Like any self-respecting 3-year old, my son has a passion for Hot Wheels. He likes to line them all up in a big line, give them names, race them, etc... He's also pretty good at labeling each with their genre. Anything without fenders or with flames ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.
Ahh, the car that started my infectious disease with the marque. Odd V-4 or not, the concept got the FoMoCo wheels turning.
I started life in the car world as a vintage Mustang guy. I've always wanted to build a replica of the 1962 at some point. They have a one of a kind look to them that no other car seemed to have at that point in time... Cool article.
Can you imagine how the automotive landscape would look today if a bred and butter car company like Ford would've actually had the guts to produce this car in the 60s?
I wonder if any of the guys over at Chevrolet had this in their subconscious when they designed the stingray. Paul
....instead of the ponycar? If that had happened, we never would have to put the 1964 cutoff on the HAMB
Hey Virgil, The white chopped Stang convert. was at the Detroit Autorama in the basement this year. The Detroit Historic Society owns it in unrestored original condition. Cool car......
This car still exists and today it is at the Henry Ford Museum (The Henry Ford). When I worked there from 1996-99, one of my jobs was to get this car out of mothballs and get it running for the Meadowbrook concours. What a fun car to work on and drive around in, although the transmission was not fully functional and I don't think we could get anything other than first gear to work. I don't think the car was ever driven anywhere other than on and off transport trucks.
that hide away license plate is a pretty slick idea. odd how stuff like this really makes you start thinking.
Funny how 3 yr-olds work... ahh the simplicity of it all is contagious, gotta love it. My own 3 yr-old is pretty much the same. Except he simply labels anything with fenders or open-wheeled as a Ford, like the one Dad's got in the garage. But all the red and sleek stuff is a Ferrari too. I have absolutely no idea how many HotWheels cars there are in my house, they keep coming in and they simply don't die. Some are completely buggered by now from ages doing bath gigs, but the kids love'em, and I have to admit that I like some a lot too. I have a personal choice line-up they already know (rods and customs), so when they want company they just gather my favourites to present them to me. I've lost count of how many times my feet have experienced the pain of treading on them in the tub after the kids have been there... but it's nice to know their enthusiasm is in the right place. Cheers, Eddie
Just once,they should take a concept and bring it to market without drastic changes.Being a Chrysler dealer in the 80s and early 90s(and being a lifelong auto enthusiast),I was always wondering why they had to water these great concepts down and bring out some pale facsimile to what was originally plan.Business is business,but you can't always let the bean counters win.
As a long time car guy, you obtain certain biases. Most of us here tend to lean towards the traditional side of things and you subconsciously write off anything that doesn't meet those expectations. It's always something silly... Like a '34 3-window with a wicked chop, 4-bars, disc brakes, injected 302, etc... You see the details and immediately pass over the car as "not your thing." The cool thing about Miller, my 3-year old, is that I can poll him and get past the bias. He doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to tradition, but he very much understands "cool." We were at the speed shop a couple of weeks ago and he was enamored over a little roadster that I've seen many times and just ignored as I wasn't too keen on some of the details. "That's a cool hot rod daddy." And it's interesting... because the car really does have a nice shape, stance, and look. I had just never noticed. Kids... or at least my little man... really amazing sometimes.
I often envy that wide eyed innocence they convey. We all had it once and it would do the world good if we at least once in awhile tried to recapture it.
Yeah, I saw it in the flesh a few years ago at Carlisle. The interior door panels bespeak of the Galaxie 500 XL and of course the front says Tbird. It is one of those cars that I'm surprised a Mustang enthusiast hasn't done a copy of ( maybe some one has?)
I went to my son's room last night and he had all of his hot wheels lined up in a big square grid on his bedroom floor. I asked him what he was doing. He said, "I'm making a parking lot!"
My son likes to line them up and run over them with a monster truck, except for a couple hot rods that always leave the line before the truck can run them over. when I asked him why he always says these are too fast to get run over. Man I love my kid.
The car was put in production. Kinda, in a way... The Matra 530 used the same engine and gearbox, in the same location.. What really bothers me about the '62 Prototype is that it somehow lost its Lotus Wobbly Web wheels. The wheels that are on it right now look like they are off a Fiat 124. I wonder when that happened, and why... The right wheels are being reproduced. http://www.davebean.com/specials1.htm You'd think that for $375 a corner they would be able to make it right.
Hey...give your son some credit for making the better choice. I'd take that Ford concept car over a Ferrari any day.
I also heard Iaccoca took one look at it and said " We could sell thousands of these. What I want is a car we can sell millions of". He got his wish.