DustyMojave

This is an interesting build to me in that I worked on making set stuff for the BHC2 movie. I did not work on Cop 1 though. And never got near the Nova. So I can't offer any info on it. A large percentage of what I made for Cop 2 wound up on the cutting room floor. I made a big complex sky light, items for a dive hotel room (fire escape section and "HOTEL" sign section to be seen through the window). But the bank interior partition fences I made, the huge metal bank gates that the armored truck crashes through I made, and a few other items that did wind up on film. Regarding the curved side window frames. Note in the screen stills that the window frames actually ARE curved. The glass too, and all 3 windows on each side: wing, door, and 1/4 windows, were ALL curved. Just AMT got them a little exaggerated.

I like this build! I love Group 5/IMSA/late Trans Am race cars. But OTOH, I love the early Trans Am concept too. I never liked the 1980s "IMSA Poser" street wannabe cars. Especially with the huge fenders and tires that fit under the stock fenders. But again, this one flips my switch. You got the stance, the exhaust, the interior, the wheels and tires, the mostly stock body with just spoilers added (thank you for no wings). Going well.

Oh... For clarification, I didn't mean that air cleaner housing was not an original stock Mopar Dodge Dart 273 air cleaner. Part of it might be, but not all. I meant that the snorkels are way too nice to have been used on the race car when it was actively being raced in Trans Am. The "sticker" on the air cleaner top may also be a modern sticker or a pair of them. All the graphics on the air cleaner top air are almost certainly all "modern" stuff.

I don't know if you ran across the thread for mine, but I'm building a model of Ron's '67 Dart too. About the very best road race I ever watched was in the summer of 1967 at Willow Springs Raceway. I was a Tech Inspector . The race was not a Trans Am, but it was an SCCA National race. Dick Guldstrand was very fast in his metallic blue '67 Z-28 Camaro. And yet the race was very close with Ron Grable in his orange 1966 Dart. They passed each other back and forth all race long. Since at Willow you can see pretty much the entire race course from the pit area, I watched it all. On the last lap, Ron had gotten ahead a few car lengths. But a summer thunder storm was starting up and the east end of the track, which is Turn 8 and 9, was getting a little wet. The previous lap it was dry. Turn 8 is a fast sweeping turn that ends with Turn 9 which is a sudden sharper radius with no straight in between. So Ron came around 8 and at Turn 9, as he went to accelerate down the front straight, he spun out and went into the dirt infield. He never lifted off the throttle and did a 360 making a huge cloud of dust that was blowing across Turn 9 and the beginning of the straight. This cloud enveloped Dick Guldstrand's car as he came around . Ron jumped back out onto the track right beside Dick's car. They very nearly hit. But Dick had the forward inertia and pulled Ron going up the straight and won the race by less than a car length. On the cool off lap, The cars were beside each other for a while, obviously the drivers were talking. Most everyone in the pits expected a fight when they got out of their cars. As they climbed out, Dick pointed at Ron and yelled over, "YOU!!!!" And then they hugged and slapped each other on the back hooting and saying "That was the best race ever!" to each other.

I could say a whole book about those 2 cars. But my mother taught me that if you can't say anything nice, say nothing. So... Hasta later guys.

Keep in mind that the way that "restored" race cars are now might very well be quite different from how they were "in the day". I've made a living for many years restoring race cars and was there when this race car was new. I was an SCCA Tech Inspector then. I could not possibly tell you what sticker was on top of the air cleaner then. I've looked at WAY too many thousands of race cars over the decades. i'm building a model of this car too. But I'm not going to worry about getting these stickers right. But vintage racing is overflowing full of what I refer to as "creative memory" (my own term). When this car was raced in SCCA A/Sedan and Trans Am, and some circle track too, the SCCA rules required the car to be equipped with an original 273 V8 engine. But the engine could be stroked to 305ci max. It's my understanding that the car was raced at the time with a 273 stroked to 304ci. Mopar certainly did not sell air cleaner stickers in those days that said "stroker" OR that said "304". It MIGHT have been painted on by maybe a sign painter. It MIGHT say something else on the back. Neither is a factory sticker That air cleaner housing on the engine in the photo above is real pretty and should flow pretty well. But that housing is most CERTAINLY NOT original. It's way too pretty and way too nicely formed. A racer operating out of his hip pocket in those days such as Ron was, did not have the resources available to him to have such a piece fabricated in late 1967. And while there were dual snorkel air cleaner housings in the day and racers made their own dual snorkel air cleaner housings with large ducting from the grille, those snorkels are just awful damned nice. For accuracy, the formed radiator hoses are probably not right either.

