Spectacular Model: Johnny Lightning 1973 Pontiac Grand Am/GTO

 

In real life, this car was never a great car...  Built in '73, the last gasp of the Muscle Car era, a pretty fastback design that looked quick but that was actually overweight, un-nimble, underpowered, emission-choked example of how Detroit had lost its way, and an open invitation to the foreign auto companies to bring on their efficient and trim imports.

 

But what I like in diecast has very little to do with what I like in 1:1 scale, and this particularly casting is a beauty...

It makes you love this over-done '70s design, looking just as sleek as the real car.  The raised creases and vents on the hood, the B-pillar louvers, the detailed grill and rear lights, even the crease on the doors.  Now imagine how cool this car would have been had it been produced with the 454 from a '69 Chevelle? 

The first thing you notice is the heft (probably like the 1:1 model!), with John Lightning's trademark metal baseplate and all metal casting.  It just feels like quality...
 

 

The cars feature opening hoods with detailed engine compartments.  All three of my examples have rubber wheels and excellent fully detailed paint jobs.  In fact, the silver and blue cars have beautiful metallic paint (the white one has a flat paint). 

I only have these 3 examples - I'd love to have others but these were all that I found before the casting was retired.  While the pale white is nice, it pales (pun intended) against the others.  The paint doesn't have the same richness to it and the wheels are boring discs. 

The silver one is a GTO, with a slightly different (more exciting) grill .  It's 5 spoke Cragar wheels are handsome, with a glossy chrome finish to them.  The metallic paint sparkles, the black roof contrasts nicely, and the red interior really pops.

The blue one is nice too.  This time the Cragar wheels are a matte silver finish, but the tires have raised "B F Goodrich" lettering on them vs. the silver car's whitewalls.  The blue paint is beautiful and rich, with the blue contrasting better than the silver against the painted side marker lights.  However the white interior looks less exciting that the red of the other 2 cars. 

While the blue car picks up points for its paint and wheels/tires, I find that the silver/black/red color combination of the silver car still is more eye-catching, and I'm more partial to its firebird style grill.  I declare the silver one my favorite of this favorite casting, with the blue a very close second. 

If you don't have one of these already and see one on EBay for a reasonable price, I'd recommend picking it up.  It's one of my favorite Johnny Lightning castings of the last 20 years...  

The Battle of the Matchbox Ford Full-Size Luxury SUVs: Lincoln Navigator vs. Ford Expedition!



I love toy car SUVs.  I'm not sure why - perhaps I had so few of them as a kid.  I always wanted the Hot Wheels Ford Bronco, and the Ford Flareside Pickup (Baja Bouncer - which I know was a pick-up not an SUV....), so when in '97 Matchbox introduced the full-size SUV Chevy Tahoe and Ford Expedition, I had to have them. 

Within a year, Matchbox introduced a more expensive version of each of them as part of a 2 car pack, one painted and one unpainted, with rubber tires, fancy rims and a highly detailed paint job.  I bought both the Tahoe and the Expedition.  The 2 Ford's shown are from that pack, the blue as the original painted Expedition, and the white was a John Carroll special of the unpainted version.  I appreciated the casting, and just wished Matchbox would follow it up with a slightly longer model of a Ford Excursion... 

They never made the Excursion.  But a few years later, when Matchbox was going through their mid 2000s renaissance, they brought out this excellent casting of a Lincoln Navigator.  The Navigator is slightly larger than the Expedition, and squarer relative to the Ford's curves.  I loved it instantly, and bought it in several colors. 

So, time for a showdown!  Which Matchbox Ford Full-Size SUV is the better casting...? 

 

Well, actually, its no contest.  As much as I appreciated having the Ford model, I never thought the real life truck was very handsome (its a bit too rounded for me) and I don't like the model version's plastic base.  The Lincoln on the other hand was a handsome squared-off formal design, and Matchbox did a great job with the model.  Of the 4 colors that I have, the maroon is interior-less and so the obvious loser.  The basic dark blue one has nice wheels.  The $2.99 upmarket beige version is kind of an uninspiring color, and I never liked those wheels. Which leaves the beautiful light blue version with the super handsome 5 spoke wheels.  The detail is spot on, the sunroof looks great, the size of the casting fits right into 1/64 scale, and paint and wheels are great.  Overall, a great casting, and the winner of the Ford full size luxury SUV challenge!

