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Topic starter
24/06/2024 11:04 am
1971 saw the cult classic "Vanishing Point" where the anti-hero Kowalski was hired to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T from Denver to LA. It turns out he's a disaffected ex-cop, race car driver and... ready?... a Medal of Honor winning Viet Nam vet. Buoyed by amphetamines, he seeks to make an impossible deadline. He then attracts every cop in the West all looking to take him down for sticking it to the man. He's helped by a radio DJ in evading the police, but finally commits suicide crashing into a pair of D9 bulldozers that were set up to block his path. This rather low budget movie took advantage of Chrysler's dollar-a-day rental for movies basically for the free advertising. 5 Challenger R/Ts were rented. 4 had the 440 Six-Pack with 4 speed and one with a 383 automatic for some of the more complicated stunts. Chrysler wasn't happy about their cars being in a movie about drug taking and evading law enforcement and on return, crushed them all. The car that was destroyed in the fiery climax was actually a gutted '67 Camaro that was towed behind the 383 Challenger.
I have yet to see a model in any scale that exactly replicates the movie car. For one thing, all have the optional sport gas cap which the movie cars lack. As to the engine. A 440 Six-Pack was never mentioned and it was cryptically mentioned that it was a special supercharged mystery engine in the car. 30 years ago, Revell released a series of 1/25 scale movie car kits that featured a painted diecast body with the remaining plastic parts in a single color. I also have the "Bullitt" Mustang and Charger which are both nicely done for $15 model kits. I didn't do any detailing on the model besides a lot of paint and some after market decals for the engine compartment. The model is sealed, save for the opening hood.
24/06/2024 2:26 pm
Looks pretty darn good. Here's two surviving original movie cars. In a nearby Smoky Mountains auto museum, I snapped these shots July 2008:
Geno reacted
24/06/2024 2:50 pm
Fantastic Rich. I have the Philly Mint LE in 1/24.
Topic starter
24/06/2024 7:19 pm
@perrone1 Are you sure they're not recreations? Everywhere I read says they were returned to Chrysler and crushed. All 5 were rentals. What I know to exist is a set of plates taken off one of the cars. Also none of them had the 426 Hemi in it... 4 with 440s and one with a 383.
Geno and Tony Perrone reacted
24/06/2024 11:58 pm
great build Rich. Not sure how close M2s 1970 white Challenger is?
Geno and Tony Perrone reacted
25/06/2024 6:28 am
@perrone1 Are you sure they're not recreations? Everywhere I read says they were returned to Chrysler and crushed. All 5 were rentals. What I know to exist is a set of plates taken off one of the cars. Also none of them had the 426 Hemi in it... 4 with 440s and one with a 383.
D4C member, Tom & Donna Ciryak, visited us and we visited the car museum. We talked with the owner about several different cars he had. On the Vanishing point cars, one was from the original movie and the other from Vanishing Point II. The literature and magazine coverage seem authentic.
Geno reacted
Topic starter
25/06/2024 11:55 am
@perrone1 Tony, google "what happened to the Vanishing Point Challengers" and you'll see the results. One has an "original" Challenger R/T with a Hemi. It is documented that 4 of the 5 were 440 six-packs w/4 speed and one with a 383 automatic (a stunt car). Another article says that some of film crew bought a number of them, which was impossible as they were $1/day rentals from Chrysler. One article has the Chrysler dumping them for salvage in 1971. Chrysler's movie rental agreement was for publicity, but the brass didn't want to be associated with the drug use and anti-law enforcement sentiment in the film. There are a lot of '70 Challenger recreations out there and, like this Hemi or all the diecasts that have the optional sport gas filler cap. It seems the preponderance of articles have all the cars crushed.
Tony Perrone reacted
25/06/2024 12:49 pm
@perrone1 Tony, google "what happened to the Vanishing Point Challengers" and you'll see the results. One has an "original" Challenger R/T with a Hemi. It is documented that 4 of the 5 were 440 six-packs w/4 speed and one with a 383 automatic (a stunt car). Another article says that some of film crew bought a number of them, which was impossible as they were $1/day rentals from Chrysler. One article has the Chrysler dumping them for salvage in 1971. Chrysler's movie rental agreement was for publicity, but the brass didn't want to be associated with the drug use and anti-law enforcement sentiment in the film. There are a lot of '70 Challenger recreations out there and, like this Hemi or all the diecasts that have the optional sport gas filler cap. It seems the preponderance of articles have all the cars crushed.
Will do! 
Rich Sufficool reacted
26/06/2024 10:04 am
Rich I have this model as well from Revell along with the others you mentioned. For the price point it is a nice kit. I have been wanting to watch the movie again since I recently purchased a 19 Dodge Challenger R/T Shaker and it had me thinking about the movie.
Rich Sufficool and Tony Perrone reacted