My brother in law is from Perth. Good looking bunch of hot rods there.

I remember when racers used to drive their Allard J2Xs to races on the street. They would remove the spare tire, and tape the headlights over for the races. Not good to crash in a race or break. They had engines from Cadillac, Ford, Olds, Buick...Race tracks like Riverside, Willow Springs, Santa Barbara (Goleta Airport), Taft, Hanford, etc. I was a little guy then but I remember them well. I DO remember one night towing a Morgan home from Taft to the San Fernando Valley with a rope one time. That was about 120 miles through the mountains.

Thanks for sharing all this guys!

Looks damned cool to me! It appears to be transverse mounted. Wonder which FWD gearbox they used.

Nice. I have a 1/1 '61 F100 in it;s original color that's a little lighter than that, but otherwise a very similar color. Mine also has a high performance engine, but not a Hemi. It's a 428 Cobra Jet. That picture on film from 25 years ago and scanned nearly 20 years ago really doesn't do the color justice. It looks way faded in this now. I've professionally built some race car trailers in my time, so when I build this same kit, I will have a number of changes to do to the kit trailer. You did a nice clean job of building yours though. Also, another AMT screw-up on this kit is that this was the 1st year for the Ford 9" axle. An F250 or 350 would have had a Dana style axle, but not an F100. So mine will be getting one, probably home made resin from an AMT 1990s NASCAR kit or maybe a '66-'67 Fairlane or Comet.

The Mercury division of Ford Motor Company. As in Mercury Comet. Mercury Cougar, Lincoln-Mercury, 1949 Mercury, etc. Nice build!!!

Well Pico. NOW I know what that Fiat 8V you showed me on MotorsportsModels is for! For the others, we were talking about a 1953 Siata 208S which used the same engine and trans. This Supersonic is coming out great!

Nice build. I don't want this to be mis-interpreted as criticism of this build, so note that in the following I'm offering reference to those who might want to build a more detailed late 60s Barracuda and look at this thread. I'm building a phantom Trans Am race Barracuda from the same MPC '69 kit. Since I'm building a race car, the interior needs to be "stripped". My research into what that stripped interior should look like shows that MPC got the rear sides of the interior WAAAAYYYY wrong. The side panels should extend straight up from the floor all the way to the outer edges of the rear window. With a wrap at the front edge of those panels to the back edge of the side windows. It would have been easier mold-making wise to make it correct, but it would have meant a much deeper mold cavity, thus a deeper mold. That may be why MPC chose to mold the interior as stopping at the bottom of the side window sills.

My 1st thought on this a while back was that I was expecting you to cut the frame down in wheelbase and then cut the back of the dual cowl phaeton body off and build a race car body. Possibly a boat tail. Or a tapered "race car" tail. Or with bucket seats and a cross-wise gas tank behind the seats with spare tires on rims set at an angle behind the tank? That last would probably entail removing the doors as well as the back of the body, leaving just the cowl. Or at least the doors cut down in an arc.

" I'm using a resin copy of the '71 Duster engine and trans, " Where did you get that resin engine/trans? When I was in high school in the early 70s, a friend of mine drove a '69 Dart GTS 340 4-speed. Single 4bbl carb. It was a copper metallic color with black interior, a plain hood, no vinyl roof, and a black GTS stripe on the tail. Oh, and Mopar rally wheels. They were 15, rather than the stock Dart 14s, I suspect his dad got them from a B-Body Mopar. I'm building a Revell Dart into a Trans Am 67. The engine should be a 273, But the 340 is about as close as I'm gonna get. So I'm using one out of an AMT '71 Duster. It's interesting to me what you do to fit the 340 into it.

No roll bar?????

For one thing, Mustang IIs were a whole lot smaller and lighter than 73 monster fat 'Stangs. with a 302, they had a good power to weight ratio, except it was the mid 70s. ALL cars built then were crappy except maybe Porsche 911s. A Ford 302 in '68 made good power. A Ford 302 in 1989 made even better power. In 75-77, they made crappy power. But then that's the time when Corvette 350s made less power than my 1990 Toyota pickup 2.4l.

