Any new car models coming from Moebius next year?

[GMP440]

 

 Is Moebius coming out with any new car models next year?  I remember the pics of the prototype 63 or 64 Nova drag awb car, but are there any plans for any other future car model subjects?

[Motor City]

They seem to be concentrating on some Ford pickups right now.  Hopefully they will see the light and come out with some Rancheros.

[Dave Van]

Things are in the works.......but it is going to be slow. Each project must pay for itself before the next....so BUY! 

[kjohan]

A wish for an unusual model from Moebius:

The Ford Falcon Futura Sprint 1964 Monte Carlo Rally 1964 as driven by Bo Ljungfeldt

Why:

He is up to now the only one who has been fastest on all the special stages  in this famous rally.
And that in two years in a row, both in 1963 and 1964.
In 1963 he got stuck in a traffic jam on a transport stretch, this due to very bad snow conditions, resulting in severe time penalties, and he ended up in 42nd

In 1964 the rules and handicap system was changed , unfavourably for him and his large (and fast) car.
Thus he was on 5th before the final race on the GP track in the town of Monte Carlo, 3 laps only.
He managed to regain most of his deficit vs the leaders, but not fully, came 2nd behind Paddy Hopkirk in a Mini in the total standing.
(Erik Carlsson in a 2-stroke Saab in 3rd)
But Ljungfeldt was fastest on all the special stages.

AMT made a rather ok looking model 55 years ago of the -64 Rally Falcon (built it then)
But unfortunately they used the signs and numbers (221)  of the Peter Jopp car in the 1963 rally (ending 34th)
This model also had the regular "fully furnished" standard interior. More on that below.

The -64 Ljungfeldt car (no 49) was the most radically prepared of several Falcons in the Rally.
The cars were originally built and prepared in the US in the Holman-Moody work shop, thereafter sent to Europe (Alan Mann and other) for final preparations.
The engine was a 289 tuned at Shelby' s.
The Ljungfelt car was the lightest of these Falcons, having "no interior", and was the only one coming close to meet the homologized weight of 1080 kg,
the others were heavier
Hence it also was quite quick, aided by rather short gearing , giving a top speed around 125 mph/ 200 kph.

As Moebius have tooling for the sister car Mercury Comet several components I think would be possible to share.
As a side comment it can be mentioned that the Comet in rally execution was entered in the 1964 East African Safari Rally)

This Ljungfeldt car still exists.

So a nice kit of the Ljungfeldt Falcon Futura Sprint -64 Monte Carlo Rally would be high on my wish list
 

[randyc]

A really nice Falcon with several iterations would be nice, especially the way Moebius does them..  And the rally car would be cool.  I'm playing Dirt Rally on Xbox now and competing in the 60s class.   Wish I had a Falcon instead of the Alpine, Lancia Fulvia or Mini Cooper.

[espo]

As Dave Van pointed out " Each project must pay for itself before moving to the next"  Seems like a lot of their fine Ford pickups are selling well so hopefully the next project will be soon. 

[stevez]

what happened to the chevy II gasser?  I was drooling over the possibility of that one.  

[Mr. Metallic]

1 hour ago, stevez said:

what happened to the chevy II gasser?  I was drooling over the possibility of that one.  

Those are supposedly still an active project. But please note, no tooling was ever cut for those. the mockups presented at the shows were 3D printed.

[afx]

7 hours ago, kjohan said:

The Ford Falcon Futura Sprint 1964 Monte Carlo Rally 1964 as driven by Bo Ljungfeldt

I would buy this kit for sure!

Working on Bob Johnson's '64 Falcon he competed with in Trans-Am, based on the Trumpeter kit.

Edited July 30, 2020 by afx

[espo]

21 hours ago, afx said:

I would buy this kit for sure!

Working on Bob Johnson's '64 Falcon he competed with in Trans-Am, based on the Trumpeter kit.

I realize you're building a specialized version of this Falcon, but I was wondering what your opinion of the kit would be to build a mainly street version.  

[afx]

45 minutes ago, espo said:

I realize you're building a specialized version of this Falcon, but I was wondering what your opinion of the kit would be to build a mainly street version.  

I did a fair amount of work to the body to improve the look to my eye.  The chassis really doesn't represent a replica stock (production) car.  It depends on how particular you are regarding the details but I have seen some nice builds of the basic kit. 

Here is a link to my project:

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by afx

[espo]

25 minutes ago, afx said:

I did a fair amount of work to the body to improve the look to my eye.  The chassis really doesn't represent a replica stock (production) car.  It depends on how particular you are regarding the details but I have seen some nice builds of the basic kit. 

