CapSat 6

The 383/440 (yes, it can be both!) in the ‘68 Dart is my go-to for a big block Mopar engine with an automatic. Swap the exhaust manifolds and air cleaner to suit, and it can be used in almost anything!

This is a set that is on the auction site right now… That kit is a parts goldmine: 3 sets of wheels, two engines, stock and scooped hoods…

The Revell Special Edition '68 Charger comes with Magnum 500 wheels, in addition to optional steelies and dog dish caps that should work on a '68 Coronet.

For a new C-Body kit, my call would be to lead off with either a ‘70 300-H, done in moderate detail- similar to the new ‘71 Demon kit in detail level, or a ‘74 Monaco 4-door sedan, as a curbside similar to the Green Hornet Black Beauty. The ‘70 300 would demand an opening hood and engine detail, while you might be able to get by with a simplified Bluesmobile (although the 1/18 diecast Bluesmobile mentioned above does have an opening hood, and an engine bay that looks very right, so maybe that design work is already sort of completed?). Variants of the 300 could include: 300-H hardtop, standard 300 Hardtop, standard 300 convertible, and also, a 300-H Convertible, of which I think 1 or 2 were actually built. Different bodies would be required for the standard 300, due to the 300-H’s funky trunk lid (unless separate trunk pieces, like in the AMT ‘67 Mustang and Shelby GT-350 are designed). The standard 300’s could include some optional street machine or drag parts, to increase appeal. Greenlight does quite a few ‘74 Monacos in 1/64 and 1/24 diecast. There does seem to be a market for these besides as Bluesmobiles, as vintage police cars. These were pretty much the go-to patroller across the USA during the mid-70’s. I would go one step further and develop a Plymouth Gran Fury body for the kit, as many agencies used the Gran Fury, and Greenlight seems to have ignored that variant so far. I have a 1:1 ‘73 Chrysler Newport 2 door. It’s a GREAT driver. Whenever I take it out, I get positive looks and comments. They were just big boats in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, but now, interest in these cars has really increased. I would love to see a new C Body kit of any kind.

Hot Rod Magazine did an article on the ‘68 Coronet R/T and ‘68 Charger back in the day…pretty sure Dick drove the Hemi powered Charger and his brother Mike drove the 440 powered Coronet. I found another pic online of the Coronet and it was labeled SS/FA, so that fits. The kit should have most of what you need right in the box. Add Cragars and decals, use the slicks and headers from the kit, and you’re mostly there. It would be neat if Round 2 put a Landy version out, and added Cragars and decals to do that car. The only problem I see with this is that they don’t have any other tools where they can easily put another Landy car out, and also, as this would be the only car they could do a Landy version of, as Mike was the driver, it also would be slightly awkward, for lack of a better term. It might be a good reason to give us a nice new ‘70-‘74 Challenger tool, with a pro stock version though ;) Of course, Round 2 could always fake it a bit, by offering a street stock ‘70 Challenger and/or ‘76 Dart with Landy decals, or if they really want to get farther out, offer their Charger 500 or Daytona with phantom/ “What If?” Landy graphics…

I can still my tongue no longer! 😁 I will now stir the pot a little more. I have one of these and I’m modifying it to make it more like the movie car. If you remember, the movie came out some time ago, starring Seth Rogen. The movie was meh, but the car they used was pretty neat. It was more stock than the TV car, so I’m trying to integrate old annual front and rear bumpers into the new body. There is a lot of cutting involved, so they are not a drop fit, but the basic dimensions do seem to line up. I’m also going to try to make the rear roof portion more stock. Personally, I like the movie car more than the TV version (heresy!!!). We all know that Round 2’s thing is to cater to the Sci Fi and Pop Culture crowd. I can see them developing a Green Hornet Movie car from this tool. My bet would be that some design work has already been done for that. If they did the movie car, I would just make it easier on myself by buying one, and abandoning the one I’m cutting on. A Green Hornet movie car would probably be viewed as a little more contemporary in design than the ‘60’s custom, so it might actually have greater appeal to car builders. Also, it would use more stock elements, bringing this tool closer to a stock version. A business case might be made for rolling out the movie car version, then perhaps a stock Limousine. There are very few Limo kits available (most are resin), and I could see many builders wanting a nice ‘60’s limo in their collection.

I always thought the steelies in the AMT ‘64 Mustang kit would have looked good for this if they were widened. Maybe you could start with them. Also, the treaded front tires in the MPC 1/16 Cobra seem to be about the right size and look for a late 60’s stock car tire. it would be nice if Round 2 tooled up some new wheels, tires, and a few other stock car bits for the old General Lee kit.

It's an ironic situation- this would be a popular subject, but since every manufacturer already has the tooling for one or two of them, we will probably never see an all-new, full detail one. I think the most likely scenario would be for Round 2 to decide to Retropop a new '71 (and maybe a '72-'74 to follow), much like their Coronets and GTO's. With any luck, they would do a decent chassis, more like the one in the Coronet (I'll take it), rather than like the ones in the original MPC Challengers (yuck!). A Rod Shop or Motown Missile Pro Stock, and perhaps a "Hawkeye" replica would be nice commercially viable variants. Just sayin'.

You would still need an interior. I was thinking of using a Revell '69-'70 Shelby Mustang for the interior, chassis and powertrain, since those bits are very nice. Give it about a year and Round 2 will probably hand you a stock '70 Mach 1 kit...