Mystery Car and Car Brand: "Wheeler" Ford GT, made in Hong Kong

I'm a huge fan of the 1/64 diecast cars from my childhood - the '70s and '80s.  So I eagerly collect them all, and am always on the lookout for something unusual but nice, regardless of brand...

...and about a year ago, I came across this very unusual car - a bronze Ford GT40, with wheels copied from a '70s Matchbox car.  The toy company name on the bottom reads as "Wheeler", and the car is identified as a Ford GT TO (I have no idea to what the "TO" refers).

Its a nice model, with a full interior.  The car rolls well even though there is not much suspension to feel when you press down against the Matchbox-ish wheels.  The full metal detail on the diecast body is comparable to what Matchbox would have done.  The baseplate is plastic and very plain.  Scale wise it fits into the middle of the normal range of what is considered 1/64th scale, if perhaps a little short and slightly too tall for a real (roughly 40 inch high) GT40..... 

I'd love to collect more of these "Wheeler" models, but haven't been able to find anything about them or any mention of them anywhere.  (It doesn't help that typing in "wheeler" into an internet search engine invariably results in lots of big rig "18 wheeler" references).  Does anyone know about this brand? 

Overall, a nice model and very unique part of my collection!

Hot Wheels Redlines - Can Am / Sports Car Racing Race Cars

My post last week about the Laguna Seca historic races, and seeing cars that I'd only before seen as a Hot Wheels Redlines, inspired me to pull out the redlines and admire them...  Hence this post! 

Regular readers of my blog (are there any?) know that I'm a Matchbox guy much more than a Hot Wheels guy.  But really, I love all well-modeled 1/64 scale cars, and so I've got plenty of Hot Wheels in my collection.  And while my Redline collection isn't nearly as deep as my Matchbox collection (with a few embarrassing omissions), I've still got plenty of them to admire.  But with the current price tags and valuations of Redlines, my examples tend to only be in the fair-good condition categories - since I have a hard time spending the $100-$1000 to get mint examples!  

Given my inspiration, I started by pulling out examples of sports car / Can Am race cars from the late 60s and early 70s.  I pulled one example each of the 7 that I could think of and took a look at them.

All of these are delightful models - all with opening hoods that reveal the engines.  But I'm not a fan of the Ford J-Car - (in gold in these photos) - it seems too small.   I love the Ferrari (the red #60), the McLaren (purple), the Lola (red - on the right of the red Ford) and the Ford MK IV (on the left of the red Lola).  But my favorite is the Porsche. 

Maybe its the glass engine cover - I'm not sure.  But its my favorite of these cars.  So the bottom 2 photos show the Porsche in all the colors that I've got (which for a hardcore Redline collector is not very many).  You can see a couple (pink, red and green) that are in VERY poor condition, as well as the yellow re-release of it that Hot Wheels did a few years back. 

More redline articles coming soon! 

P.S.  For a fun view, compare these photos of the Ford and Lola with the real 1:1 scale Ford and Lola that I saw at Legana Seca, in my previous post! 

P.P.S.  I neglected to mention that the green car with the wing is the Chapparal!

Laguna Seca Historic Races 2014 - part of Monterey Auto week

Its been a dream of mine since I was a child to visit Monterey California and see the Pebble Beach Concours - the most prestigious classic car show on the planet.  And last year, in 2014, I got the chance to go...

What I didn't realize was that the Pebble Beach Concours was just one part (albeit the grand finale) of an amazing entire week of car shows and car auctions.  In fact, there is so much going on that you don't even need to attend any of the events - just being in Monterey for this week allows you to see an endless plethora of amazing classic cars.  I would go out for walks just to see the cars parked on the street - DeTomaso Mangustas, Mercedes Benz 300SL gullwings, Lamborghini 350GTs, etc., etc., etc.! 

But as great as the Pebble Beach Concurs was, the highlight for me might have been the afternoon I spent at Laguna Seca raceway for the classic car races.  I saw cars I'd only dreamed about, or only seen modeled as Hot Wheels, suddenly in the metal right in front of me.  I saw a Ferrari 250 GTO, the most valuable post-war classic car, being raced with abandon on a racetrack...  It was a dream come true, so I thought I'd share some of my car photos with my readers.


I'll start off with some real-life Hot Wheels Redlines - Lola and Ford racecars that I'd only before ever seen in 1/64 models...

Next up, some really cool car car haulers...

 ...Porsche race cars from the '70s and '80s (with a cameo by my little girl). 

 My vision of a Porsche 935 was shaped by the matchbox version...  So I didn't realize how much of the back of the car really was a 911 with massive fender extensions...  

