zenrat

Ummmmmm, no. And no. My car was designed and built in Geelong.

There are no bad kits. Just challenges... Although anything in the Doyusha Nostalgia Heroes range would fit in this build off - super shallow interiors as they are designed to have batteries under them. The bodies however have excellent engraving and crisp detail. I'd also nominate the AMT Ghostbusters cars. Promo style chassis, moulded on bonnet, chrome headlights and window "glass" that scales out at about 4 inches thick.

Yes, some people have cranked out a plethora of kits. But did they remember to roll up to the start line? It seems to me that the earlier a build is finished the less likely it is to actually get posted on Dec 1st. Anyway, count me in. I'll be doing it in comfort in one of these. Obviously it'll need some modifications as, tempting as it may be, I think i'll do the run quicker on bitumen rather than taking the direct route. I'm thinking lower, wide sports rubber, something with a bit more attitude under the bonnet (probably sticking with Toyota), lose the side steps & roof racks (although the bull bar might be useful) and give the co-driver/navigator a fully integrated touch screen navicomp set up. I'll dig out the actual kits and take some pics after chrimbo. Happy holidays.

The end of the world is what jag aficionados wished for when they saw a toilet seat had been fitted to the front of the car...

It's on snopes.com for a start. Anything posted there is there because it's definitely an Urban Legend or because someone thinks it might be. The original poster would have put it there because they were dubious about it.

I've seen bike vs deer (a small Roe Deer). Deer had its body along the left side of the bike, it's head on the right side and it's guts all over the road. Front wheel of the bike was pushed hard into the engine which was still running (GS Suzuki - run forever until the electrics pack up). Don't know how fast he was going but he was reportedly not hanging around when he passed a car sitting at 70mph. The rider was lying flat on his back in the middle of the road (did I say it was about midnight?) out cold but came to as we tried to find a pulse. We thought he must have been badly hurt due to the amount of blood on the road but he didn't have a mark on him - all the mess was from the deer. The local police superintendent just had to come out and have a look and it was highly amusing to see his pretty little blond driver step out of the car and put her unsuitably shod foot straight into a steaming pile of guts. He thought this was funny so I watched him pull his gloves off and then went up an slapped the gory bike keys into his hand...

Araii Honda City has tennis rackets, ghetto blaster AND folding minibike. I used the TV camera from the AMT parts pack to build this

If you've got 'em, build 'em. They'll never be worth so much you can retire on the proceeds of selling them.

Probably spent 3 months rooting the lady dog it had met and then just jumped on the next Sydney bound truck. Now one of these kiwi dogs wouldn't have to wait for a truck going the right way. It could just hotwire a car and drive itself home...

Revell '54 Chevy Panel - As with the kits Matt lists above, get the earliest release you can find as they went on making these way too long. Now, has anyone opened up the current "Ed Roth" release of the Revell '56 F100? This kit has been around for ever in various forms including a 'Hot Rod' magazine version (usually the last resort for worn moulds IME) which I gave up on. Did they restore the moulds for this release or, as I have heard, is it still a badly fitting pile of poo.

Probably already been covered somewhere else here but the moulds for the body of the AMT Dirty Donny Vantasy should never have been used in the condition they are in. The drip rail and window trim detail is so soft there is really no option other than to sand it off and start again.

The Japanese are a strange people. From this anime they are marketing these kits Now, someone needs to get them to make a series along the lines of 'Musclecar Schoolgirls' or 'Hot Rod Nymphettes'... ...for the model kit spin offs obviously.

Possibly not the right audience. But I sniggered. I suspect the main problem with dogs driving would be a tendency to drive too close to the car in front...

Doyusha Nostalgia Heroes "1/24" kit. 1/24 in quotes because with this series they used the same motorised chassis for all cars and adjusted the scale to make the body fit. However, in this case it's probably pretty close to what they claim. The Nissan Cherry X1R in the same series on the other hand is probably closer to 1/20. Because of the motorised chassis the Nostalgia Heroes series have vey shallow interior tubs to make space for the batteries between the bottom of the tub & the chassis. Bodies are very crisply moulded however. I plan to kitbash this one with a Monogram Firebird to give me all the detail I crave.

That was because people kept pinching it out of the stationary cupboard to take home for their kids to draw on.

Stormhawks! And Dominion Tank Police.

Don't know about in the States but given the way we hand out licences to kids* putting dogs behind the wheel might be a major contribution to road safety. *Can you spell your name? OK, close enough, off you go.

I put the Cherry body onto a Taurus NASCAR chassis Jant but didn't think anyone had done one with the original body. I stand corrected.

A good reason NOT to go for muscle cars - the never ending "discussion" about what exactly is a muscle car. Go for '62 to '74. sure, but don't try and say muscle cars only. We'd spend more time arguing on here than building. However, if we went for this i'd be tempted to build one of these... Problem with a Japanese run would be that of either finding a full detail kit or adding the detail to a kerbside. That could put entrants off. Mind you, this would count as Japanese wouldn't it? And unlimited doesn't mean anything goes. There are still rules. Well, a rule - It has to look roadworthy. In addition you have to think about practicalities like will it go round corners? will it run at sustained high revs for the whole run? will it be able to carry enough fuel to get to the next servo? can I build in a full internet/comms/navigation setup for the co-driver? So it's not just another build. I'm surprised no-one has yet put street tyres onto a NASCAR and added a second seat. Also, AFAICR no truck has ever made it to the start line (some were being built last year but despite some truly heroic trash talk they failed to show) - am I the only one who can envisage a lowered, streamlined prime mover with the 5th wheel area faired over? Or, fenders, lights and mufflers on an F1 car?

Awesome. 1/25 bikes are just about at the limit of my patience. You did a great job.

Thanks folks - for you votes and for your nice words Luna Mike, you had my vote. I don't know about any secret or trick. I just focus on what I think I would do if I was doing the run for real and try to remember that I need a combination of speed, reliability, handling, range and (stealth is the wrong word) make it something that a cop would wave past with a nod and a maybe a grin (gotta have humour). The trick is the balance. Anyhoo, Ron asked me to take a pic of my 3 first place cars so here they are; 2008's Dustball 500 (Efi short stroke Hemi in Duster chassis with scratch built IRS), this years Chevy panel and 2010's Swifter Shifters courier van (Blown mid mounted Skyline motor in scratch built chassis with dual A arm suspension on all 4 corners). And now i'm off to see my sponsors...

How many can you carry in the latest Holden Ute? The current model's tub is too short for a full sheet. If you really wanted a ute for work then the "Tonner" was the one you went for. Until they killed that off. Given the current rate of our dollar against yours I don't think you'll be getting many of our cars over there in the near future.

An Edsel with a small fiat motor?

YGPM Slant