Ace-Garageguy

Thanks, Snake. Seems as though they're also pretty definitely in the pro-modeler '48 Ford convert, along with another set I can use. I kinda hate to buy a Mustang or Cobra just to get the tires, but I can always use another '48 Ford.

Hokay, the general consensus is that the big-n-littles in the Revell '32 Ford 3-window kit, and some others, are Goodyear BlueStreak Sports Car Specials, with the Goodyear and other sidewall lettering removed. So far, so good. I have ONE PAIR of the old Goodyears, and other than the sidewall detail, they seem to be the same animals as the Revell '32 kit tires. So...what kits did the ORIGINALS, the ones WITH the Goodyear BlueStreak sidewall details, come in? I've already dug through all my old Revell kits and came up empty. I'm digging online now. So far, it looks like they MAY be in this and a Revell 1/24 Cobra. Anything else? And are the tires staggered sizes in the Mustang and / or Cobra? EDIT: Found this on another thread. "The Monogram 1/24 Shelby GT350-R, the Monogram 1/25 Owens-Corning Corvette, and R-M 1/25 Pro Modeler '48 Ford Convertible kits included the same tires with the raised letters still present", post by Casey. Can anyone confirm they're in the pro-modeler '48 Ford?

Part two of your question...just google "2015 sprint car action" and you'll see these cars are still racing, in pretty much the same configuration. This is a shot from 2014. The old Monogram kit, one of several iterations... The Revell / Monogram version of the Kinser kit... Same basic tooling, some car-specific mods. Again, same basic tooling...

One of the "you might also like" videos shown at the end of Joe's example above. This girl is fun to watch, and she seems to have a pretty good handle on some of the regional accent stereotypes. It doesn't hurt that she's a cute, smiling, blue-eyed redhead, either.

That must be why I'm going to try to use Cobra-style Halibrand wheels and side pipes on this thing.

Just got a Gunze 250 GTO, the non-full-detail version. Bought it specifically to build a bastardized American V8-powered hot-rod with a Ford 9" rear end, a what-if kinda thing that could have been put together in the late 1960s or early 1970s. It's not really so far fetched, because I put a DeSoto hemi in a Lusso back in about 1972. The Ferrari engine had a softball-sized hole in the block, and a badly damaged crank and one head. Much cheaper at the time to just swap in an American lump, and set it as far back in the chassis as possible to avoid ruining the handling. Internet photo The overall shape of the Gunze body looks pretty good, and as no two of these cars are really identical, it's close enough for me, especially for a hot-rod build. One thing that WILL need correcting to my taste is the rear wheel openings, which I find to be too large, and shaped somewhat wrong.

There was some info on this kit in the "reviews" section, but I can't seem to find it. It's basically a rehash of this old-tool Lindberg "Drag Rag", a very simple kit. Pretty much nothing about it has anything whatsoever to do with any real vehicle...especially not the "1934 Ford Roadster" it says on the box. It DOES look like it could be a good jumping-of point for a custom or radical hot-rod build. (NOT MY MODEL)

I forgot all about the Gurney / Weslake Eagle. A beautiful car, somewhat similar to the Lotus 38 and by the same designer...Len Terry. It's a huge accomplishment to even qualify for an F1 race, and to win one is truly outstanding. I wish the US-based Haas team all the possible good luck during their development and racing seasons, and certainly hope they DO attract more interest among Americans in this part of the sport. What I'd REALLY like to see happen in F1 is a simplification of the formula though, removing the driver-assist electronics, the aerodynamic whiffle-splitters, and requiring the engines to be stock-block production-car-based.

Those steel lines are roughly 3/8" in diameter. Stiff steel wire works well to represent them. 3/8 of an inch is .375". Divide by 25 for 1/25 scale, you get .015". There are lots of sources for wire that's silver-colored like this, and plenty stiff enough to hold its shape just like the real tube does. You can also use brass wire and color it. I've got lots of stuff like this in various diameters I've acquired over the years, like stainless safety-wire, picture-hanging wire from the hardware store, and things you can find at craft stores.

Back in the '50s and '60s, it WASN'T all about money...yet. It was definitely a rich-man's sport, but the cars and technology were still relatively accessible, and it was still possible for a privateer to build a winning car from the ground up. There is the story of the '59 Cooper F1 car's frame design...incidentally the first mid-engined F1 championship winner... being laid out on the garage floor. This particular car (below), F1 world-championship-winner in '67, the Repco / Brabham BT 24, even had an engine based on an American production-car bottom-end. The 3-litre SOHC Repco powerplant used in this car was built on a development of the 215 Oldsmobile aluminum V8 block. I could get fired up about cars like this. They weren't rolling billboards where running in front is more about getting screen-time for the advertising of the sponsors than anything else. Though today's cars are still technically interesting, the complexity and the necessity for boxcars full of cash to participate leave me kinda cold.

Hmmm...hasn't shown up in the message box yet. Hmmmm...

I think Steve Guthmiller, the OP and a frequent poster on the forum, is easily the equal of Mr. Hettick for showroom-stock or mildly modified cars. If you haven't seen Steve's models, you really owe it to yourself to have a look at some of them. I was going to post some links to his work, but a lot of his photos seem to have disappeared.

