Well in "real life," I hate black interiors. In scale form, I tolerate them a bit better. Also, I have MANY stories of getting deals and/or even free models....but I suppose I'm no different than most other collectors. And of course, sometimes, there just aren't any deals to be found and I have to pay (dare I say it... ) full retail. 😫 😣
1972 Plymouth Cuda Motown Missile by Ertl. This car is interesting because when it was being planned the team wanted to build it using a tube chassis, they asked the NHRA if the car would be legal if they showed up with a tube chassis at the winter nationals and the NHRA told them the car would be illegal. This team was the unofficial official factory team for Chrysler. After the NHRA told them the car would be illegal with a tube frame the Motown Missile team used the unibody and made this the most advanced pro stock car up to that point ever created.
When they showed up for the winter nationals in California this car was obsolete the minute it was unloaded. Now how did the most advanced pro stock car ever built up to then become obsolete the minute it was unloaded at the race track. Well remember the NHRA told them if they showed up with a tube frame chassis they would be deemed illegal?
Well Chevrolet and Bill Jenkens had been building a tube chassis pro stock Vega and they showed up at the winter nationals in California with it and the NHRA said it was legal, at that moment the Motown Missile was obsolete.
The Motown Missile team was taken over later on by driver Don Carlton. Another interesting thing about the Motown Missile was Motown Records did not like Chrysler using Motown in the name of the car. Motown Records threatened to sue the team, so the name was changed from Motown Missile to Mopar Missile. Sadly Don Carlton died in a testing accident.
@chris - Chris, I'm totally with you on black interiors. I don't like them either. I got stuck with them on my first two Corvettes. My current Corvette I ordered from the factory, which got screwed up, and I received it with black inserts in the seats!!! ARRRGGGHHHH! Like you, on models, I tolerate them because I have to.
I'm totally with you on black interiors. I don't like them either.
In the last few years, I've seen a shift (...albeit slight ) in interior color options; there are now more.
But trust me, I know.... when I ordered a GM-Morello Red interior on my last car it was a "big deal." Repeatedly, I was told, "Wow, we rarely/if ever deliver any like this." I picked it up the morning after delivery while some dealership staff were still coming over to peek inside. I just shook my head and thought, "This is a novelty?"
"Black inserts" on your Vette? *&!%$@#!! I feel your pain brother! 😬 😦
Did you keep it ? My biggest pet peeve is a black headliner. If I wanted to feel like I was in a coffin...then fine. But I'm feeling too young for that right now. My current vehicle has a gray headliner in it I'm driving a 02 Explorer Sport Trac.
Exoto 1964 Corvette Grand Sport #67, these car were built as 1963 Corvettes but were raced beyond that and they would call them different years. The ramp truck is a 1967 Chevrolet C30 by ACME and themed by me.
There were five of these completed and a sixth chassis was being built when the program was halted. It is very likely that sixth chassis was completed. John Mecom owner of Mecom Racing says this about the the cars:
Here, new information refutes accepted wisdom. In a recent interview with AutoWeek, Mecom asserts that Arkus-Duntov built a half-dozen Grand Sports and sold all six to Mecom Racing. “I thought I’d bought them all—to make it legal. It wasn’t for a whole lot of money,” Mecom said. His recollection is that each car cost between $3,000 and $6,000.
To examine the relationships in the 1960s between Mecom, Hall, Penske and the two camps of GM racing engineers—one headed by Frank Winchell and the other by Arkus-Duntov—would require a book. Suffice it to say that the interaction was complex. But Mecom is positive that he not only owned all the Grand Sports but also had all six of them together in his Houston shop at least once.“I’d swear on a stack of bibles there were six,” he said. “We had all six of them together one time here in Houston. Now everybody says there were only five. There is a sixth car.”
According to the Burton book, two Grand Sport roadsters went to Penske, who immediately sold one to George Winter- steen. One coupe went to Hall, and the remaining two coupes to Mecom. Not exactly, says Mecom. At the 2003 Amelia Island event, Hall recalled pay- ing Penske for one of the coupes and was convinced he’d bought it. Mecom is equally certain Penske never owned it—or any other Grand Sport. Mecom did, however, use Penske as a go-between with GM.“I paid Roger to pay GM for all six of them because he knew how to do it with no problems,” Mecom told AutoWeek.
