Round2 at Akron NNL (2025)

[niteowl7710]

9 hours ago, OldNYJim said:

I wonder if there’s any difference between the Tiger Shark and the Python?

Love the HW box art!  I’m in for a Stogie or two too!

Hot Wheels changed the name and so they obliged.  No other changes were made to make it match the actual 1/64 (which has a blown engine through the hood - and you'll notice that's not on the box art).

[Ragtop Man]

22 hours ago, Mark said:

There were maybe a dozen or so of those 421 sedans, plus a couple of station wagons.  They retained the transaxle setup when originally built, though most were converted to a conventional transmission and rear axle later.

They had a special 4-speed semi automatic transaxle called "PowerShift" , one of the trickest bits of technology in the era. Basically, Pontiac ganged two standard Corvair/Tempest transaxle Powerglide planetary units around a single ring and pinion, capped with a conventional torque convertor. Power flowed through a hollow pinion (!) to the units creating a ratio spread similar to the Super T-10.  It engaged with a clutch to start, but then could be manually shifted without lifting. All was good until the advent of the 8" tire and steepening competition (deepest ratio was 3.90)  If you drill down in the story here... you get the whole thing. 

FWIW, if you wanted to make the convertible into a coupe, it would be very straightforward to stab the common roof on to the improved body. This would be all the incentive needed for R2 to release a coupe version! 

https://www.hotrod.com/news/mickey-thompson-the-pontiac-tempest

 

[Ragtop Man]

12 hours ago, Robberbaron said:

'63 Lemans came out of left field for me.  Never would have guessed that most of the original tooling survived.  Suspecting that a coupe version will be announced in the near future, a la the '64 Cutlass and '68 Coronet.

And I agree, the mind starts racing regarding other similar scenarios.  First thought that comes to my mind is the '65 Falcon.

Bingo. That would be a great choice. The kit had a lot of Monte Carlo Rally parts in it that were fairly accurate. 

[Luc Janssens]

13 hours ago, Robberbaron said:

The mind starts racing regarding other similar scenarios.  First thought that comes to my mind is the '65 Falcon.

Would like that.

[Can-Con]

4 hours ago, fairlane1320 said:

I was really excited to see this, then I realized it's the same old crappy 1/27 scale kit. 😣

The kit itself is NOT actually underscale, it's just too short. 

When I built my AMT '70 restoration last year I did comparisons with it, the MPC '69 shown and the Revell '69 and found they're all almost exactly the same width but the MPC was designed to use the chassis MPC had used for earlier Mustangs since their '66 so it was too short. 

I found that if I used another MPC body and made the right cuts through the doors and roof of both and grafted the longer halves back together I would have one very nice '69 Mustang body and one very funky short '69 Mustang body.😉

Edited 5 hours ago by Can-Con

[Edsel-Dan]

I love the Chevy Wagon, 65 Cuda and the 63 Tempest convertible!

I did not know that one was coming!

Did that kit have a Four or inline 6??

I had an original in my watch list on ebay, it showed what looked like a 6 cylinder engine not a four

[blizzy63]

The announcement at Akron NNL of a coming AMT '63 Pontiac Lemans convertible (AMT1416) brings me hope of a future '63 Tempest/Lemans hardtop (à la the AMT '64 Cutlass/442 and MPC '68 Coronet kits).

This would put on the horizon for me a future-build of a subject long haunting my mind...

(I've got a couple of '62 Pontiac Catalina donor kits on stand-by...) 🤞

Edited 3 hours ago by blizzy63