What we have for today is an assortment of small, sporty cars from the sixties and seventies. Not all outright sports cars like the Alfa, which we looked at in the very first of these stories (and I still haven’t built that second one I mentioned then). Cars built with fun in mind but with varying degrees of sportiness, from the near-full-race Alfa Junior GTA to the rather dowdy but staunchly two-seater… well, you’ll see.
Let’s get started.
Alfa Romeo Junior GTA
This Alfa is an eighties kit from the Japanese company Gunze Sangyo. They had been making kits for a while, then made the hobby sit up and take notice when they began introducing a range of upmarket multimedia kits – with soft rubbery plastic for interior parts, metal chassis and suspension pieces (and engines in some cases), photoetched metal for fine details. These were very expensive (about $100 thirty-odd years ago), so de-contented versions were made available for those who wanted a model of that car but were content with a simpler form (about $30); my Alfa is one of these. In fact, all my Gunze models are the cheaper versions. The soft plastic interior remains, but everything else is regular styrene.
Gunze remains in the hobby, but as GSI Creos, the maker of a stunning variety of top-quality paints, putties and modelling tools, not model kits.
Mazda Cosmo 110S
You’ve heard me wax lyrical about Hasegawa kits before – when I’m not complaining about tiny easily-lost pieces. I’ll stress here the easily-lostness is my bad, not theirs. But like Gunze of old, Hasegawa also produces some kits in an upmarket form.
I’ve not seen any of these other than online (and at $150 compared with $40 that’s where they’re staying!), but there is a version of the Cosmo on sale with metal engine detail – compared to the absence of engine and non-opening hood of the simpler kit.
Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider
Giulietta or Giulia? Here’s where things get interesting, and take a turn for the unexpected. I’d bought other Italeri kits before, so I thought I knew what to expect: a reasonably accurate one-piece body, approximate chassis detail, no engine. But this kit came with separate doors, hood and trunk lids – but no hinges. There was a bare minimum of suspension detail. There was no engine, but a pair of carbies on one parts tree. Front suspension was just a plastic axle attached to part of the chassis.
Turns out I’d bought a de-contented version I never knew existed. Every one I’ve seen since on sale since then has had the missing details. Oh well, the body on mine looks just as good.
MGB
This one’s by Aoshima. As with many of the Japanese companies, they produce several versions of most of their kits, not all available at once. Aoshima’s (accidental?) strength is in providing many of the parts for other versions, but not telling you on the box. As an example, this MGB. These extra pieces can come in Very Handy.
This was a kit of the later, rubber-bumper version. I preferred the chrome bumper version, but the price was right, so… On opening it, I found the chrome bumpers as well as a number (but not all) of other parts for the earlier version. One thing I didn’t count on was the raised ride height of the later cars; mine sits too high to be right for an early.
Sunbeam Tiger
Maybe a bit of an outlier here, the Sunbeam Tiger’s 164hp V8 made it one serious little performance car, capable of a 16-17 second quarter and could reach about 120mph. Its production run was cut short in 1967 when Chrysler took over Rootes and viewed the Ford-powered Tiger as something of a cuckoo in the nest.
An older AMT kit, and rather rough, originally released as Maxwell Smart’s Sunbeam Alpine, fitted with some spy gear. It feels like it was rushed to market, maybe before the show ended? Later the spy gear was removed and the V8 substituted. My Tiger was a 1994 reissue, and came with some rather strange custom and racing body bits, none of which I used. I’d rather have had the spy stuff.
Triumph TR7
Airfix and Monogram did TR7s, and Revell did a TR8. Mine is none of those; but an early Gunze Sangyo kit – yes, them again. A local chain store carried them back in the seventies, along with several now-defunct brands, highly sought after by Japanese modellers nowadays.
The kit is well-detailed, and all-plastic, with no soft interior. It’s set up to be motorised (as many sixties and seventies Japanese kits were), with working lights (if you provided the bulbs). Interesting.