Three Grand Sports raced at Sebring in March 1964 and finished first (Penske/Hall) and second (Foyt/Cannon) in class after leader Ken Miles’ Cobra failed with 10 minutes remaining. Johnson’s entry did not finish. In December Penske won the rain-shortened Tourist Trophy at the 1964 Nassau Speed Weeks, and a Miles Cobra again failed to finish after leading. The cars made sporadic appearances after that, in the hands of various owners, but were never again competitive.Where, then, is Grand Sport No. 6?
Mecom is convinced Bill Mitchell, the GM design boss who died in 1988, took it and turned it into a styling exercise. Why would Mecom believe that? Because Mitchell said so. “Bill Mitchell got hold of one and, I’m sure from what he told me, made a styling car out of it,” Mecom said. He went on to describe a walk with Mitchell through one of the buildings in Warren, Michigan, where GM stored styling cars in big racks. And where such cars were frequently destroyed.
“Lance Reventlow had given Mitchell a Scarab. He [Mitchell] always commented about a Scorpion and another car. I don’t know whether the Scorpion was the Scarab or the old Corvette. But one was sitting next to the other on the third level, side by side, both painted blue. I never saw it again although I’d paid for all six of them.”Mecom describes one of the warehoused cars as a brighter purple than the Mecom Blue, which is a 1959 Cadillac Pelham Blue with added metal-flake. He said that none of the Amelia Island reunion cars restored to Mecom Racing trim got the color right.
“None of them were the same as they were when I had them. I know a lot of things change, but there was crap hanging on those things I never saw before. Even the ones that were painted in our old livery got the color wrong.” Speaking of wrong, if you accept Mecom’s version of the Grand Sport saga, all the books are incorrect. There’s a reason for that.
“No one ever interviewed me for those books,” Mecom said. One author of a book devoted solely to the Grand Sport called Mecom after the book was published. “He told me he didn’t interview me because he’d already talked to the experts.” But the reunion nonetheless pleased Mecom. “I was glad to see them there. It’s just hard to realize those things are as valuable as they are.”How valuable is the Corvette quintet? As Warner put it, “A car is worth what someone is willing to pay for it on the day that the owner decides to sell.” He also noted that, “If two own- ers decided to sell on the same day, we’d find out what one is really worth.” At least two experts familiar with the collector car market estimate $1 million plus. That’s per car and with or without a sixth example.
Was there a sixth car? Dallas artist and Mecom friend Bill Neale says yes. “There was a framed photograph of the Hobby Airport shop in John’s trophy room, and you could see, if you looked, six Grand Sports.” Neale added that more than a few people saw the photo and spoke of the six cars.
Until the photo is located, skeptics will insist that no sixth car existed. But it’s difficult to fault Mecom’s memory. To paraphrase the Packard slogan, “Ask the man who owned all six.”
Just a note on the above post, it was not uncommon for these race cars to be sold for very little money when a team was done using them, Carrol Shelby did not even want the Daytona Coupes back that were sent overseas to win the FIA championship over Ferrari, he told Alan Mann to dump them in the ocean but Alan did not have the heart to do that. Shelby did not want to spend the money to ship them back to America and he was done with them, so Alan Mann paid to ship them back to Shelby out of his own pocket. Alan Mann Racing was the team in charge of racing the Daytona Coupes that beat Ferrari.
Smokey Yunick was known to sell almost new race cars when he was done with them for $10.00 dollars or he would just have them crushed into a cube and stored on his shop property.
@chris - Yes, it was ordered incorrectly. My dealer blew it. When I received the car, I was really disappointed in the seats. This is what I wanted.
This is what I received.
Also, note how the beige color on the Corvette order webpage photo is different from the actual car. The actual car has more yellow in the color and doesn't have the same beige hue I thought I was getting. Overall, it's just a bit too busy for my taste. Especially so with the red seatbelts.
This post was modified 2 years ago 2 times by Marty Johnson
@100ford2003 - Yes, I kept the car. The dealer did say I could refuse to take delivery. It took 14 months to get it. I didn't want to wait another 14 months to reorder.