Here is a link to my project:

 

Thank you for your opinion and the link. I went back thru the link and enjoyed see all the contributions from others and how you put this together. The discussion on the fuel filler reminded me of what happened at the old Riverside Raceway when I was working for Union Oil Company. One of my duties was to help at the Union Station inside the pit area and this was around the '69 and early '70's race sessions. The fuel was supplied at no cost to the teams and we were even putting racing fuel in the race tracks support vehicles, some may have even spilled into my personal car. During one of the SCCA meets a guy rolls up to the pumps in a '67 or '68 Mustang. He had a quick fill in the middle of the trunk lid, roll bars in the interior and looked very much like any other Mustang that was competing that day. The driver gets out and tells use to fuel the car which we started to do. All of a sudden he starts screaming to stop fueling.  Turns out he was just a "poser" looking for a free tank of gas and the quick filler just went into his trunk which now had about 5  plus gallons of race fuel floating around in it. He was sort of person that sort of had it coming anyway. Just thought you might enjoy the little happening from the pits. 

[Snake45]

17 minutes ago, espo said:

The driver gets out and tells use to fuel the car which we started to do. All of a sudden he starts screaming to stop fueling.  Turns out he was just a "poser" looking for a free tank of gas and the quick filler just went into his trunk which now had about 5  plus gallons of race fuel floating around in it. He was sort of person that sort of had it coming anyway. 

Sounds like something happened to me. I was a HS sophomore pumping gas when a Corvair full of smartass seniors I vaguely knew pulled in to have some fun with me. "Two dollars worth, and we need the water topped off." 

"Can do," I says, "but this is a Corvair and doesn't take water." 

"Of course it does!" says Head Smartass. "What kind of car doesn't take water?"

"Okay, " I says, "Show me where it goes."

Guy pops the (rear) hood and points to the oil filler cap. The other three snicker. 

I pulled the oil filler cap and grab the water can and start swinging toward the hole.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" yelled all four of them at once, about one milisecond before the water started pouring. "You win. We didn't think you'd actually DO it. We just wanted to hassle you a little bit." 

"I don't have time to play your games. My orders are to do what the customer wants," I told him. 

They never came in again. 

[espo]

1 minute ago, Snake45 said:

Sounds like something happened to me. I was a HS sophomore pumping gas when a Corvair full of smartass seniors I vaguely knew pulled in to have some fun with me. "Two dollars worth, and we need the water topped off." 

"Can do," I says, "but this is a Corvair and doesn't take water." 

"Of course it does!" says Head Smartass. "What kind of car doesn't take water?"

"Okay, " I says, "Show me where it goes."

Guy pops the (rear) hood and points to the oil filler cap. The other three snicker. 

I pulled the oil filler cap and grab the water can and start swinging toward the hole.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" yelled all four of them at once, about one milisecond before the water started pouring. "You win. We didn't think you'd actually DO it. We just wanted to hassle you a little bit." 

"I don't have time to play your games. My orders are to do what the customer wants," I told him. 

They never came in again. 

A friend of mine when we were in HS had a 2CV with the rear mounted water cooled 4 cyl. The gas fill and the radiator fill were both in the rear. I don't remember exactly which was which, but I think the radiator fill was between the bottom of the rear window and the engine cover. The gas fill was in the engine compartment. He always had to stand guard so that the proper fluids went in the correct place when ever he got gas. 

[RichCostello]

4 hours ago, espo said:

I realize you're building a specialized version of this Falcon, but I was wondering what your opinion of the kit would be to build a mainly street version.  

I recently built the Trumpeter Falcon, and I love this kit. I did it as sort of a street rod, with a teardrop hood, mags, etc. and it turned out great. The plastic was so smooth and shiney that I didn't even paint, or polish the body.

[Dave G.]

Might sound stupid to most but they did a great job on the 56 Chrysler, I want to see a 56 Buick come out.

[RichCostello]

2 hours ago, Dave G. said:

Might sound stupid to most but they did a great job on the 56 Chrysler, I want to see a 56 Buick come out.

It doesn't sound stupid to me, but I'd rather have a 57 Olds 88.

[Dave G.]

8 hours ago, RichCostello said:

It doesn't sound stupid to me, but I'd rather have a 57 Olds 88.

I like the Oldsmobiles too in those years. Since I was a kid for whatever reason the 56 Buick just was something I'd like to have modeled and Mobius would do it up right, I'd take a 55 or 57 if that's all there was... I built the 58 that was around back in the day ( 1960 or so I imagine), I think a couple of them actually, the first being the first car I tried to paint and not so successfully lol. Never cared for the 58 I' might add.

