Friday, August 14, 2015

1948 Tucker Torpedo Franklin Mint 1:24












From Wikipedia: The Tucker 48, commonly referred to as the Tucker Torpedo, was an automobile conceived by Preston Tucker while in Ypsilanti, Michigan and briefly produced in Chicago, Illinois in 1948. Only 51 cars were made including their prototype before the company was forced to declare bankruptcy and cease all operations on March 3, 1949, due to negative publicity initiated by the news media, a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, and a heavily publicized stock fraud trial (in which the allegations were proven baseless and led to a full acquittal). Tucker suspected that the Big Three automakers and Michigan Senator Homer S. Ferguson had a role in the Tucker Corporation's demise.
The 48's original proposed price was said to be $1,000, but the actual selling price was closer to $4,000.
The 1988 movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream is based on the saga surrounding the car's production. The film's director, Francis Ford Coppola, is a Tucker owner and displays his vehicle on the grounds of his winery.
The Tucker 48 is often referred to as the Tucker Torpedo. However, the Torpedo was actually a prototype, and the name was never used for the production model, which was officially called the "Tucker 48".
After World War II, the public was ready for new car designs, but the Big Three Detroit automakers had not developed any new models since 1941 because their resources had been diverted towards producing war materiel. This provided opportunities for new, small automakers which could develop new cars faster than the huge legacy automakers. Studebaker was the first to introduce an all-new postwar model series in the ponton style which had just gone mainstream, but Tucker took a different track, designing a safe car with innovative features and modern styling. His specifications called for a water-cooled aluminum block flat-6 rear engine, disc brakes, four-wheel independent suspension, fuel injection, the location of all instruments within reach of the steering wheel, seat belts and a padded dashboard.
Before the war's end, Preston Tucker began working on plans for his new automobile. In the summer of 1944, he hired noted car designer George S. Lawson to style his new automobile. Lawson worked on the project for over a year and a half before his design debuted publicly, beginning about February 1946 and found as late as a year later in March 1947. Lawson was named the Tucker Corporation's "chief stylist" in February 1946, immediately upon the company's formation.

Friday, August 7, 2015

1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500SS Villa d´ Este Whitebox 1:24













From Wikipedia: El nombre Alfa Romeo 6C fue usado en automóviles de carretera, de carreras y deportivos producidos entre 1925 y 1954 por Alfa Romeo. 6C se refiere al motor de seis cilindros en línea. Las carrocerías para estos automóviles fueron producidas por empresas carroceras como James Young, Zagato, Touring, Castagna y Pininfarina. A partir de 1933, también hubo una versión del 6C con una carrocería hecha por Alfa Romeo, construida en Portello.
A mediados de la década de 1920, el RL de Alfa Romeo era considerado demasiado grande y pesado, por lo tanto comenzó un nuevo emprendimiento. La fórmula de 2 L que llevó a Alfa Romeo a ganar el Campeonato del Mundo en 1925, cambió a 1,5 L para la temporada de 1926. El 6C 1500 fue presentado en 1925 en Milán y la producción comenzó en 1927 con el Alfa Romeo P2 Grand Prix como punto de partida. La cilindrada del motor era ahora de 1487 cc, contra la de 1987 cc del P2, y la sobrealimentación fue reducida. Las primeras versiones fueron carrozadas por James Young y por Touring.
En 1928, el 6C Sport fue puesto a la venta con un motor OHC. Su versión deportiva ganó muchas carreras, incluyendo la Mille Miglia de 1928. La producción total fue de 1075 unidades​ (200 con el motor DOHC). También fueron construidas 10 unidades de una variante Super Sport con sobrealimentador (compressore).
Variantes:
6C 1500 / 44 CV a 4400 rpm / 109 km/h (1925-1929).
6C 1500 Sport / 54 CV a 4500 rpm / 125 km/h (1928-1929).
6C 1500 Super Sport compressore / 76 CV a 4800 rpm / 140 km/h (1928-1929).
6C 1500 TF / 84 CV a 5000 rpm (1928-1929).

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

1974 AMC Gremlin X 1:25 Mini-Muscle Car










From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The AMC Gremlin (also American Motors Gremlin) is a subcompact automobile introduced in 1970, manufactured and marketed in a single, two-door body style (1970–1978) by American Motors Corporation (AMC), as well as in Mexico (1974–1983) by AMC's Vehículos Automotores Mexicanos (VAM) subsidiary.
Using a shortened Hornet platform and bodywork with a pronounced kammback tail, the Gremlin was classified as an economy car and competed with the Chevrolet Vega and Ford Pinto, as well as imported cars including the Volkswagen Beetle and Toyota Corolla. The small domestic automaker marketed the Gremlin as "the first American-built import."
The Gremlin reached a total production of 671,475 over a single generation. It was superseded by a restyled and revised variant, the AMC Spirit produced from 1979 through 1983. This was long after the retirement of the Ford Pinto that suffered from stories about exploding gas tanks, as well as the Chevrolet Vega with its rusting bodies and durability problems with its aluminum engine.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

1979 GMC Tow Truck Captain Hook 1:25 Revell










From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations, in which he is Peter Pan's archenemy. The character is a pirate captain of the brig Jolly Roger. His two principal fears are the sight of his own blood (supposedly an unnatural colour) and the crocodile who pursues him after eating the hand cut off by Pan. An iron hook replaced his severed hand, which gave the pirate his name.
Hook did not appear in early drafts of the play, wherein the capricious and coercive Peter Pan was closest to a "villain", but was created for a front-cloth scene (a cloth flown well downstage in front of which short scenes are played while big scene changes are "silently" carried out upstage) depicting the children's journey home. Later, Barrie expanded the scene, on the premise that children were fascinated by pirates, and expanded the role of the captain as the play developed. The character was originally cast to be played by Dorothea Baird, the actress playing Mary Darling, but Gerald du Maurier, already playing George Darling (and the brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies), persuaded Barrie to let him take the additional role instead, a casting tradition since replicated in many stage and film productions of the Peter Pan story.
According to A. N. Wilson, Barrie "openly acknowledged [that] Hook and his obsession with the crocodile was an English version of Ahab", and there are other borrowings from Melville.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

2004 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe Revell Hot Wheels 1:25










The Chevrolet Corvette (C5) is the fifth generation of the Corvette sports car, produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors for the 1997 through 2004 model years. Production variants include the high performance Z06. Racing variants include the C5-R, a 24 Hours of Daytona and 24 Hours of Le Mans GTS/GT1 winner. The C5 Corvette was the first GM vehicle to feature the third generation small block "LS" engines. Pop-up headlights were featured on a Corvette for the final time during this generation.