Revell did two AAR Cudas. One was based on their 1/24 Challenger T/A, so it has weird body proportions. It was usually found as a green or yellow car on the box. The engine in it is basic, but pretty decent. I actually used these in a few "318" builds (with intake manifold and other parts from the old Monogram 1/24 Dodge Ramcharger). The second AAR was a tool based on Revell's relatively recent '70 1/25 Hemi Cuda. It's a purple car on the box. I still don't really like that body. The engine in that one is pretty nice. I'd say it's perhaps a little more basic than the one in the AMT '71 Duster 340. The 340 in the AMT Duster has a little more detail, but I don't like the shapes of the valve covers and some other things. I'd say the win goes to the Revell 1/25 AAR engine, but only barely. The shapes are a little better to my eye. Ideally, you would perhaps use the 1/25 Cuda engine as a base and add some things from the Duster engine, but that would be some expense for very little benefit. Any of these engines would benefit from Fireball Modelworks' 6BBL intake and carbs, but the carbs and intakes in either the Duster or 1/25 Cuda are pretty nice to start with. I guess I'm a little picky, as I have owned and worked on several Mopar Small Block engines, and also, I did own a '74 Cuda for several years. I spent a lot of time looking at those things.

Wow! Looking at the Barracuda, the chassis and engine room look MUCH better than the original annual bits. It looks like Round 2 is not sticking to the “make it a clone of the annual” design philosophy, which is a very good move. It proves that a simplified but accurate product can be done. I think if Round 2 ever goes with a full detail variant of this tool, creating an accurate looking, but simplified, 273 Commando engine and 14” Goodyear Blue Streak tires for the Formula S package (I would even take them in plastic) would be killer!

I thought I saw somebody here doing one, perhaps search the car aftermarket thread?

Since the Charger in essence became the ‘71 Coronet 2 door, they did really jam the content level down in those cars from ‘71-on. I guess they had to compete on price with the base Torino and Mailbu. Well into the ‘70’s, you could get those cars pretty stripped it you wanted to.

I think that engine ended up in the MPC ‘69 Camaro convertible tool. It was released in the 80’s with a big block that I seem to remember looked suspiciously like the one in the MPC Chevelle.

Your guess is pretty close! There was a comprehensive article in Collectible Automobile Magazine some years ago (issue from April 1999), which told the story of the development of the Duster. It was written by Jeffrey Godshall, who worked at Chrysler back during that era, and who had an inside track on getting the story from the parties involved. The basic story is that the Duster was NOT IN PLYMOUTH'S PRODUCT PLAN- the designers came up with it on the budget they received for updates to the '70 Valiant, put it in the pipeline, and had to go forward with it once they reached a certain point. Marketing initially had nothing to do with planning the model. Notice that the front end and other details of the '70 Valiant did not change much from the '69- the reason being that the designers were tasked with the model facelift, and designed a whole new product instead! The designers had cooperation with some people in body engineering, who devised different window regulators so that they could use the existing thin Valiant doors with the new curved glass that was required. Without that cooperation, the design would not have worked. The quarter window decision was less about cost per unit, but somewhat more driven by having to keep tooling costs down- staying within the constraints of having to bring this all-new product (devised without upper management blessing) to market. There were still some hard feelings (or more accurately - some execs were livid!) within Chrysler's different groups: Marketing (perhaps rightly) thought that the Duster would and did cannibalize sales from their new E Body Barracuda, for which a much heavier investment was made. Heads would surely have rolled within the Plymouth division, except that fortunately, the Duster was a runaway sales success. It was a great read...worth seeking out a back issue of that Collectible Automobile Magazine for that story.

Round 2 did include Demon "Sizzler" decals with their '71, which was an equivalent package. I would not be surprised if Round 2 juiced the '72 Duster release with Twister graphics!

The grille has been available on and off from a few different sources before...I got a 3D '73-'74 grille from eBay several weeks ago, but I haven't seen the listing since. Let's swing for the fences, though: maybe Round 2 could treat us to a never-before-available '73-'74 Dart Sport, with the retro box treatment, comprehensive decals, and sunroof body!!!

You got most of them…there was also a Butch Leal California Flash Pro Stock, a Sox & Martin Pro Stock, and a Mopar Missile Pro Stock. There was also a limited release of the Smokey Convoy Chaser Car about 20 years ago…maybe for RCHTA or something? I have one somewhere. It proves that they can add the Smokey parts back into this tool at will (or at least they could 20 years ago).

Ditto the Interceptor!!!

Found these on eBay, they look nice but they might not be big enough…

Posters from the earlier kits. I think these came in the non-annual “West Coast Custom” and a few others…

The roof rack and skylight from the ‘77 kit; the custom front end, hood scoop and tire holder from the ‘74-‘76 kits. They actually changed the grille pattern once for the custom grille set up…

Pics of the workshop cabinets and boards from the ‘74-‘77ish kits (I’m not sure exactly which ones came with these…

Pics of the twin engine drag parts from the ‘78 annual. More or less the same as the ones in the ‘72 and ‘73 kits.

Didn’t mean to flex, I just know more about those vans than I should Everybody seems to like the ‘72-‘78 generation (they really are ?!) but it should be known that the little details on these (especially on a ‘78) can be tricky.