[kjohan]

To reconnect to the wish for a comprehensive kit of the -64 Monte Carlo Rally Falcon, a few more comments

- Above has been mentioned track racing versions.
  There were several Falcon cars successfully raced in Europe, main opposition beeing the Jaguar mk2 3.8 l, Mercedes 220/300 SE as well as Ford Cortina Lotus and Volvos
  Have seen info that, in the batch of cars built by Holman&Moody, there was also one which went to Daytona for track racing in 1964, presumably the Walt Hansgen car finishing 7th in the American Cup race,
  a "preliminary" to the sports car race two days later. 

- The low weight on the rally car I had seen and quoted, 1080 kg, most likely was with empty car
  Have later seen figures in the range of up to almost 1300 kg, this with fluids and spares on board.
  The car had an additional fuel tank, in total carrying just over 100 litres.

- Ljungdeldt was not only an accomplished rally driver, he was also very good at track racing, mainly tarmac but sometimes also on ice, often driving Ford Cortina Lotus.
  He also drove Formula Junior, a very popular class in Europe in the early -60´s, max engine displacement most of the time 1100 cc, in later years increased to 1600 cc.
  Ljungfeldt drove a Lotus 18, a car which Saab on one occasion, oct 31st/ Nov 1st -60,  loaned for benchmark testing of their Formula Junior project.
 

- Finally, I myself saw Ljungfeldt with navigator Fergus Sager driving their -64 Falcon in the -64 Swedish rally, finishing 7th.
  In those days this rally was driven early/mid June.
  Imagine a small , narrow winding gravel road outside the medeival town of Skara, the forrest crowded with spectators.
  We were sitting a little high up viewing slightly down on the road in the setting afternoon/early evening sun.
  The cars came,   a large variey;
   Minis, VW 1200 and 1600, various Fords and Fiats, Porsches (356), Volvos 544 and Amazon and naturally 2-stroke Saabs.
  In the midst of this came the Falcon. 
  Quite a contrast considering size and sound.
  ( However it must be said, that in my ears there is very few things which tops a higly tuned Saab 2-stroke driven 110 %.
   Though in a different area of the frequency spectructrum )

So there are the reasons why I woluld like to see this Falcon modelled (again)
  
   

[espo]

18 hours ago, RichCostello said:

I recently built the Trumpeter Falcon, and I love this kit. I did it as sort of a street rod, with a teardrop hood, mags, etc. and it turned out great. The plastic was so smooth and shiney that I didn't even paint, or polish the body.

Thank you for your input on the Falcon. While I'm not a major Ford type builder , there are many particular Fords that appeal to me and this Falcon is one of them. I'll keep you this information in mind the next time I go looking for a new project. 

[Snake45]

Re '64 Falcon: If you want one, they're available in a couple different ways. None is particularly inexpensive, but they ARE available. More available than a lot of other desirable cars I could name. 

Re Trumpeter: I simply can't understand why they don't keep desirable cars in production and even expand the lines. The '63 Novas are now bringing nearly what original AMTs are, and the Falcons are catching up fast. Why would they turn off this money machine? 

[Mike999]

22 minutes ago, Snake45 said:

...The '63 Novas are now bringing nearly what original AMTs are, and the Falcons are catching up fast. Why would they turn off this money machine? 

Good question.  The Novas were their best car kit, IMO.  The ragtop kit even has separate, chromed ashtrays for the rear armrests. The Falcons come in second, for that weird chassis/engine and silly goofs like the 2 fuel filler caps on the Ranchero.

The less said about their Monte Carlo and Pontiacs the better, IMO again.  But even those kits have their fans,  and a straight re-issue of the car kits should be a no-brainer and a big money maker.  

A couple of months ago I put a Trumpeter Nova hardtop on eBay.  It sold very quickly, just a few hours after the listing started.  The "Buy It Now" price was $99.99, plus shipping.  They have sold for even more.  An auction for a hardtop last week brought 13 bids and a final price of $132.50. But a Nova ragtop recently sold for $49.00 "Buy It Now."   Forget it, Jake, it's eBay-Town...

Edited August 1, 2020 by Mike999
goof

[RichCostello]

I've got the 60 Pontiac Convertible kit, and it looks pretty good(and pretty complicated), so I'm just working up the courage to build it.

[Mark]

Trumpeter screwed up by trying to reinvent everything.  The Pontiacs have too-thin hood and trunk lid outer panels, the Novas have that gimmicky working steering (to accomodate that, they put the exhaust system on the wrong side).  Then there's that goofy plating, again different from how everyone else does plating for car kits.  The Falcon chassis details are a bit on the abstract side.  Had they gotten the body shapes correct, skipped the gimmicks, and used conventional plating, they'd have been able to keep prices within reason and sell a lot more of each kit.

[Tom Geiger]

People seem to forget that Moebius was sold to Pegasus. No doubt a big purchase for them and they may be short on cash to race forward!