MPC 79 FirebirdT/A

[Junkman]

Those are terrible. Looks like MPC has a proven track record of awful tyres.

Is there anything out there that could be used?

[Mark]

Same tires that were in the MPC Firebird and Camaro annual kits from '73 through '78 or so.

[Bob Ellis]

The '70-72 kits had the nice Goodyear whitewalls.

[CapSat 6]

Yeah- those tires. I think I saw these in an old "Charger III" show car kit, as MPC's "Racing Tire" for the late '60's. Perhaps they were meant to be sort of an open wheel racing tire from then. They came in two sizes: sorta skinny and sorta wide. These look like the sorta wides. They do look like a truck tire to me. I've got a few in my parts box- and I think I might have used two of the fat ones on the rear of a Road Runner just once. I think Mark is right- the skinnier ones would have come in the original '79 Firebird, and other MPC Camaros & Firebirds from the Late Disco Era. 

[Pete L.]

The roll cage parts first appeared in the '73 Firebird and Camaro kits.  I think the Camaro was a Tiny Lund car, the Firebird might have been Buck Baker.

Fellas,

 I'd really like to see some aftermarket parts and decals produced to build these cars above !  Maybe a later reissue by Round 2 will have the stuff available in the box ?

 

Edited October 4, 2015 by Pete L.

[FordRodnKustom]

Looks like B.F. Goodrich Radial T/A's would be a popular choice along with Goodyear Radial Eagles. I seem to remember MPC including Radial T/As in there kits years ago.

[Sport Suburban]

The decal sheet is very nice and may be why this kit is so much. For a while nobody had Trans Am on the decal sheet. Even the Revell kit was missing them. My older kit of the 79 Trans Am anniversary kit, it had decals that had the entire alfabet in the font so you could make it say Trans Am on the car but it was the way they had gotten away from the licensing but still giving us the decals. Also remember GM paid licensing fees to the SCCA for every Trans Am they sold. GM never owned the rights to the name! 

 

[Bob Ellis]

A good point about how nice the decals are. Who remembers this kit when ERTL/MPC didn't have the Licensing rights for Trans Am decals. You had to cut up the alphabet jumble to arrange then into "TRANS AM". No easy feat and still make it look good.

[stavanzer]

Those are NOT Trans Am tires.

Yet more evidence that this was a second tier effort.

[roym]

I just got it knowing it's mostly a dog of a kit having built the AMT 78 issue from a few years back. Decals are great and it fills a gap in the collection. My biggest gripe, actually my only gripe knowing the history of the moulds, is that they didn't see fit to tool up a usable set of door mirrors. Bad fit I can forgive, and work around. Chrome headlamps I can forgive. Dodgy tyres I can forgive.

No door mirrors? Bah.......