Pit Stop #3

"Beauty always promises, but never gives anything."
Simone Weil.

Le Mans 1965. A bird's eye view of the stunning Scuderia Filipinetti Ford GT40 driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Herbert Muller. It failed to finish.

Hell On Wheels

They don't come any meaner than the
427 Cobra.

Carroll Shelby had already built around 650 small block powered Cobras before he and his cohorts came up with the novel idea of stuffing 427 cubic inches of Ford muscle into an English sports car. With a top speed of 163mph in standard form and blistering acceleration, the big block Cobra was a fearsome traffic light contender. For those brave customers who craved even more power, Shelby offered the brutal 180mph 427 S/C. Designed initially as a full competition car, Shelby converted the unsold cars for road use and sold them to anyone with enough moolah and bravado. The motoring world was a much more exciting place when people did things just because they could.

Boss "A" Bone

"Popular with the beach crowd, the pick-up bed is groovy for hauling surf and scuba gear."

Funny Business

Drag racing experienced monumental change during the mid sixties. In the space of two short years, vehicles resembling those available at the local dealership, transformed into purpose built monsters, designed to run down the quarter mile as quickly as possible.

In 1964 Jack Chrisman picked up a new Mercury Comet from the Sachs & Sons dealership in Downey, California and drove it to Bill Stroppe's shop in Long Beach to begin tweaking it for competition. Debuting at the US Nationals, his car was an instant hit with its ferocious tyre smoking runs and by the end of the season Jack was running in the 9.60's at 165 mph. Chrisman's Comet, in essence, wasn't really all that far removed from the plethora of garden variety Mercurys roaming suburbia. However things were about to change.

1966 was a funny year.
Gone were last year's production based machines - the brass at FoMoCo had a better idea ! Why not cover a dragster chassis with a fibreglass body that had the appearance of the latest passenger car offerings. Lincoln-Mercury didn't have a roadster in their lineup for 1966, but that didn't bother the fans who flocked to see Jack and his nitro burning 180mph GT-1. The modern funny car was born. Things really haven't changed much in the last four decades. The concept is still the same, however the cars don't remotely resemble anything available to Joe Public. They just have more advertising.

Kit And Kaboodle

The 1/25th scale evolution of the Ford GT40.

Cats And Their Hats

"Cock your hat - angles are attitudes."
Frank Sinatra.

Drag Boat Sounds

A long playing "must have" for any serious drag boat connoisseur.

Mr 4 Speed

Ronnie Sox is generally acknowledged as the finest 4 speed driver to ever hit the strip, power shifting his way to countless victories in the Super Stock, AF/X and Pro Stock classes. In 1964 FoMoCo enlisted Sox and partner Buddy Martin to campaign one of their AF/X Mercury Comets. Ronnie wound up the season by shutting down team rival Don Nicholson for a finals victory at the Winternationals.

Pony Express

Carroll Shelby felt the Ford Mustang could do with a pinch more pep and cooked up his own high performance recipe, the Shelby GT 350.

Tales From The Deep

Dell's Frogmen ran for 11 issues from May 1962 to December 1965. Comic book publishers could find danger anywhere, even at the local aquarium.

Mademoiselle L'AGENT Secrete 97

Just when I thought I had seen enough vintage models, along comes this. A French kit of The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and her spymobile.
Sauvage !!!

Decalcomania

Impko monster decals.

Hover Mower

"Gee honey that's so neat. What does it do ?"

Psycho Cyclist

"He's a Psycho cyclist! This cat's a terror on the road ............."

Another favourite from Hawk's fine stable of Weird Ohs.

Wierd O Cals

Yet another of Big Daddy's advertising gems, complete with reptiles and misspelling.

Scale Roth

It must be the sixties if it's Roth & Revell.

White Lightning

Nothing like a mobile billboard to get your message across. Who in their right mind would drive around in a vehicle like this ? Perhaps the owners were loaded on hooch. Then again they may have been the world's most ingenious bootleggers. What cop would ever assume you were running moonshine in a van like this ?

Fantastic Plastic

Model box art was once an art in itself.
A pair of quintessential scale Mopars.

Paint and glue not included.

Eye Kandy

Eye popping paint jobs like the wild metalflake on this pick-up seared my retinas as a child. 40 years later I am still blown away by these optical fireworks.
Some things don't need to change.

More Bond

Is this the end for James Bond ?
Why is Yul Brynner in this comic ?

Big Block Bruiser

"Anything worth doing is worth doing in excess"

Carroll Shelby.

Carroll Shelby poses with the 1967 Le Mans winning Ford GT40 MkIV. With Dan Gurney & A.J. Foyt handling the driving, and a serious shot of FoMoCo horsepower, the chicken farmer beat the Italians at their own game yet again.

Christmas Wish List Circa 1970

I would have been more than happy to have received any of these for Christmas. However my father deemed that they were unsafe with their hi-rise handlebars and extended forks. "A deathtrap on two wheels" was his exact description. Perhaps deep down he thought I may have become a member of the Hell's Angels.

Shaken Not Stirred

James Bond courtesy of Argentina's Zig Zag comics.
Mr Bond's image appears to be a bizarre pastiche of Sean Connery and a ventriloquist's dummy.

The Man Spider

Non un ma due questioni di Ragno Uomo italiano.

Down At The End Of Lonely Street

"Rhythm is something you either have or don't have, but when you have it you have it all over."

Elvis Presley.

Is there any feasible explanation for these theatrical casualties ?

Boss Bikes

"Hey, here's a totally boss idea, why not combine surfing and the latest dragster craze into a giant 17" long polystyrene model kit ?"

Those evil, glue sniffing, merchandising hustlers at Pyro couldn't resist jumping onto the latest bandwagon. Thankfully, they did, otherwise my life may have never been the same.

Surf N Wheels

Charlton combined dirt bikes and surfing in the one groovy teenage package.
Pure genius.

Ol' Flashing Eyes

Oh no! Not that very astonishing old flashing eyes trick again ....

El Avispón Verde

"You know, I have a feeling that the Green Hornet isn't as bad as people say he is. He's so polite."

Yowza !!!

Look out Australia, those crazy Californian hot-doggers The Surf Kings are at it again riding the big combers.

Performance Attire

In today's pre-manufactured, nostalgia fueled lowbrow world, with its mindlessly narrow parameters, it is refreshing to see what was reality. A great shot of Les Ritchey wearing high performance penny loafers and a polyester leisure shirt, replete with "go fast" stripe.

More Roth

More brilliant advertising from your favourite monster shirt painter.