STOP THE PRESS! All new 1977 Oldsmobile NASCAR kit

[DanR]

I just got this in my Inbox from Modelroundup.com:

 During his career, fan favorite Buddy Baker won nineteen races including the 1980 Daytona 500, NASCAR's most prestigious race. His victory remains the fastest Daytona 500 ever run, with an average speed of 177.602 mph. This limited edition (1 of 5000) fully detailed kit with engine commemorates Baker's 1980 Daytona victory. We anticipate offering some additional decals with different drivers and sponsors. Stay tuned!

Salvino's JR Models is a brand new model company dedicated to manufacturing the most fully detailed and authentic NASCAR scale model replica kits ever produced. Hailing from a family with deep racing heritage, Rick Salvino has launched into his new model kit project with great gusto. Rick indicates to us that he is starting with General Motors licensing to fill in some gaps of stock cars that have never been produced as plastic model kits. He hopes to produce 3-4 new kits a year with a few very low production run special issues.

*Since this is Salvino's first kit, and Rick tells us that they are still finalizing test shots, delays are possible. Rick remains optimistic about a May release date, but June would not surprise us.

 

 

[Dave Van]

Been talked about at depth in other posts. Kit was announced in Jan IIRC

[Rob Hall]

 

 

 

[DanR]

18 minutes ago, Dave Van said:

Been talked about at depth in other posts. Kit was announced in Jan IIRC

Oh man, and I was so excited...

[Dave Van]

1 hour ago, DanR said:

Oh man, and I was so excited...

As long as it comes to be and is a good kit...I   will too!!!!!

But....ETA was March 1, then end of March, April, May and now end of June....maybe. Having worked in kit development I figured their ETA was VERY optimistic. 

[Rob Hall]

Salvinos did post some pics of a test shot of the body in white on their FB page today.  Saud they are still hoping for late April/Early May.  

[Bill J]

Looked at the posted test shot body, it is missing a major line that goes from the front bumper to the rear, above the rocker. The box art picture shows that the chassis has leaf springs, which is totally wrong and the rear bumper is still apparently the one from the 75 Curlass promo. When asked about the chassis/suspension snafu, the answer was odd and they know it is wrong but not being fixed.

It was nice to think we'd get a 77 Olds as run by NASCAR in 80-81, but with the inaccuracies, it still leaves a hole. I definitely will not pay $40 for one. This kit appears to be mastered off a diecast and some old photos and no one even looked at a real car for accuracy. Sad.

Edited April 7, 2018 by Bill J

[Rob Hall]

The leaf springs make no sense, as GM didn't have anything like that on their street A-bodies.  A-bodies had coils.  IIRC, even the old MPC GM NASCAR kits from the 70s had the correct rear suspension. 

I saw the explanation for the leaf spring suspension on the Salvinos FB page, and it makes no sense, sounds like a lot of BS.

[Dave Van]

44 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

The leaf springs make no sense, as GM didn't have anything like that on their street A-bodies.  A-bodies had coils.  IIRC, even the old MPC GM NASCAR kits from the 70s had the correct rear suspension. 

I saw the explanation for the leaf spring suspension on the Salvinos FB page, and it makes no sense, sounds like a lot of BS.

ALL MPC stock car Cup kits had leaf spring rears. Even when they retooled them for the 1983 Monte Carlo, Regal and GP they left leaf springs in......LONG gone from Cup by them for any make. 

I agree it's not a good thing for a new tool to get it wrong......if it was a Petty Dodge Magnum....thumbs up!!

[Rob Hall]

The claim that was made was that the 1:1 Buddy Baker car was a rebodied Magnum that was bought from Petty....sounds like a tall tale.... 

[Dave Van]

1 hour ago, Rob Hall said:

The claim that was made was that the 1:1 Buddy Baker car was a rebodied Magnum that was bought from Petty....sounds like a tall tale.... 

Maybe someone's 'tribute' car built from junk parts......that's being done unfortunately....but in this day and age getting correct vintage info is as easy as falling off a chair. I am not dumping on these guys yet....I'll see what's in the box....and if they fix it as thy say.....a good step. BUT as I've consulted on MANY race car kits for free.....and would have done the same here....wish they had asked before cutting metal. 

[Brandon Miller]

I wish someone would post a photo of the actual Grey Ghost with the "missing" bodyline. Every photo I've seen of the real car (multiple angles) show it to be a rounded side body. AJ Foyt's #51 ran a lower bodyline car and a round side car. Petty's Daytona car had the bodyline but at other tracks it did not. Donnie Allison's black #1 was the same way. So if someone can post an image of the Grey Ghost with the bodyline, then I'll agree the body is wrong.

[yellowsportwagon]

1 hour ago, Brandon Miller said:

I wish someone would post a photo of the actual Grey Ghost with the "missing" bodyline. Every photo I've seen of the real car (multiple angles) show it to be a rounded side body. AJ Foyt's #51 ran a lower bodyline car and a round side car. Petty's Daytona car had the bodyline but at other tracks it did not. Donnie Allison's black #1 was the same way. So if someone can post an image of the Grey Ghost with the bodyline, then I'll agree the body is wrong.