Opel GT
We know the story of the Opel GT. It must have made a massive impression, because US company AMT produced a kit of the sporty little Opel which could be built stock, or with an optional Buick V6 as a hot street car (as here) or a drag machine.
It pops up in the line again every ten years or so.
Morgan Plus Four
Tamiya brought out this neat little Morgan, from back in the time before Morgan discovered the concept of ‘change’.
Complete with engine detail, here is a Ford crossflow, most usually found in 1600GT tune.
Dodge Omni 024
I’ve mentioned before how strange it seems that this coupe was a North-America only offering.
Ostensibly an ’80, I built this with the optional wheels, flares and spoilers – and a turbo on the 1.7 engine.
Ford EXP
For reasons known only to themselves, Ford US decided what the Escort needed was a homely two-seater companion, rather than a proper hot hatch like European countries got. They could have made it sporty, like the 024. They could have made it fun to drive, like the CRX. But rather than improving the engineering, they just rebodied the very-ordinary mechanicals. Was this what America really needed? From what I’ve read, I suspect not.
MPC duly brought out a kit. I built one anyway, standard version. It lacked credibility for any other style. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another one built. Not Ford’s finest hour.
Pontiac Fiero
We know the sad story. This could have been a winner for Pontiac (and even GM as a whole) a shot in the arm, but management seemed determined to take the shot in the head instead. Riddled with compromises, it gradually got improved – until in true GM fashion they axed it just as things were looking brightest for it.
Both Monogram and MPC did kits of the Fiero; this is MPC’s rendition of the original ’84, painted to match the Car and Driver test car.
Honda CRX
Have to finish on a high note, so I saved this for last. Honda’s little stroke of genius – cut down their supermini to a two-seater and give it unique sheetmetal that maintained the family resemblance, and then go all-out sporty for the Si version. No VTEC at this stage.
It’s an old Tamiya kit dating back to 1984; they also did one of the Mugen racing show version.
See you with something different next time.
I have the Ford EXP kit and who knows, maybe someday I’ll actually build it …
As I recall, Mark, it goes together pretty easily.
Is your RHD Fiero a personal import or a Holden marketing test car?
Ha! Totally forgot I’d converted that one. GM’s period Lego-block interior style made it easy.
Pretty sure we got the Dodge Omni 024 in Canada as well.
Great models Peter!
Thanks Lee!
Sorry, I meant to say North America. My (late) Nova Scotian friend would SO get stuck into me for that!
My new custom model of a two seat 1960 Thunderbird. Sort of what a continuation of the 1955-57 Thunderbird would have looked like in the next generation from 1958 to 1960, or in conjunction with a four seat version. I used a four seat 1960 die cast model as the starting point, using a widened 1955 top (port holes added). It was a lot of work but it turned out nice. Not perfect as this was my first custom model since I was in Junior High 65 yrs ago!
Very interesting, Bill. With the roof, the proportions look just right to be a real production car. That roof shows how much of the old Bird’s look was still there.
Yes, I debated with myself on whether to use the square bird top or the little bird top. The little bird top just look right to me and more in keeping with the little bird look. I also removed a few of the extra (or too many) body curves of the square bird including: The lower rocker panel curved out design, and the door coves, and the top of the fender channels. I was planning on painting the model either red or white, to give an even more little bird look, but after removing the original paint to show the die cast metal color – I decided to paint it gun metal gray. The gray with the off white top and red interior really looked sharp.
In scale terms, my two seat model would be about 11″ shorter than the factory four seat version. Wheelbase only about 2″ longer. Overall footprint (length x width) would be about 14% larger but about the same proportions. But still about 16% smaller than the 1960 Ford Galaxie.
