Harry P.

From Wikipedia: Both the streamlined design and the technical specifications, especially the air-cooled flat-four engine mounted in the back, give the T97 a striking resemblance to the KdF-Wagen of Volkswagen, which later became the Beetle. It is believed that Porsche used Tatra's designs since he was under huge pressure to design the Volkswagen quickly and cheaply.[2]According to the books Tatra - The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka and Car Wars, Adolf Hitler said of the Tatra 'this is the car for my roads'.[2][3]Ferdinand Porsche later admitted 'to have looked over Ledwinka's shoulders' while designing the Volkswagen.[2][4] Tatra sued Porsche for damages, and Porsche was willing to settle. However, Hitler canceled this, saying he 'would settle the matter.' [5] When Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Nazis, the production of the T97 was immediately halted, and the lawsuit dropped. After the war, Tatra reopened the lawsuit against Volkswagen. In 1967, the matter was settled whenVolkswagen paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Mark in compensation.[6]

I think he more than "borrowed" from Ledwinka. The Beetle's design was pretty much lifted entirely from Tatra. Didn't Tatra actually sue for that? But the suit came at an "inopportune" time for Tatra, as Hitler was busy occupying Czechoslovakia at the time, and the lawsuit conveniently "went away"...

If they wanted this to be a "serious" kit they would have axed those huge, toylike dogleg hood hinges and done something about the way the taillight lenses attach with those giant and very non-prototypical pins that are very visible. But you did a nice job considering what you had to work with and the fact that you decided to build it pretty much out of the box.

As far as the development of auto and aviation technology during wartime... it would seem to me that a huge war would hinder that, as all effort is put into supplying the military with as much equipment as can possibly be cranked out. Not much time left for R&D...

It's all speculation. It's just as conceivable that another person would have risen to power in Germany who also jumped on the "we need to avenge what happened to us in WWI" bandwagon, whipped the people into a frenzy and became just as powerful. We'll never know.

I think the biggest "what if" would be what if the Detroit Big 3 and their sympathetic Michigan senator Ferguson and the SEC hadn't driven Preston Tucker out of business. I think that Tucker would have made some big waves in the world of autos. Who knows what would have been if he had been allowed to continue building Tuckers? Maybe they did ask me. Maybe I said yes. Maybe I convinced J-Lo to come back, too...

Always...

There's always an exception! OK, Richard... get yourself a bunch of NASCAR kits and have at it!

There were several different versions of the Corvette early on that never made production but were in the Motorama shows. Pretty nice versions, actually.

What if Ella Fitzgerald had married Allan Funt?

I always thought that the rather involved process of making body panels of fiberglass was more expensive than using steel stampings, not cheaper. And in fact a line from the very story you linked to seems to bear that out: ..."a full-scale investigation proved the cost penalty (of using fiberglass instead of stamped steel) to be slight." Which to me says that there was a "cost penalty" to using fiberglass, albeit a small one. What I have always heard is that GM wanted to put the Corvette into production ASAP, so they went with fiberglass because it would be faster than tooling up new dies for a sheet-metal body. Faster... not necessarily cheaper. ,

That's exactly what I said. If accuracy isn't the goal and you're just "making stuff up," or "imagineering," then of course you can use any part from any kit to make anything, and who is to say you're wrong? But the fact is, in the real world nobody would build a street-driven car by first fabricating a NASCAR chassis for it, or go to the trouble and expense of building a NASCAR-spec engine for it, or use a NASCAR-spec body for it. Again, like I said, if you're just into "making stuff up," sure. But if you want to build a realistic, plausible street-driven car, then no.

If you're talking about using NASCAR parts to build street cars, the answer is no. A NASCAR racer is pretty NASCAR specific and there's not much, if anything, that can be used in a model of a street driven car. NASCAR engines, chassis, suspensions, roll bars, etc. don't look like anything in the world of street-driven cars or even customs. Even the bodies are NASCAR-specific and don't look like any street cars. However, if you don't care about accuracy, then of course you could use any part for anything...

I'm curious to hear your reasoning. Fiberglass needs tooling, just like sheetmetal does. How do you see large amounts of money being saved by using a fiberglass body instead of a sheetmetal body?

Remember, do not post hints or answers here! PM me with year, make and model. The answer: 1998-2003 Kia Retona

Beautiful! Nice level of detail, nice paint, nice everything! A real beauty.

Oops, sorry... those engines I posted were first and second generation only. Third generation (1968-74) included those engines listed plus a 350, a 396, and a 402. But no 427. At least not from the factory.

Factory available engines over the years: 153 cu in (2.51 L) I4 194 cu in (3.18 L) I6 230 cu in (3.8 L) I6 283 cu in (4.64 L) V8 327 cu in (5.36 L) V8

Why not? They're cheap, they're good. I'm not saying they're appropriate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but as far as fast food goes, there's nothing wrong with them. A few sliders and a coke every once in a while? Not a bad thing.

I've been in my current house since 1987, and I still have unopened boxes!

Exactly! Build a model, and maybe you decide you want to find out about that particular car or that particular manufacturer, or if it's a race car model maybe you want to know more about that car's history or driver... or whatever. So you go out and do some research or ask some questions. And maybe you learn something by doing some research or asking some questions. But what you learned, if anything, was not learned by building that model. It was learned by your own efforts to satisfy your curiosity or get you questions answered. Building a model in and of itself is not "educational" aside from learning how to build that model. The educational part is when you put down the model and you go looking for (and finding) answers to your questions If I have never had Ethiopian food, and a friend takes me to an Ethiopian restaurant and I have a meal there, and my curiosity is peaked and later I decide to go online and look up Ethiopia and I find all sorts of information about the country... was my eating the food educational. or was it my researching of Etthiopia that was educational?

Yeah I know. Then I think about having to sell this house. And having to find a new house somewhere else. And all the hassle and paperwork involved. And getting all my stuff packed. And moving all that stuff, plus three cars. And setting up shop in a new location. And then I think, man, that's a lot of work. So I'm still here...

But he knows.

Typo...