Studebaker Terraplane Hudson Zephyr Lincoln LaSalle Cadillac Whippet Willys Essex Hudson There was a farmer near where I grew up who had an Essex-Terraplane in his front yard! How did I do? Andy

Cadillac. The others were named after their founders. Cadillac along with Lincoln does belong as the answer to Art's question. Both were started by Henry leland who was the engine supplier to Ransom Eli Olds when he was building the famous Curved Dash Olds. Actually Cadillac was merely taken over by investors from it's original founder and Henry Leland was hired to re-engineer the cars and produce them. Who was the original founder of what became Cadillac? Also who took over Lincoln from Henry Leland when that company foundered? Andy

15 out of 20 but let me tell you, if it had been about antique and classic cars....... Andy

I did not mean that we shouldn't work hard on wind and solar and any other kind of energy. We should! I just don't think that any ONE approach is THE answer to the energy production problems. All eggs should not be in one basket. We should take every approach that is technically feasible and practical. OPEC does not hate us. In fact they love, love, love our oil companies and the feeling is " moo-twul"( Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles). OPEC is in the business of fixing prices and the oil companies have the various countries and officials in their pockets to do the price-fixing for them. The poor residents of many of the OPEC states may indeed hate us. We finance and prop up the dictaters who "own" their countries and make their lives msierable. I wouldn't like it, either! I would love it if the need for oil went down so far that the oil companies went to the government for a bail-out. I would love it if all we had to do was put our grass clippings from our lawn in the processing chamber in our Chevy Volts. No oil and transportation!!! Andy