I think the bodyline is always there but doesn’t show well in pictures. At least it doesn’t have the more sculptured sides of a 73-75 car. What bothers me is the 75 rear bumper. And why is it no one can look underneath a Banjo Matthews car to see what it looks like BEFORE making the model. The same chassis could be made for almost all the Ford and GM cars from 73-80. What they have done MPC did 46 years ago. Put the wrong chassis under it. How hard would it be to do it right versus wrong? The tooling costs can’t be much different!

[Bill J]

Some people want to say this line is not present on the Grey Ghost, it is just as present as on all the other cars. It is the fact that the car is black with reflective numbers that is fails to show in old pictures NASCAR required stock body skins be used in those days and there was no reason so eliminate a body line and they did not eliminate it, if goes not show on some cars due to paint schemes, lighting and far away photos. Here is clear pic of Foyt's car, line present.

It would be hard to add that line to the kit body but that line should be there on all the Olds. The facts are that Salvino's used a diecast to master this kit and who knows what else, They clearly never looks at a real 77 Cutlass race car, or a 77 Olds Cutlass/442 to even see what it looked like. They used the diecast and photos. A weak effort, unfortunately.

 

[Allen Wrench]

11 hours ago, Rob Hall said:

The leaf springs make no sense, as GM didn't have anything like that on their street A-bodies.  A-bodies had coils.  IIRC, even the old MPC GM NASCAR kits from the 70s had the correct rear suspension. 

I saw the explanation for the leaf spring suspension on the Salvinos FB page, and it makes no sense, sounds like a lot of BS.

I'm not overly familiar with the Franklin Mint model that was used as the prototype for the Savinos kit, but, my guess is that it had the leaf spring rear suspension, so they just went with it.

[Bill J]

A few of the 28 car with somewhat visible body line, it there same as all the other Olds cars.

[yellowsportwagon]

19 minutes ago, Allen Wrench said:

I'm not overly familiar with the Franklin Mint model that was used as the prototype for the Savinos kit, but, my guess is that it had the leaf spring rear suspension, so they just went with it.

No it had truck arms. As did everything aside from Mopar and Bobby Allison built cars post 1973. They just didn’t pay attention.

[magicmustang]

Here's pics of the Franklin Mint Petty Olds. They obviously did not use this as a guide. 

[Bill J]

I have to say, that I was really looking forward to the Olds kit and future cars that had not been previously modeled. I am really, seriously disappointed in the lack of accuracy they are putting in to this kit. For almost $40 we should be getting an effort at an accurate kit, not one with glaring omissions and components that are glaringly wrong.

Gerald, I am with you on the FM diecast, I have one also and have not really looked it over in years. Whatever they used as their guide (there was another diecast of the Ghost sold by NAPA stores I believe) their master lacked some details. I can't help but think they used the bandit Resin body as a guide, perhaps someone built one on a old MPC leaf chassis. The Bandit body was decent and mastered off the JoHan 75 Promo and can be forgiven for smooth sides because of the 75 car being different on the side panels. It would have been hard to add that 77 side crease on any body without one. Peculiar that the Salvino kit shows a 75 Cutlass rear bumper, which early versions of Bandit's kit included until they later corrected the rear bumper. The Bandit website still shows the 75 bumper with the pic of their kit.

So, bottom line, a new kit at a premium price should be somewhat accurate and not have so many inaccuracies, No excuse. I am not buying any at that price, as much as I would love to have several historical 77 Olds race cars on my shelf, this effort is not close enough to earn my business, or respect.

[Brandon Miller]

Here are 2 Olds without the bodyline. 

 

 

 

[Bill J]

Brandon, I am not trying to talk you out of buying this Olds kit, it's up to you to accept or reject. The pic of the Petty Olds shows the body line you can see it near the rear bumper and also visible down the sides, although faint because of angle, lighting and camera exposure. Look at the kink in the leg of the number 4. As for the Foyt car, hard to see in that pic which is the size of a postage stamp. I tend to think it is the same car as I posted above, since it would not make sense for Foyt to have more than one since he participated in a few races a year.

As long as you are convinced that the Salvino kit is beautiful, I say buy you some of them. You can buy the ones I may have bought. You think some cars are smooth sided, then you'll be happy with the kit. I am not going to convince myself that this is right so I can buy one or more and build them. I know they are wrong and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

I just ask that Salvino owns up to that fact that their kit is wrong in several areas and their next offering needs to be better.

Edited April 8, 2018 by Bill J

[Brandon Miller]

Glad to know you are the end all be all of Nascar Oldsmobiles. I can sleep good now.

[Bill J]

Ok make it personal Brandon, I should have known. I think you're already asleep dude, dreaming about perfect Olds kits with leaf springs and such. Glad you're happy now, you've made a new friend.

[Brandon Miller]

Never made it personal. It's just obvious you're the Olds Nascar expert.

[Casey]

On 3/24/2018 at 1:58 PM, Rob Hall said:

Salvinos did post some pics of a test shot of the body in white on their FB page today.  Saud they are still hoping for late April/Early May.  

 

Where was it shown or stated the actual model would have leaf springs?

Edited April 8, 2018 by Casey