Mustang IIs get dissed a great deal. Not only was it easy to install a 302, they were sold with a 302 as well. If they were built in the late 80s, they wouldn't have been dissed so much. They had pretty good potential. I find it amusing to see a Camaro with Mustang II front suspension and Ford 9". They don't CALL it Mustang II suspension, they try to pass it off as aftermarket suspension. But I've owned 2 Pintos, and that's what they really should call that suspension, since that's where it was 1st used. So I know how to recognize it. I see that your build shows that the roof and windshield shapes are correct, unlike the box top picture. Your build looks quite good.

Cool. I've always been quite fond of Group 5 race cars. Not sure why. I've worked on a few 1/1 scale Gr.5 race cars. Actually Trans Am and another local track series, but same rules as FIA Group 5. I like 'em. This is a cool one.

US sold VW Bugs were ALL "Deluxe" model. So in the US, they all came with the bumper over-riders until the 1968 model year, when US Bugs got the square bumpers. I had a 1965 German Delivery Bug. 1200, 6volt generator, glass covered sealed-beam headlamps, 5 on wide 205mm pattern wheels. Had a few details that were not found on US-spec '65 Bugs: Locking steering column with the key switch on the side of the steering column. US-Spec cars didn't get that until the '68 model year. Mounts for 3-point seat belts in front and back, but had lap belts only installed. US Bugs got 3-point belts in '67. When I bought that car in 1973, I had a customer who had a '67 German Delivery Bug. It had the glass-covered headlights like the 6volt Bugs in the US, but with Halogen-type bulbs instead of sealed beam. But this '67 was 12volt like the US '67 Bugs (1st year for 12volt in US Bugs). That Bug was also 1500cc. I later had a US Spec '67 bug. Mine didn't have mounts for 3-point belts in the back, only lap belts, but it had 3-points in the front seats. 1500cc. It had sealed beam headlights with no glass cover. It also had all-red tail-light lenses, while the German Spec '67 Bug had amber turn indicators in the same tail light housing. I later put the German lenses on my '67 and my '65, and those '65 tail lights with German lenses are still on my '58 Baja Bug. My US '67 Bug also had the ignition switch in the bottom of the dash, same as my '58 and no lock on the steering. US Bugs got an alternator in 1973, mid-year (IIRC).

I never liked tuck & roll upholstery. But I have a '61 F100 that I bought in 1976 that still has the white tuck 'n roll dash top that was in it when I bought it. Not 'cuz I love it, but because it's part of the truck's history. I think it was originally done in Tijuana Mexico in the early 1960s. I think the whole interior was white tuck 'n roll back then, but by the time I bought it, that was all that was left. You've done a good job on the tuck 'n roll on this deuce. It's certainly period correct for a show-style rod.

Beautiful Cougar. LoveFordGalaxie...I have a 1961 Ford F100 with a 1970 Cougar 428 Cobra Jet engine, that I pulled out of the original Cougar that had been crashed. The original paint on the engine in this model is not Ford engine blue. It's Mercury engine blue. Same as on my 428 CJ. That's why it is light blue. Here is my AMT '68 cougar. It's built as an SCCA A/Sedan road race car (same as SCCA Trans Am). I built my model in 1968.

Beautiful Ghia. Love the color. About the dash...My close friend had a 1965 Ghia for many years. It had a dash pad on top and the face of the dash was body color. Just as has been done here. I have one of those Gunze Sangyo kits sitting in my inventory. But as a long-time off road racer, my plan for my Ghia is to build a Baja Ghia. Probably a Coupe.

There is a photo in the Bob McClurg gallery on the Butch Leal website taken (I believe) at Riverside Raceway in '65 of the #707 S/S '65 Plymouth running Cragar S/S wheels and narrow slicks with a black roll bar visible inside. I would link the picture here to share it, but the site prevents hotlinking. If you were looking at the shot in the scrap book of Butch sitting in the driver's seat with the door open, that shows a white roll bar and I think that photo is the altered wheelbase car. I was referring to the black roll bar in the Super Stock car. Yes...Some pics of the Super Stock DO show it with no roll bar. Safety regulations were a changing thing then. Full size or model, i would have a roll bar in it.