nearsightedjohn 541 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 "GTO by Pontiac....for those who think young!"....... This is my interpretation of a famous "match racer" S/FX super stock drag car from my childhood, Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick's supercharged 1964 Pontiac GTO. Some claim this car is the first "door slammer" to do a 1/4 mile in under 10 seconds (and some say it was some other car....). The base of this build was Revell's excellent 1/24 kit to which I added after-market 1/25 resin front wheels and a Hilborn fly-catcher injector as well as scratch-built headers, some PE linkage and a few odds-and-ends from my spares box. Decals are from Slixx. I can add additional details on this build if anyone's interested. I'm in the process of building a collection of similar early 60's American super stock race cars which I hope to enter in the "collections" category in a hopefully future post-covid model contest. I have ten completed and another 12-14 in the queue! Thanks for looking! John Exhaust headers scratch-built using 2 mm rosin-core solder. These are easier to do than I thought they would be. Scratch-built ladder type traction bars shown unpainted and dry-fitted which I'm still considering installing or replacing with better ones....these look a little big too big to me....what do you think? 13 Link to post Share on other sites
Anteater 595 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 I can't comment on your traction bars but the rest of it looks great to me. Link to post Share on other sites
Pete in Lincs 15,548 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 John, who doesn't love a 'Goat'? What a beauty this one is. The traction bars? There's a lot of power to control there. Who's to say you're wrong with this size? Please keep them coming. Link to post Share on other sites
keefr22 13,788 Posted February 16 Share Posted February 16 Likewise I have no idea about the traction bars, but I do like a good model race car - and that's a stunning example, really lovely build! Keith Link to post Share on other sites
JeroenS 6,481 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Cool stuff. I don't know what size those type of traction bars usually are but they don't look too big on the model to me. Paint 'm and stick 'm on I'd say. Link to post Share on other sites
nearsightedjohn 541 Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Thanks JeroenS, I think I will go ahead with adding the challenging diagonal ladder “steps” and paint and mount these puppies. They’ll probably look a little smaller once they are painted a dark silver or black. Thanks everyone for the compliments, I’ll keep building and posting as I make progress on my super stock collection. 2 Link to post Share on other sites
TonyW 10,662 Posted February 17 Share Posted February 17 Nice Goat. You really have nailed the look. The Halibrands up front look really good, who make them? My early copies of Super Stock and Drag are worn thin from constant reading. The sixties on US dragstrips are one of my all time favourite era's for motorsport. Link to post Share on other sites
nearsightedjohn 541 Posted February 17 Author Share Posted February 17 Thanks Tony. The 15” Halibrands are from Speedcityresin.com, item # SC-38, $8 USD including inner rims. Expensive but worth it to get the right period look I think. I agree with you about these early SS years, I think it’s partly nostalgia (first drag race I attended was in around ‘63 or ‘64 at Lions) but also the fact that some of these cars were sometimes very close to what one could buy from a dealer (particularly the Mopars). Modern drag racing pro stocks and funny cars do nothing for me but then that could just be my geezer age. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites
swralph 1,956 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Very nice build. Link to post Share on other sites
airea 169 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Wow great attention to detail, especially the dashboard and the engine looks very nice and realistic. Very nice work!! Link to post Share on other sites
Six97s 275 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Nice job. I think I have a copy of HRM with a feature on this car, with some of the mod parts laid out. I'll have a look. Link to post Share on other sites
Six97s 275 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) My filing system is better than I thought. No interior photos, but the ladder bars are shown. I doubt you want to pull it apart now, but it had a beefier '57 Pontiac rear end and he used a slant pan Hydro to begin with, then a TH400. Edited February 19 by Six97s 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites
nearsightedjohn 541 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 Thanks Six, yeh that’s the article I found on line after I was close to finish with this build. I try to research subjects (part of the fun of scale modeling) but in this case I got impatient and went ahead with best guesses, oh well, it’s all good fun accurate or not! I painted and mounted the ladder bars, they look smaller/ more realistic in semi-gloss black. I’ve got a triple build going on the bench now, AMT’s really bad ‘65 Mustang AWB “funny car”, AMT’s Grumpy’s Toy #1 ‘66 Nova A/S and the Moebius ‘s 65 Plymouth Melrose Missile Hemi SS. I’m enjoying trying to make a half-way acceptable FX cammer out of this toy-like Mustang model. 3 Link to post Share on other sites
Vesa Jussila 903 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Really nice model. Please more of these. Link to post Share on other sites
TonyW 10,662 Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 The ladder bars look a whole lot better in black John. There's a fair bit of Girder Bridge style engineering used on these early cars and I think you have got the look right. I've had a Dick Landy AWB car underway for more years than I want to remember. Seeing your build makes me want to dg it out and finally finish the thing. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
kapam 1,766 Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Excellent build! I'm no expert, but the traction arms don't look too big to me - the photograph of the real thing also suggests they were quite imposing. Link to post Share on other sites
Homer 1,080 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Congratulations on a beautiful piece of modelling well done Link to post Share on other sites
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