Collecting Model Cars

Ford Thunderbird

The Ford Thunderbird began in 1955 and has seen around 13 different generations of the design in the last 50 plus years. Ford intended the Thunderbird to be a very personal Luxury car. It was never intended to be the sports car like the Chevrolet Corvette. Over the years the Thunderbird's have been upsized and downsized two seats to 4 seats cars.

Production stopped in 1997 and in 2002 a new 2-seat model was re-launched and brought the Thunderbird back to life.

There are three men that get the credit for the original Thunderbird. And wouldn’t you know it a retired GM executive lured from retirement by Henry Ford II; Lewis Crusoe to work with George Walker a vice-president and chief stylist for Ford and Frank Hershey a Ford designer. Walker and Crusoe met in France in October 1951. Crusoe liked a sports he saw and ask Walker can’t we have something like that? This part of the story is a little unclear but Walker said we are already working on it.

After the meeting Walker called chief stylist Frank Hershey and told him about the conversation. Frank liked the idea and began working on a design right away.

The idea was for a two passenger car in the ball park of 2500 lbs with the up and coming V8 slated for 1954. The car was to have top speed of over 100 mph. They presented a painted clay model to Crusoe in May of 1953 and he approved it in September after doing a little compare with some of the European trends. Henry Ford II approved the final design to compete with the new Corvette.

The name for the new design proved to be a major problem for Ford. The weird stuff they came up with just did not work. Stuff like (Artcturus, Beaver, Coronado, Detroiter, El Tigre and Savile) strange stuff for sure. The brilliant idea of Crusoe was to offer a $250 new suit to the person that could come up with a better name. Alden Giberson submitted Thunderbird on a list that was the final selection. He never claimed his prize but settled for a $95 suit with an extra pair of pants.

Ford has sold 4.2 million Thunderbirds in the last 50 years in about 13 different versions.

Vintage model car collectors will find quite a few of these to add to their car collections. Over the years there were a number of them that were special creations.

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1948 Tucker Sedan

The 1948 Tucker Sedan is very famous more so than you would expect from it’s very short production run. A prototype of the first Tucker was called the “Tin Goose”. From the prototype 58 bodies and frames were constructed and from these 36 Tucker Torpedo sedans were completed before the force closing of the factory. One other prototype was on the drawing board called the “Vera”, was to be a convertible. The factory was closed before construction ever started. After the factory closed with the parts 14 more sedans were completed bringing the total to 51. There is a plan in the works to complete the convertible by May 2009 that will bring the total Tuckers to 52.

Preston Tucker saw an opportunity to get into the car market after World War II. With the U.S. auctioning off war factories and giving a break to startup companies Tucker jumped at the chance.
Tucker’s idea was to build a new car with safety in mind with innovative features. These features were disk brakes, fuel injection and a rear engine to be an air cooled flat 6. A lot of Tuckers innovations were dropped but left on the drawing board were magnesium wheels, disk brakes and a direct drive torque converter transmission.

Tucker’s innovative engine selection the (9.7 L) flat 6 worked but had valve train problems. Next an aircraft engine by Lycoming was selected but they could not fit it into the rear engine compartment. Tucker bought four Franklin air cooled flat 6 helicopter engines that did fit perfect in the Tucker Torpedo Sedan. The 335 ci 5.5L engines were converted into water cooled engines and produced 166 hp. They were perfect and very durable. Tucker bought the Franklin Company to own the engines source.

Most all of the original Tuckers Torpedo Sedan's can still be driven today. At auction they command millions from collectors.

For the modeler these vintage car wonders can still be found and make great additions to collections.

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Dodge Super Bee

The Plymouth Road Runner’s first cousin the original Super Bee was based on a two door coupe model. The Dodge Coronet and was produced from 1968 all the way through 1970. The Dodge equivalent to the Plymouth Road Runner, a lower priced muscle car sold for $3,027. Plymouth's Road Runner sold so well Dodge management office decided to create a competitor.

The designers needed an identity for the Dodge version. Dodge lead designer Harvey J Winn came up with the name Super Bee and a logo design for the Dodge "Scat Pack" Bee medallion. The first Super Bee was built on a '68 Coronet convertible. The show car was constructed at Alexander Brothers Custom Shop under Winn's instruction and was introduced at the 1968 Detroit Auto Show.

The Super Bee and the Road Runner were very similar in appearance, the Super Bee was slightly heavier by 65 lbs and ran on a 117 in wheelbase compared to the Road Runner's 116 in wheelbase. And don’t forget the famous bumble bee tail-stripe and used actual diecast chrome plated "Bee" medallions. The 3-dimensional medallions were mounted on the grille and hood area and the trunk lid taillight area of the car for the first 3 years of production.

All the niceties added to the higher purchase cost of the Super Bee compared to its Plymouth cousin and affected its sales numbers over the years. The Super Bee, like nearly all Chrysler muscle cars of that era was available with the Hemi engine, and only 125 were sold. In 1968 the Super Bee model only came as a 2-door coupe and with 2 engine options, the base 335 hp 383 Magnum, and the 426 Hemi 425 hp.

The Super Bee was outfit with a heavy-duty suspension. An option was the Mopar A-833 four-speed manual transmission, plus high-performance tires.

Another great addition to your model car collections the Super Bee some of America’s best muscle car history find vintage model car kits and new to complete your collection. Here is a short list come back often the listing change daily.

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