Big John's Shiny Corvette

Precision Miniatures did a great job with this race Corvette and I wish they were still around. Some of the diecasts that showed up as "future" projects looked like fantastic models. This one is a real gem and loaded with details !

Yes indeed, a great model that I picked up a few years back (...yes, I was late to the party ).  This model's candy finish and accurate vintage detail finally convinced me to pull the trigger.  How can you not love those faithfully reproduced "hacked out"  rear wheel wells?  Looks are important but when it comes to winning, all bets are off...so let the "hacking"  begin! 😎 😎 

As always, nice pics Rich.

Was one of the best values for the money when it came out. H

appy to have one in my collection

One of the few race cars in my collection. Owning a 1/1 1961 Corvette was my motivation for buying the model.

Fun Fact:  Bill Bennett wrote the history on the box the model came in. 

Also, It's being offered again by Acme and is available for sale now.   

Regarding the history, it's my understanding that Mazmanian originally didn't purchase the car for racing.  It was a street car.  His nephew, Rich Siroonian, would sneak out in the "borrowed" car to street race.  Big John told young Rich if he wanted to race, he'd put him in a gasser to safely race at the drag strip.  Siroonian had a knack for drag racing and drove an Austin and a 'Cuda funny car.    

@marty-johnson Yeah, that's right. I saw ACME's release last week; it's looks perfect.  (...sure wish ACME would hurry up with that 1955 Nomad  ).

@chris Thank the gods that Acme, nee GMP, managed to purchase the toolings from all those defunct companies so the models can be re-released

I'm afraid that it remains to be seen if there will be much of a market for them. I don't see a lot of 'under 40' collectors out there and most of us 'old guys' already have these models. While it is great that ACME/GMP has saved these molds I'd much rather that they produce new images than recycled ones.

I bet no one else has one with a themed ramp truck to go with it. As for the history of the car, I read a piece a couple of years back on the car and according to the article this corvette was on a dealer lot and a salesman called John Mazmanian and told him about the car being available, Mazmmanian went down and purchased the car and immediately started the process of turning it into a race car. The car went through multiple builds changing the engine configuration and changing the class the car was ran in. The rear quarter panels were cut up at the race track to fit a set of large slicks onto the car. 

@john3976 ...you have ramp trucks for your ramp trucks!    😏 😏 😏

Posted by: @franklemire

I'm afraid that it remains to be seen if there will be much of a market for them. I don't see a lot of 'under 40' collectors out there and most of us 'old guys' already have these models. While it is great that ACME/GMP has saved these molds I'd much rather that they produce new images than recycled ones.

You make a good point and one I've pondered for years. If all of us were smart....  we'd sell off everything RIGHT NOW!  Who knows how "depressed"  demand may become in 10-20 years?  Signs seem to indicate that this period (now) may be diecast's last hurrah. 🤔 🤨 🤔 🤨 🙄

@chris - I'm not sure I'm ready to accept that there is a limited market for diecast model cars.  The diecast market seems to be pretty robust on the global market.  I belong to a few international diecast groups on Facebook, which enables me to interact with a lot of younger collectors.  Some of these "kids" have tens of thousands of models. That's literally and not figuratively.  While admittedly, those are outliers and not the norm, there are thousands of collectors from all over the world that have a strong interest in Diecast cars.  It appears it is applying to all genres too. 

ACME seems to be selling out their entire runs with little difficulty.  Large 1:8 scale, which I thought was a dead scale, has come back like a Super Phoenix on Kryptonian steroids!  There are literally DOZENS of 1:8 scale models available, with more new issues coming all the time.  

Yep, from the limited anecdotal data that I have, from my perspective the condition of the diecast model car market seems strong.  Let's hope I'm right.  

@marty-johnson I would love to see comprehensive diecast sale-breakdowns regarding all demographics. I agree that "younger collectors"   exhibit an intense interest in the hobby, but I would argue that their focus is on more "culturally mainstream"  in nature.  That is to say, they'd be much more aped to purchase Cooter's Tow Truck  and Supernatural's 1967 Impala  than a Sunstar 1952 Nash 4-door or a HW61 1959 Metroploitin convertible.

My point is that younger collectors, by and large, have little interest in highly detailed, historically authentic diecast vehicles from the 20th century when compared to Baby Boomer  collectors (with their visceral connections).

Greenlight, Johnny Lightning, JADA, etc..  will be ready & willing to accommodate these younger collectors, but it's the Baby Boomers  that drive high-end diecast markets. Will manufactures be willing to tool up anything "high-end"  in 10-20 years?  Who will buy these models?

I just can't see a 28 yr old collector, for example, caring more about a CMC Mercedes Pullman (even if it sold for $109.99) than a Fast & Furious  Toyota Supra by JADA.

@john3976 You really need to give that ramp truck 24 coats of Candy Persimmon Red and gold leaf the "Big John"