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26/03/2005 3:41 pm
Received my DM 55 T-bird today. Looks awesome!
I had no problem with the top snapping it on. One question to anybody that knows T-birds and has this model. To me, the roof looks a bit too heavy in the rear. I mean, it seems to be too far back. I think the roof mounting holes should be about half way between the trunk line and the chrome strip behind the interior. Am I wrong? Another thing that makes me think this is the trunk hits the back window when the top is in place and, the trunk is raised.
27/03/2005 4:55 am
Doug, while I certainly don't claim to be an expert on this two seater..
I do have a number of excellent reference books, many of which contain close ups of this car. In comparing these pictures with the model the top looks to be correct. I think the reason why the trunk hangs up on the lower window frame is because Danbury dutifully replicated the upper and lower center molding trim caps, (talk about capturing every nuance). Out of necessity and to better highlight this feature in 1:24, the caps stick out a bit further than they would on the 1 :1. For me, this incredible level of detail easily trumps the trunk issue.
You're right in describing this model as being awesome. I can't wait to collect the other cars in this Anniversary Series.
27/03/2005 6:26 am
While answering Doug's post I came across an old book entitled...
"Sports Car" by John Wheelock Freeman, published in 1955. I found the author's descriptions and evalutions of a variety of then contemporary sports cars to be fascinating and rather amusing. For those who might be interested, I'd like to share a few of the author's passages on the brand new 1955 Thunderbird. Enjoy!
..."Believing that to re-create a sports car of the European type would restrict the market and would fail to arouse a possibly wider public, Ford has gone so far as to coin the term "personal car," which sidesteps the bear traps of both the purist criticism on the one hand, and the general public sales resistance on the other. Ford has exceeded Chevrolet in offering many optional luxury devices such as automatic window-lifts, power brakes and power steering, which no "pure" sports car devotee would allow on his car............
Neither manufacturer has yet to discover the virtues of an emergency brake of the road-racing type, however, capable of actually stopping the car should the normal braking system fail.....The outstanding thing about both the Corvette and the Thunderbird is that they are the first examples of an entirely new type of car, a type recognizably American yet reflecting the salubrious influence of European fundamentalism in the obvious superiority of its design, size and handling to those of American passenger cars."
From the sounds of it, I don't think Mr. Freeman had any intention of giving up his Jag for a T-Bird or a Corvette!
27/03/2005 3:40 pm
Thanks , Charles.