It helps to remember that the classes or groups we tend to think of cars fitting into are often rather arbitrary distinctions. This may be more apparent to us folk outside North America, I think. For us, sixties intermediates are already large cars, and sixties full-sizers are off-scale. As always, I mean that nicely. It seems to be a general human trait to want to classify things, to group things, to see new things relative to something else we know. Maybe it’s a survival trait: the future is less scary that way.
Okay, I’ll lead the philosopher back to his cell. (C’mon mate, you coming quietly…?)
Muscle cars. We all know what they are. Or do we? They’re generally thought of as beginning with the ’64 GTO. Big engine in smaller-than-full-size body. Really? You could make a pretty good case to include the ’62-’64 Dodge and Plymouth in that case – but okay, okay, I’ll play nice. Besides, we have enough to get through without including them. As it is, this is going to carry over into several articles. I know I often push the bounds with the number of models I include; even I think sixty is too many in one go. Three-part series coming up! Maybe even four…
As always, this isn’t a comprehensive coverage of all the models that are out there, just what I have. And yes, there might be more than one of some.
So, to get us going, here’s that GTO. American kit manufacturers seemed to have had something of a renaissance in the eighties, as though they (finally?) realized that their future lay not so much in making kits of new cars like they used to, but in making the recent classic muscle cars kids liked to do up. This one’s a Monogram kit from 1985, with lovely sharp engraving. Purple, because me.
Okay, the Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt was arguably more a drag special rather than a ‘muscle car’, not intended to be streetable, but it was an intermediate, and it did have Ford’s biggest big block. Besides, we’re light on Fords for today. This was a 1990 Revell kit which came as a drag car – but you know me…
Then Chevy shoved the 396 into the previously-small-block Chevelle, as the Z-16. I don’t mind that they never came in gold with a red interior, I can fix that. A Revell kit from 1996.
We need another GTO. Ah, here we go. This is derived from the old AMT 1965 annual kit’s tool, which was really rather worn out by now. The timeline on this is interesting. It was modified from the original 1965 annual kit into a Modified Stocker in 1972. Much as we deplore this butchery nowadays, at the time AMT doubtless thought to get some extra mileage from an old tool of a car nobody seemed interested in. When they noticed the interest in classic muscle cars was rising, the body was restored in the mid-eighties, but has never been as sharply detailed as the original, so I hear.
For ’66 the Chevelle got a pretty heavy reskin. This is a conversion of the Monogram flip-front street machine kit, using a 1970 Chevelle chassis. At the time there was no stock ’66 available.
Ford totally redid the Fairlane this year, and fitted the GT with a 390. A big jump from the 289. I’ve shown some of these AMT Fairlanes before, but not this red one.
If a 390 fits, so will the 427. Limited production, and probably not really streetable; Ford seemed to be following a pattern here. Only available in white, all the better to contrast the signwriting for a drag car. This one isn’t, because me. Isn’t white, or a drag car either.
Another year, another GTO. A great Revell/Monogram kit. Revell took over Monogram about 30 years back, and which brand name they use for which kit these days eludes me. I think this one was a Monogram.
Olds got into the act too, of course. Here’s a 1966 442 in convertible form. Wire wheel covers are an unusual touch on a muscle car, but AMT often seemed to base their kits on cars with peculiar options.
Another year, another Olds. They gradually got more overt about being a performance car. Under-bumper scoops on this one, ducted to the air cleaner. Had to have the image to go with the performance!
A minor facelift for the Chevelle for ‘67. I’ve always preferred this front to the ’66, and thought it a shame they reprised the ’66 front style for ‘68.
Now we get to see some Mopar Muscle. This Coronet R/T is one of those cars I’ve built several of. Here’s the purple one (also available in bright red and dark green). A Revell kit from 1997.
Was the Charger a muscle car, or more of a personal luxury coupe? With the Hemi, it sure fits the muscle description. I’ve shown some before; here’s the silver one.
We haven’t heard from Mercury yet. They always seemed to be in Ford’s shadow. Here’s the Cyclone for ’67, basically a Fairlane with a nose and tail job.
I seem to have built a GTO for every year. That’s not intentional, it just happened. Here’s a green ’67. Also done in purple. Another old AMT kit that’s showing its age.
GTO, meet GTX. Who wins? While I prefer the style of the GTO, I must admit the GTX certainly looks the part. A Revell kit from 1994.
That’s a good place for us to break off for now, as new bodies came along for 1968 for all of the Big Three intermediates. We’ll look at them another time soon.
Did AMT make a ‘65-66 Pontiac kit with the OHC six? I vaguely remember building one 50 years ago. Also a Chevy II that included both the 4 cylinder and V8 engines. Anti-muscle cars.