 I'm not sure I'd ever actually seen a Porsche 959 in the metal... 

At Laguna Seca, a Lamborghini Espada tooling around was "nothing special...".  Wow!

 A 250 GTO!?!  For real? 

 2 300SL Gullwings, casually parked and almost seeming to be a "paddock car"...  I couldn't imagine being in a place where 2 (TWO!) of these parked together wouldn't have had a crowd of admirers....  Check out the interiors!  



 

 

 An Iso Rivolta...  I later saw it raced through the corkscrew!  Nice interior!

 By comparison with the exotics, these '80s race versions of the Camaro, Mustang and Thunderbird at first didn't catch my attention...  Then I decided that they looked pretty cool anyway!

 Classic 2+2 Ferraris like this one were almost a dime a dozen... 
 A racing BMW M1...  Much nicer than my Matchbox versions!

I hope you enjoyed my photos.  Let me know if you want to see photos from the Concours itself, or from various of the car auctions!  

2009 Mercedes Benz GL550 Oil Change X164

OK...  So this blog is supposed to be about 1:64th TINY cars, not 1:1 scale huge, hulking beasts of cars...
But I just did my first (and very overdue) oil change on my '09 Mercedes Benz GL550, and I was appalled to find that there were NO internet resources showing how to do an oil change on this car...  (Apparently high-end MB SUVs don't have the same DIY communities as those that support my Mazda Miata...). 

Ordinarily I wouldn't expect to need help with an oil change.  But after sliding around underneath the car and finding nothing that looked remotely like a drain plug, I decided to check the internet...   ...only to find that there was appallingly little information on the internet. So this blog entry is my attempt to remedy that situation! 

Apparently, the "correct" (and easy) way to change the oil is to pump it back out of the dipstick spout.  But I don't have a large enough fluid transfer pump, and didn't want to get my little one all oily, and I was bound and determined to change the oil the old fashioned way.

So here's the deal:

The drain plug is hidden beneath the plastic under-engine shroud at the very front of the car.  The good news is that you don't actually have to get your body under the car (you can reach in from the front).  (You can see jack stands in the photo - but these were already in place before I realized where the drain plug was). 

The bad news is that there are about roughly 8 hex head (10 mm) screws that you have to remove in order to get the shroud off - so you'll spend 10 minutes just cranking away with your rachet wrench - your arms getting more and more tired in the process.  This part alone makes me consider buying a fluid transfer pump for next time.  When you get the final bolt off, the shroud slides backwards and then drops away.  At that point the drain plug becomes clearly visible on the passenger side of the car, facing the front of the car.  The drain plug comes off with a 13 mm socket.  Now you are done with the hardest part. 

Once the oil is out, the filter change is really easy.  I bought my filter from the dealer for $20-$25 - its a basic paper filter as is common in German cars.  You need to remove the front shroud from the top of the engine - this time thankfully there are no screws - you just pull it up and it comes off. 

The oil filter cover is immediately visible - a black plastic cover - in the photo on the right you can see the shadow of the dipstick falling on the cover. 

Next (small) problem is that the filter is recessed - so it was a little hard to get my oil filter wrench around the filter cover.  But eventually I got it off, and then the filter assembly just lifted out. 

The old filter pulls right off of the assembly and the new filter slides right on.  Push the new filter into the assembly as far as it will go (there were directions on my filter that showed that I needed to push it further than I originally expected.  Then replace the whole assembly and put the filter cover back on. 

I put 9 quarts of oil into my car and filled it up to the top level.  Obvious note - check the oil level when the car is NOT still jacked up - otherwise the oil will be more on one side of the car and the dipstick will not show the level correctly.  Next time I'll plan to just put 8.5 quarts in and then very slowly add the last 1/2 quart.  (Note that I saw some internet references to a 2nd drain plug for another oil reserve - but it seems like I got out 95+% of the old oil so I'm not worrying about it).  

The last step is to reset the maintenance indicator light - as follows:
1.  Make sure doors are closed.
2.  Push engine start button without pressing brake pedal - turning on just the accessories
3.  scroll through the menus using the steering wheel buttons until the odometer is shown
4.  Press the "R" reset button (above the speedometer) 3 times very fast - you'll here a beep
5.  Press the down button on the left side steering wheel keypad
6.  Press the - button on the right side steering wheel keypad 3 times until you see a confirmation question
7.  Press the + button (right side steering wheel) to confirm the service reset. 