Sorry...box got filled up with answers. I deleted some old ones, should be fine now.

Probably the only time in the history of the planet that particular phrase has been said.

It'd be nice if at least one driver was American, but I'd be jumping up and down if the engine and chassis were American. Dallara chassis, Ferrari power...which part is American then, exactly? Oh yeah...the management. Okaaaaay... Far as I'm concerned, just having a base in NC doesn't make it an "American" effort any more than the Hyundai plant in south Ga. builds "American" cars. Sorry. I'm just a grumpy old SOB with an attitude problem.

Thanks for the interest and the encouragement on getting into BMF particularly. Everything I do seems to get more complicated than I initially imagine it will be, but I eventually work through it. I want to shoot the '57 gasser in various colors and some primer panels to represent a car that's been built from junkyard bits. So I bought an airbrush to be able to lay the primer out nicer than I can do consistently with rattlecans...because I want nice smooth primer to BMF over. So, soon as I'm up to speed on the airbrush, decanting primer, etc... The little dragster was supposed to be a quick build, but I started researching period engine mounts, firewall regs, period Pontiac heads (the AMT heads have some wrong-looking things about them that were really jumping out at me), the way the QC interferes with the seat (which it does in many of the real old slingshot cars too), steering linkage, and on and on and on. Just about got it figured, so I'm back to building. Pix soon.

My own bad attitude is irking me today. I have a ton of stuff I need to be doing between gigs and before I start another project, and frankly, I don't bloody well feel like doing it all. Guess it's time to be a big boy and just get on with things.

You can usually find good office chairs at the Goodwill or similar locations, cheap...at least, you can around here. I also have a bad back, and I find it helps a LOT to get up and stretch a couple of times each hour.

Hey Pete...I need to try that. Sure sounds like a match for my personality.

AUTO ID #195A OK. Same rules. PM ME, the idiot, Please don't use Google photo search, don't post hints here.

Oh geez. I'm a moron. I posted here instead of sending the PM. I'm a moron. I'm a moron. I'm a moron. I'm a moron. I'm sorry. I really am. I'm a moron. I apologize for making such a stupid mistake. Just not thinking. No excuses.

Make mine Talisker18.

I've explained that SPEED is the way we express DISTANCE traveled over TIME. RPM is not SPEED. RPM is the NUMBER OF REVOLUTIONS OVER A GIVEN TIME. There are NO distance units in RPM. The dot that's farther out from the center of the disc has to travel a greater DISTANCE IN ONE REVOLUTION due to the greater circumference of the circle it traverses, and that circumference is greater because the RADIUS of the circle is greater. The dot that's farther out THEREFORE TRAVELS AT A HIGHER SPEED THAN THE INNER DOT. HIGHER SPEED, SAME RPM. RPM IS NOT THE SAME AS SPEED. This isn't hard. EXAMPLE: In one complete revolution, each dot travels in one complete circle. The radius of the circle either dot traverses is the distance the dot is from the center. To get the circumference of a circle, you multiply its radius by 2π. (radius times 2 times Pi. Pi is roughly 3.14) It should be obvious that a larger radius (R) will give a larger circle circumference (C) from the formula C = 2πR For the EXAMPLE, let's say: A dot 2" (two inches) from the center (that's a 2" radius, R = 2") will travel 2" X 2 π in one revolution. That's 12.56 inches in ONE REVOLUTION. A dot 4" (four inches) from the center (that's a 4" radius, R = 4") will travel 4" X 2 π in one revolution. That's 25.12 inches in ONE REVOLUTION. In this particular case, the outer dot travels TWICE AS FAR IN ONE REVOLUTION AS THE INNER DOT.....but the principle is always the same. So, in this particular case, at the SAME RPM, the outer dot has to travel TWICE AS FAST to arrive at the starting point, which is the line that both dots are on. Traveling TWICE AS FAST means that the outer dot's SPEED IS DOUBLE the speed of the inner dot, AT THE SAME RPM. The formula C=2πR will ALWAYS give the circumference of the circle any dot on the record traverses in one revolution, where R is the distance of the dot from the center of the record. Once you know the circumferences of the circles any two dots have to travel (DISTANCE) in one RPM, to determine the differential in speed between ANY TWO DOTS on the record at the same RPM is a matter of simple arithmetic. I don't know how to make it any more clear.

SEAT 850 2-dr. sedan, around late '60s-early '70s. Spanish version of the Italian Fiat 850. I worked with a company that raced Abarth-modified Fiats, and ended up getting pretty heavily involved with the cars. Owned Fiat 500, 600, 850 coupe, several 128s and 124s, and a couple of X1-9s as well. I really like everything Fiat. Great little cars if they're well maintained, but they got a bad rap over here because you did HAVE to maintain them, unlike the majority of under-stressed American lumps of the time. A kinda less well-known spinoff of the Fiat 850 was the Siata Spring. Last one I worked on was back in 2005. Typical Fiat 850 problem...trash in the tiny little carb jets.

Lotsa money. Guess it's a little out of my reach now.