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11/08/2025 5:35 am
Yeppers. My good friend, Rick Hanmore is a modeler from way back. When Rich presented his model of the Von Esser to DM, Rick recognized it's quality and worked on getting it made with help from the then design manager, James Wolff and Art McKenna.@perrone1 I’m blown away every time I study the Von Esser to think about the effort DM made to produce such an authentic representation of the actual car. That had to be quite an expense for them to fab the parts, and the extra labor time involved for , what I assume are tampo’s. Plus the fact that, like I’ve mentioned, I don’t believe it was a very well known race car, and I think I may be in the minority in appreciating the ‘53-‘55 Corvette styling. It would be very interesting to know how many were actually sold, but like you said, DM kept their numbers close to their vest. (I first heard that saying when I was told that my Grandfather said that about his .32.) Thanks for the info Tony!
Most of the credit for this car goes to Rich Sufficool, isn't it. @rich-sufficool
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11/08/2025 8:03 am
Thanks for jogging my memory Chav, it hasn’t been very good since my stroke eight years ago but it’s getting better. I love hearing about the models backgrounds and history. Great info!
11/08/2025 11:09 am
The Von Esser Corvette began with an old FM '53 that I kit-bashed with a Revell model and my parts box. The wire wheels were aftermarket and the conversion to a '54 included aluminum exhaust extensions. The Revell kit also provided the decal livery with the only problem being slightly oversized roundels. Upon Rick's request, I sent the modlel to DM. For the research with DM, all I could find was Von Esser's niece who used to work at his garage after school. I was trying to find out if there were any changes to the engine bay, but instead I got some wonderful stories of celebrities who hung out there including Steve McQueen and, of all people, Dave Garroway (for all you old guys out there).
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