Modern funny cars kits

[LeadFred]

Hi ,

Can anyone tell me if it is the same frames and engines in the modern funny cars from revell?

If you go back 20 years,alots of funny cars have been realesed from revell. Do they use the same tool for all or does Any kit have Other parts?

The New mongoose 57 chevy for example,is that the same chassie as the Other Latest realesed funny cars?

And how about Monograms 1/24 funny cars,are they good for building and update with extra detail.

Fred

[nitro norman]

Your question is a little confusing, but maybe this will help. The latest funny car releases (1/25 scale ) from Revell are the Hawaiian and the Chi Town Hustler. The Hawaiian had a Logghe chassis.which was common `with many funny cars of that era. I think that the Hustler had a custom built chassis with it's off set engine driver set up.

The last series of Revell funny cars before these two was in the ninties. This included the Mooneyes funny car, Cruz Pedregon's McDonald's car, etc. I think these all had the same chassis. The narrow ones much like the funny cars of today.

Revell funny cars of the eighties ( Don Prudomne, McEwan's 57 chevy that you mentioned ) had a similar chassis that was a little shorter.

The Revell funny cars of the seventies ( Jungle Jim, Gene Snow, etc. ) had the same chassis. I think it was the Don Hardy design. The recently released Hawaiian in 1/16 scale has this same chassis design.

I hope this helps. If I have made any mistakes on this, I hope some one will correct me.

[Daddyfink]

The Mongoose 57 Funny car was first issued back in 1989 and the current unit on the shelves is a re-issue. This funny shares its chassis with all the other Monogram/Revell funny cars made in 1/24th since the mid 80's well into the 2000's.

With minor alterations and additions, they are all pretty much the same, minus the bodies of course.

[Force]

Yes that's right.

I got at least one of each evolution of these kits, all Funny Car kits wich started with the Monogram Don Prudhomme Pepsi/Wendy's, Dale Pulde Miller Warrior Pontiac Trans Am's and Billy Meyer Chief Autoparts Ford Mustang in 1984 via the Monogram Ford Tempo from 1986, the Revell Olds Cutlass from 1989, Dodge Avenger from 1995 and up to the Pontiac Firebird from 1997 are based on the same tooling...including the Mongoo$e 57 Chevy...and share the same chassis and pretty much everything else.
Some things were updated during the years tho'.
We'll start with the wheels, the first kits had Weld Drag Lite, then Weld Pro Star for some of the Olds and finally a strange hybrid of the Weld Pro Star and Centerline Convo Pro that never looked right for the Avenger and Firebird.

Further updates were dual magnetos and dual plug valve covers and electronics box wich came with the Olds, the rear end got changed to a Chrisman in the Avenger, the blower got a bag and hold down straps, the injector hat got larger with straps and the wheelie bar was changed to a single with the Firebird, and a few things more.

Edited September 19, 2014 by Force

[nitro norman]

I don't know why I thought the 80's chassis were shorter. I stand corrected.

[Dragline]

Need to be released, is the end of that question. A new tool is loooooong overdue. Milked so long that cow's great grandkids have grandkids.

Bob

[shift13]

Im working on a new fc chassis now anx trying to update and make it current. The biggest headache is building the upper prtion of the roll cage as todays cars have sheet metal, or carban fiber aswell as tubing. Other than that trying to make a correct intake manifold for a 1471 blower and swap the stock dual mags with msd 44s, oh and the bell housing.

[Force]

Yup, this tooling is very out of date and needs a lot of correcting to get to modern standards, a lot has happened since the last version of the tooling 1997 as the updates Revell did to the tooling then was too little and too late to get up to the specs even for the time they were done.

The funny thing is...not much has happened hardware wise on the real cars since Revell stopped releasing "new updated" Funny Cars and Top Fuelers in the early 2000's.

The latest of the modern era Top Fuel Dragster kits from Revell was the Bernstein Bud King and the Schumacher Army cars released back in 2002 and they are the most updated version of that tooling, not enough to be up to the specs for the time tho'...but IF Revell had done all necessary updating to the TF kits back then the tooling would still have worked very well today 12 years later as a current Top Fuel Dragster still looks pretty much like they did back in 2002 and the kit would have needed very little to be up to current status.
The same with the Funny Cars, except for the bodies, wheels and cage around the driver they haven't changed that much since 2002 either.

Many FC and TF teams started to use the set-back blower that everyone uses today around 2002-3 and many of the other things we see on the cars today came before that so after 2002-3 not much has been done to the cars that are that visible.

So needed updates to get the TF and FC kits closer to today's standard are:

The engines in both the TF and FC kits needs new intake manifold and set-back 14-71 blower with bag and hold down straps, a larger carbon fibre injector hat (wich the 2002 TF kits had), MSD Pro Mag 44 magnetos with boxes and coils, titanium valve covers with covers for the spark plugs, a slightly larger titanium bell housing for the 5-disc clutch (the TF one isn't that bad but the FC needs a totally new one), the fuel management systems also needs some updating with Sid Waterman Mega Bertha Fuel pumps and feed tubes and the mandatory slide valve that all use now, some barrel valves, shut off valves and some other maybe for optional use would also have been nice to have.

The chassis also need some updating, the roll cage around the driver is wider with more padding (especially in a FC), has more bars and a titanium shield to protect the drivers head from flying debris, they need the oildown protection belly pans and the larger blow by oil scavenge tanks, Funny Cars needs a new fuel tank and an oil tank for the dry sump beside it (yes FC's has had dry sump oil system since at least back in the late 80's) and an air bottle for the driver.