Hope this helps anyone else who loves their massive GL550, but doesn't want to pay the dealer $200 for an oil change! 

Auto World - Dramatic Decrease in Quality for "Deluxe" ($2.99) cars. Run - Don't Walk - Away from these cars... Put that blisterpack BACK ON THE PEGS!

Earlier this summer I purchased my first "Auto World" model.  Auto World seems to be another contender in the Johnny Lightning/Green Light camp, making yet even more high quality (heavy die-cast body and base, rubber tires, opening hood, etc.) models of 1960s and 1970s American iron. 

On one hand, I'm always encouraged by new castings and more competition.  On the other hand, don't we all have enough of these muscle car castings already...?  Can't we get a model of a car that hasn't already been modeled 100 times?

But out of the cars on the pegs, one particular model did appeal to me - 1 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.   A model that WASN'T modeled before.  A model of a car that I didn't have in my 6000+ model collection. 

Plus, the primary advertising element of Auto World was that it was "True Scale".  If there is anything that I hate, it is a huge car modeled far too small, or a small car modeled much too large.  So I'm a big fan of the idea of "true scale".  And indeed, true to actual scale, this Caddy is BIG.  (It was actually the only car in Auto World series 1 in a separate "Land Yacht" line - a very appropriate name!).  (Interestingly, on the bottom of the car it is labeled as a '67 rather than a '76...). 

Once I got it home and opened it up, I felt OK with the purchase.  There were some pluses and minuses of it - the unique model, the true scale and the quality feel of it being offset by a hood that didn't open very well (and I would have preferred opening doors vs. the opening hood), a boring color, etc.   Overall, I was OK with the model, but it didn't knock my socks off. 

Fast forward a few months to this morning, when I found the series 2 models of Auto World on the pegs.  What I didn't realize was that I was looking at the "deluxe" vs. "premium" line.  The price was lower - $2.99 vs. $4.99 - but the models looked similar.   They were the usual line of American iron, but at least there were again slightly unique versions.  The one that stuck out most was the mid 80s' Fox body Mustang SVO (Special Vehicle Operations), a 4 cylinder turbo-charged Mustang that was supposed to be a more refined (European?) option to the V8 Mustang that offered similar performance.  I was a kid back in '84 when the SVO came out - I was hooked by the different front headlights (made even better in '86 when they went aero) and 2 level rear wing.  Back then I lusted after the SVO - I wanted it badly! 

I have 1 or 2 SVOs in my collection already - I think I've got one from Hot Wheels - but I'm not crazy about any of them.  So this beautiful candy-apple red Auto World SVO went into my cart, along with a late '60s Chevy El Camino, a Buick GS, and a left-over series 1 Dart (unknowingly - from the "premium" line).   I questioned whether I should by the last 3, given my earlier complaint about how muscle cars are endlessly modeled.  But at least all 3 are from comparatively less modeled models (i.e. not '67 Camaros....), so I bought them, brought them home, and eagerly ripped into the packaging of the SVO...

INSTANT DISAPPOINTMENT!  CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP!

These "deluxe" $2.99 cars have a very cheap plastic base, and even cheaper feeling plastic wheels.  These aren't the higher quality plastic bases and wheels you get in a $.99 Matchbox - these are the cheapy plastic base and wheels you get in a no-name multi-pack of unidentifiable cars at a dollar store. 

What a disappointment! 

They look nice - but don't feel nice AT ALL.

Amazed, I compared the packaging of the $2.99 cars vs. the $4.99 cars.  The packaging looked almost identical - with no mention of the "deluxe" vs. "premium" branding that is on the auto world website.  For the more expensive car, they bragged about the metal base and the rubber wheels.  For the $2.99 car, they go silent on the base (only saying "die-case body") and brag about the "silky smooth" rolling wheels (which is an outright lie...  With no spring suspension - the SVO rolls worse than a regular wheels Matchbox - any one who thinks its "silky smooth" has never touched silk.  There is NOTHING silky about it).

So dear readers, please steer clear of these awful Auto World disappointments.  Even at $2.99, they aren't worth it.   I will be returning my un-opened GS and El Camino to WalMart.  Perhaps I will even return my SVO, claiming that I'm unhappy with the quality.  Maybe at least that way WalMart can let Auto World know that consumers are unhappy...

And for you executives in charge of these "deluxe" cars - well - your cars suck....  They are NOT deluxe.  And I hope that you never claim to be car buffs - because you don't deserve to wear that label...