Another Firebird Flopper .........

[Old Coyote]

..... a "cousin" to my War Eagle Firebird, this is John Keeling and Jerry Clayton's "California Charger" Firebird driven by Neil Leffler

[cobraman]

Very nice, love that car.

[Hayabusa]

Wow, what a nice Flopper! Brings back memories from 1980. This Flopper was bought by the norwegian Steinar Stolen in 1980 and I had an opportunity to see the car myself live in Malmö the same year. Late august or early september, if I recall correctly. There was a Dragrace event held in Malmö at an ex-airfield (Bulltofta). Seeing the California Charger in its original livery was just amazing! Steinar Stolen raced the car with a blown methanol engine in the Pro Comp class which consisted of Floppers and rail Dragsters, blown methanol or injected nitro. The all raced against each other with some sort of handicap system.

Here´s a YouTube clip showing the car at Santa Pod Raceway in UK. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ9r38I4bi4#t=30

The car was later sold to Finland where it was repainted an raced in the Super Comp class. The name of the finnish guy was Perrti soronen, I believe.

[Magic Photos]

Very nice always liked there cars

[Silver Foxx]

Another terrific build , your funny car work is so nice .

[blackbeard]

very nice flopper love them cars

[PappyD340]

Another Fantastic build indeed John!!

[DrKerry]

Beautiful John!!! Great work..

[Mike 1017]

BEAUTIFUL !!!!!

[Dragfreak]

simply fantastic!

[slusher]

Gorgeous model John. Well done...

[Dinky]

Awesome job on this build

[Jim Whalen]

Great funny car! It captures the look of look of floppers in that era very well. What are some details of the build - kit, body, decals etc.?

[Old Coyote]

What are some details of the build - kit, body, decals etc.?

The Firebird body is from Competition Resins, as is the Crower injector and scoop. The chassis is from the Revell Spy vs Spy funny car kit. The paint is a 50/50 mix of Testors French Blue and Classic White enamels, and the decals came from Slixx. Minor modifications had to be made to the underbody "tin" to allow the body to drop down into the proper position.

[disabled modeler]

Very NICE John...love it!!!

[Jim Whalen]

Hi,

Thanks for filling me in on the details of the build.