why dont most japanese kits come with engines?

[Carmak]

9 minutes ago, Bainford said:

Additionally, as Brian mentioned above, and for some unfathomable reason, battery powered kits were the norm, which would have negatively effected the inclusion of an engine in many kits.

I agree that American performance car culture played a part in American kits including engines.

Interestingly Revell offered many kits in the early 60's with a battery powered option such as the 1962 Mopar annuals and the multi piece body 57 Ranchero. These kits also included engines. 

[peteski]

6 hours ago, Bainford said:

Additionally, as Brian mentioned above, and for some unfathomable reason, battery powered kits were the norm, which would have negatively effected the inclusion of an engine in many kits.

I think that is because Japanese thought of those simply as children's toys to be played with rather than detailed static scale replicas which sit in display cases. Actually kids in USA also played with those early full-detail kits, but often blowing them up with firecrackers. However I think that motorized kit lasted a bit longer in Japanese kits' hands since it could actually ride around.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Another variable between Japanese cars and American subjects might be engine option availability.

A Japanese car may have had a couple of engine variations, but American classics, (especially in the 60s) usually had a whole host of options.

There was almost always at least one 6 cylinder option, followed by small blocks, and big blocks, with sometimes a large number of induction variables, (ie, 2 barrel, 4 barrel, dual quads, 3 deuces, fuel injection, etc).

Engine configuration was indeed a large consideration with American classics, and in fact, one of the first questions asked about them was inevitably, "what's under the hood?" 

 

Just my opinion, but Japanese power plants were pretty boring, so representing them in a kit may not have been much of a priority.

American cars, especially in the muscle car era, had much more interesting and diverse engine variations that the manufacturers probably felt were worthy of representation.

 

 

 

Steve

 

[stavanzer]

4 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Another variable between Japanese cars and American subjects might be engine option availability.

A Japanese car may have had a couple of engine variations, but American classics, (especially in the 60s) usually had a whole host of options.

This makes a whole lot of sense.

There just isn't as much variation in Japanese powerplants, especially back when plastic modeling started. So less interest in the engine.