The TF kits needs new wings both rear and front as the rear wing has allways been 2-element in the kits but 3-element wings has been used on the real cars since about 1997-98 (Revell never updated the rear wing other than new end plates) and the front wing is a separate whole piece in front of the nose cone on the real cars and appeared for the first time in 1998 on Joe Amato's car and the rest came in after that, and therefore also a new body and wind shield are needed in the kits, the TF kits have also needed a new fuel tank since the very beginning as they have never looked like they do in the kits.

Both the TF and FC kits needs new wheels.

Front wheels, preferably a couple of different current designs like Magnum PRO, Aluma Star and V-Series from Weld Racing, and maybe the ARE series Qualifier, Track Star and Torque Thrust Pro (the American Racing Pro Series wheels wich are sold by Weld today).
The Weld Racing Magnum PRO and Aluma Star PRO rear bead lock wheels with the required SFI 15.4 tag are used by most of the racers in nitro racing today so they are obvoius choises...some may even use the fairly new Weld Delta 1 wheel wich also are available with SFI 15.4 tag and has become very popular in Pro Stock.

The Schumacher TF canopy maybe aren't that necessary as there aren't that many who use them yet except for the 3 DSR drivers and Brittany Force but would be a nice optional part.

And of course the FC kits needs new bodies...not that I like the look of the "wedges with humps" body styles they drive today but they are needed to do a current Funny Car.

.

Edited September 20, 2014 by Force

[Dragline]

Last year NAPA bought my dad and I the full access tickets for the Capps/Schumacher pit. Since Ron has started to get familiar with me [i'm a pain and always represent NAPA] he allowed me access to take close up pics of his car for a future project.

I'll post pics here in this thread for anyone who wishes to see the differences.

Just have to find the folder they are in.

Bob

[shift13]

Last year NAPA bought my dad and I the full access tickets for the Capps/Schumacher pit. Since Ron has started to get familiar with me [i'm a pain and always represent NAPA] he allowed me access to take close up pics of his car for a future project.

I'll post pics here in this thread for anyone who wishes to see the differences.

Just have to find the folder they are in.

Bob

yes please send link more references are always welcome

[nitro norman]

I think that the diecasts had a lot to do with the demise of the Top Fuel and Funny Car kits. This is daydreaming ,but I would like to see Revell put out some generic Funny Car and Top Fuel kits. Maybe a couple of funny cars with modern bodies and chassis, and a top fuel car with the same updates. Release them with fictional decals like they did with the Dart Super Stock kit. This way they wouldn't have to worry about licensing. Slixx and others could go to town putting out decals.This would make life much easier for those who want to build modern nitro cars. Anyway, that's just my two cents worth.

[Force]

I think you have a point there Norman, the diecast industry has most likely killed off much of the NHRA and NASCAR racing model kit market...back before the diecast models people who wanted a model of their favourite drivers cars had to buy a model kit...nothing else was available to them.

The diecast industry also did exclusive deals with many racing teams so they were the only ones licensed to do models of their cars...much as John Force Racing...diecast only...and if the model kit companys couldn't make and sell model kits of the most popular drivers cars the market gets a lot narrower.

Today the cost of licensing and small market doesn't make it worth doing kits of these cars anymore.

I know back in 1997 Revell planned to do John Force's Firebird FC...it was even in the catalog for that year...but the kit was canceled due to licensing issues, Revell did the Firebird FC kit but cars with other drivers instead (C Pedregon McDonalds - J Toliver MAD - R Anderson Parts America and a couple of generic race specific cars)...bad for a John Force fan like me.
I don't know...but I think a John Force FC model kit would have sold pretty well.

I like your daydreams, I would also have liked generic fictional models of modern up to date Top Fuel , Funny Car and even Pro Stock kits...I for one would get several each...as you say, the aftermarket would probably fill the need for decals.

This hasn't been tried before...yes generic models of race cars has been out before...but not of current up to date racing cars...and as nothing else except for the old out dated kits is available for us modelers it might work, licensing would be less of a problem as they already have most of the needed licenses to do the cars.
What licencing are needed to do these?

Top Fuel...McKinney, Hadman, DSR for the chassis design, Chrysler for engines as the basic design are theirs?... KB, AJPE, BAE, JFR only does inhanced "copys".

Funny Car...McKinney, Hadman, DSR, JFR, for chassis, Ford (wich are leaving), Dodge, Toyota for bodys, engines as above...?

Pro Stock...Haas, Bickel, RJ for chassis, Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge for bodies and engines...?

Edited September 21, 2014 by Force

[10thumbs]

Pics?

Where are the pics?

Old models vs. newer models.

Michael

[gasser59]

Last year NAPA bought my dad and I the full access tickets for the Capps/Schumacher pit. Since Ron has started to get familiar with me [i'm a pain and always represent NAPA] he allowed me access to take close up pics of his car for a future project.

I'll post pics here in this thread for anyone who wishes to see the differences.

Just have to find the folder they are in.

Bob

Did you ever get your pictures posted Bob? Always love to have current era reference.

[Dragline]

I'll put em up tonight.

B

[Dragline]

I have more, just can't find the dang folder.

[gbdolfans]

Bob,those pics are great!!! Correct me if I'm wrong,but,I think that is Ron Capps Funny Car.

It would be great if you could post a link to more of your photos.I am going to start an Army Fueler.

Any pics of Tony's car?

Thanks,George