Ertl 1:18 1964 Ford Thunderbolt

"[This car is] not suitable for driving to and from the strip, let alone on the street in everyday use." Hot Rod Magazine.

Mass market car racing in the early sixties didn’t revolve around NASCAR but instead it was the local drag strip that was considered the main proving ground. Manufacturers who wanted their showrooms full would need success at the track to validate their model lines.

In this era, the Ford Galaxie should have been a prime competitor - it had a behemoth 427cid engine and more torque than most trucks. The Galaxie’s weight proved to be an obstacle much to Mopar’s benefit. The obvious solution was to stuff the big engine in the next smaller size car, the Fairlane. With that idea in mind, Ford approached Dearborn Steel Tubing, a contract car builder about the project and after a little shaking and baking, they came up with the 1964 Ford Thunderbolt – a purpose built racer masquerading as a super stocker that was street legal but as Hot Rod pointed out, not wise for picking up the kids from school.

Walk in to your local Ford dealer and for $3,780 plus tax they would deliver you a Thunderbolt. There was just one delivered in 1963, 100 built in '64, with the final two on record made in '65. DST added some key ingredients to make the big engine small car combo work and the model shows all of these modifications on this RC2 ERTL Authentics Precision 100 reprise.

First the engine compartment had to handle the massive power plant and accommodate eight equal-length exhaust headers by snaking them through the suspension. The hood came with dual pin locks was modified with a signature tear drop bubble in order for the high-rise manifold to vault the air cleaner above the fender line. All of these elements are modeled with care by RC2(ERTL) - be espcially careful when removing the delicate hood pins. The transmission was a Hurst-shifted four-speed with 4.44:1 gears or for an extra $200 an automatic with 4.58:1.

The chassis detail is not to be missed: muscular traction bars, stiff asymmetrical rear springs (the coils could be modeled more realistically), fat racing slicks and a 95lb bus battery in the trunk. You could make 500bhp without turning a screwdriver. The engine compartment alone is worth the price of admission but be careful removing those hood pins – they are delicate and easily lost. Among other treats, the model features a working drive shaft.

When DST finished adding things they took others away: while it's no surprise the model has a plexi windshield, it turns out thre real car did as well. Anything that added weight was ripped away including amenities like carpet, passenger sun visor and wiper, radio, arm rests and external rear view mirrors were deleted and a massive tach mounted on the center dash. Headlights were knocked out and re-purposed as ram air ducts. The back seats remained the same, but the fronts were ripped out and replaced with lighter weight seats from the Ford Econoline trucks. The model once again emulates all this adding a set of dangling keys in the ignition as a brilliant little touch.

Ford at last had a winner – the T-bolt won the 1964 NHRA Manufacturer's Cup. Splashed with beautiful metallic burgundy paint and trimmed with tasteful chrome accents (the miss-alignment of side chrome spear around the doors not withstanding), RC2 (ERTL) can smile because it has a 1/18 winner that will sell far more models than DST ever managed to produce.

New News  ·  List & Reviews  ·  Legacy Motors  ·  Auctions  ·  Forums  ·  Polls  ·  Features  ·  Register  ·  FAQs  ·  Clubs

Copyright © 2008 Gennera Knab and Diecast Zone