Very nice all around, below is the Mugen CRX you mentioned (Tamiya), I must have built this right around 1986 or so and it’s still on my shelf. Different enough details from the regular CRX kit to be worthwhile, flared fenders and the exhaust running diagonally underneath to exit under the door etc. I even graced this one back then with Australian (NSW) license plates in a sort of CC effect for you.
They did a Civic Hatchback of that generation too, in both stock and Mugen versions. Unlike the CRX kit it included LHD as well as RHD dashes.
Nice one Jim! If I say I’ll do mine later this year, it should be done by the end of ’27. Maybe early ’28. It’s a very neat body kit on an already neat little car.
I’ve seen that ISH plate before somewhere, some truck kit, it’ll come to me in a moment…. 🙂
and the rear…
I just remembered I did the same kit you did as well, but since it had the wheels for the ’86 US-market car I went with the full black color scheme that was oh so popular over here back then for that car. Those 4-holers never came over here with the silver lowers, only with the monochromatic look, we had sort of a square block alloy wheel instead for that coloe scheme on the ’85 Si.
The best part of the kit I think is that the sunroof opens and slided along the top like the real car.
And the underbody of the regular vs Mugen…Basically same molding except the exhaust which is of course a separate piece.
You must’ve been really keen on the CRX to remember what wheels went with what paint style, after all these years!
I had a Ford EXP rental once. Or was it perhaps a Mercury LN7? I remember more about that business trip than the car, which was worse than mediocre, and not much roomier inside in real life than a 1/25 scale model. I remember the AMT Opel GT but I didn’t have it; I did build up the Get Smart Alpine … I painted mine British Racing Green. I can’t recall if I swapped in my own V8, or just wanted to. I was 12 or 13 at the time.
Worse than mediocre? As roomy as a 1/25 model? Wow!
That Alpine sounds like some good work for a 12 or 13 year old; I was still messing around with the 1/32 Airfix kits at that stage, nowhere near engine-swapping yet.
I spy a small block V8 in the Fiero! Funny enough a friend of my friends dad had a red V8 swapped Fiero and I thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time
One of the perils of getting old – I don’t remember putting that thing in there! A V8 would just about solve all the Fiero’s problems, I’d think.
Haha, I’m starting to feel the perils myself! Recently I was dusting off a few of my diecasts, of which I took a few apart to do to get some impossible to reach interior nooks and crannies but, one an Ertl 73 Mustang Mach 1) I noticed one of the spark plug wires had fallen off and thought it was weird it had metal wire inside it, but then realized I had made those plug wires myself out of some random thin wire I probably sourced from a broken PlayStation controller connector and superglued them to the distributor and block. I absolutely did that sort of thing to varying degrees of success/failure when I was a kid but didn’t at all remember doing it to this particular model as I did absolutely nothing else to it out of the box(it’s never been a fav of my collection… then again maybe that’s why I tried it in it).
On a similar note, me and my friends all got a brisk ride in that Fiero, but I have no idea whether it was actually all that fast or if it just felt fast in comparison to my Dad’s Maxima at the time who was the only other brisk driving adult I knew, but that Fiero sure did look and sound cool, and it’s one of the seminal cars that got me into building “weird” cars like my 94 Cougar.
Nice selection, Peter. Plenty of variety too, all beautifully made,
Morgan aside, this type of car is becoming an endangered species. A pity.
I remember seeing ads in a magazine (can’t remember which one, but possibly ‘The Economist’) for the Ford EXP and I thought it bore a strange resemblance to a 105E Ford Anglia, but in late ’70s/early’80s angular form (an angular Anglia?).
I recall there was also speculation in ‘Autocar’ when Honda’s CRX came out that it might form the basis of a new MG Midget. While it was the early days of the Honda/BL (later Rover) tie-up I suspect much of it was journalistic hype.
I must admit though to having a weakness for the Sunbeam Alpine. That blue looks good on the Tiger.
Thanks Bernard. That’s an interesting observation about the Anglia. I take it you’re thinking of the front, the way the headlights stick up while the rest of the body is sloping dpwn to the bumper? Yeah, it does kind of look like an angular Anglia at that.