Now that I don’t know, dman. They did put the OHC six in the (later) Firebird kit, but I was a bit young to be into models in ’65-66. I haven’t heard of those Pontiac kits coming with the six, but there’s a lot I don;t kniw. As they tended to do the top of the range models (Bonneville and Grand Prix), I would guess not – that’s my guess because they came with potent V8s, not the six.
I don’t know about the Chevy II either, but that one wouldn’t surprise me if they did. The four for a stock version, the V8 for a drag version. Sounds quite plausible.
Can’t get enough of that gold 442. The colors belong together, and the wire wheels are frosting on the cake. All of them make a great display. My hats off to you, yet again!
Thanks F-85.
More amazing work! I love how you pose your models with different most flattering views, and lighting effects. Since your work will be documented here at Paul’s site indefinitely, it’s worth the extra time reflecting the best angles and view selections, for these classics.
Again, I love your colour choices. I find tomato reds, so appealing. Especially works well on ’60’s era cars. You handle both very subtle colours (Cornet R/T), and bold colours (Fairlane Thunderbolt), equally well. Excellent, very period correct, colour choice on the GTX.
It is 1pm here in Ottawa, and your beautiful efforts will inspire my creativity, while I work this afternoon. I will come back when I break, to enjoy your models, more than once.
Thank you Peter, submitting these mini works of art!
Daniel, as I look back at some of the photos I’ve posted here over the years, including some of these, I cringe. I’m so focused (pardon the pun) on the model that I tend to ignore the background. The Chevelle in front of the lighting fixture box. The Coronet R/T sitting on newspaper. Maybe one day I’ll go back and reshoot them, this time with a bit of patience and forethought. Attention.
Sometimes with the colours I scroll through net photos or colour charts to find something appealing but not stereotypical. Other times I might just choose a common colour. You can’t go wrong with red; it always seems to have been available. Unfortunately for many modellers it seems to have become a default colour; I tend to use it sparingly for that reason.
Just coming up to 8am here in Bannockburn. I’m still amazed to think you find my colours inspirational – maybe I need to do a third story majoring on my colour usage? But that’d be hard; it’s unconscious, like instinctive on my part; it just happens that way.
As always, there’s more to come…..
Peter, a lot of good work here. The 442 convertible really stands out and a lot of those 442’s I saw on the ground back then had the wire wheel covers and they look like a good reproduction and nice detailing by you.
One of my brothers had the original AMT ’65 GTO kit back in the day. When they returned the tooling to stock they made the front and rear somewhat wonky. Afraid my brothers kit may have ended up with a firecracker assault. Yikes!!
Thanks Dave. That’s iteresting to know about the 442s. The impression I got from the kit reviews at the time was that the wires were an unusual choice. Again, not my country, not my culture. A brief Google search seems to show most with the (steel?) sports wheels – but that reflects modern ideas of muscle cars, not necessarily what rolled out of the factory.
I would have to agree with you about the front and rear of the AMT ’65 being wonky. Primarily the headlights and surrounds, and the size of the PONTIAC lettering. I hear later issues of the kit have been improved, but I never felt moved to go back and de-wonk this one.
Muscle car collectors today are terrible about wheel and tire originality, even when they aren’t “upgrading” the engine with aftermarket stuff. Judging by modern survivors, you’d think no intermediate buyers in the ’60s ever bought whitewall tires, much less wheel covers, much less wire wheel covers, which was definitely not the case.
I have a real peeve about “restored” muscle cars pre-1970 with RWL tires on “stock” wheels. I’m not really all that interested in factory original but if you’re going to deviate with in one way throw some period correct mags on there and own it.
On a related note, when I was a little kid in the 90s when I fell in love with cars it seemed like every restored muscle car either had their styled steel wheel(rally’s et al) or Magnum 500s with BFG radial TAs. When the values exploded in the 2000s, suddenly every every restored muscle car now had steel wheels with dog dish poverty caps.
Yep, so many people follow the crowd (follow the money?) when it comes to things like that, rather than embracing the difference of what they have, and celebrating the individuality afforded by the factory’s options list. Personally I find it hard to imagine a muscle car with dog dish caps; in my country anything with muscle pretensions always came dressed up.
And this makes it difficult for enthusiasts outside the US (or Japan for that matter, if the subject is Japanese cars); so much of what is presented on the net leads us to a false sense of ‘this is how they came’. That’s before we even come near the ‘fake news’ AI comes up with these days!
Another great selection for us to enjoy, Peter, and nicely book-ended with red and gold Mopars, the last perfectly set off with the black vinyl roof and deep red/brown interior.
Your introduction on car sizes struck a chord. Other than the (Austin built) Nash Metropolitan, small American cars were pretty much unknown over here and U.S. ‘compact’ class would be regarded as large. By way of illustration here’s four small-scale models from above:
classic Mini, mid-’60s Vauxhall Victor (largish family car), ’67 Mercury Cougar (compact based) and ’70 Chevelle (intermediate).