I can see why Autocar might have thought that every new Honda would spawn a new Rover or MG. They certainly could have done worse. Must’ve been a bitter pill for management to swallow, taking car lessons from a company that only started building them in 1963!
Glad you like the Tiger, that’s AMC Big Bad Blue!
I can’t seem to reply to comments today, been trying for three hours. Each time I have to re-prove I’m not a bot, I pass that, and then the page won’t re-load, and comes up with a 405 (not this 404) error.
I’ll answer all questions when I can get through.
Update: I can reply so long as I don’t try and include a photo. Weird!
I love all of these – another great assortment, Peter! I’ve got to give kudos to Gunze Sangyo for producing some model kits in both fancy $$ and downmarket / more affordable guises for those who wanted the model kits but didn’t need the extra level of detail. Depending on what my budget would look like at a given time, I would see the value in just simply having a simple model of a car I liked.
I’m probably an outlier in that I still think the EXP looked pretty neat, even with the fake pop-up-look headlights. Maybe it’s partially because of the age I was when they had first come out, but I thought they were nifty. I was recently looking online for a pre-built dealer promo model of an EXP, but none was to be found. I found a few other same-era AMT Cavaliers and the like, but no EXP. Perhaps one day I’ll find one at a flea market. I digress.
It’s always enjoyable to see pictures of and read about the fruits of your 1/24-scale labor.
I agree I think the EXP in spite of its fundamental faults looks cool.
Thanks Joe. I’ve only ever seen the full-detail Gunze Sangyo kits at one ultra-specialised hobby shop (mostly cars and trucks, both kits and diecast) that closed after the owner died a few years back. When I saw the price, I thought to myself, “Well, that can just stay there, then.” But yes, I bought each of the ‘cheap’ versions he had. I’d rather have four ‘basic’ kits than one superduperdetailed one.
From the comments so far, I may be re-evaluatiing my stance on the EXP. You mention the Cavalier; I built one of them back in the day, not that I’d be showing it under ‘sporty’. It’s here somewhere, probably in need of repair.
These are pretty neat. I envy those with skills to build and put together (and modify) scale models. Really nice assortment, and I like the Fiero, Omini 024 and EXP most. Were they any kits available for the facelifted EXP at all? I also really like the CRX, too. Great color, the cool wheels the two-tone looks spot-on. Nice cars once again.
Thanks Colin. I’m glad you liked them. For the CRX I also copied a magazine test car to get the two-toning right. The Omni was pure imagination using some of the kit-supplied goodies.
I had a hunt around online for ten minutes, and the only EXP kits I could find were 1982 (MPC and Revell, also a Monogram in 1/32) and ’83 (MPC). So none with the updated front. The best place to verify information like this is scalemates.com – unfortunately where I live I’m geoblocked and can’t access the site any more.
Funny, when looking for EXP models online I came up with a link to this article – but the photo was my Sunbeam Tiger! Go figure…..
IIRC, some of the Japanese kits (Tamiya?) do include photo-etched & plastic bits, so one can build them according to one’s level of skill/patience.
But doing a version for kids and a version for experts does seem like a good idea.
The hood bulge (for the long-block) is the easiest way to tell a Giuila from an -etta.
Ah, thanks Nick! I was hoping someone could answer that Alfa question. I’ve seen the kit referred to online as a Giulia and as a Giulietta; I knew it couldn’t be both – so that’s a Giulietta then. I don’t claim to be any sort of Alfa expert, purely an admirer.
For a while there Aoshima had some kits with the choice of plastic or photoetch in the one box; I used some of the photoetch but kept to the plastic for some other bits. Though the end result may look amazing, assembling photoetched wipers is not my idea of fun! The only Tamiya I’ve built with PE (so far) is the Toyoda AA with a PE hood mascot.
Toyoda mascot.