Through the Looking Glass (Page 6)

One could build a plastic model in a day, or with care and detail, about a month. Not so with diecast cars. This project may have begun as far back as early 2004, and took until December 2005 for customers to receive the first cars. Months would pass between prototype reviews sessions, while the factory geared up for production and during the finished product’s voyage across the Pacific. During those times George was already working on the next cars.

 

A decision was made early on to hit the market hard with performance and glitz. The follow-on cars were to be the red 1968 Shelby Mustang GT500KR convertible and then the 19681⁄2 Mustang Cobra Jet. I don’t know if the KR was any easier, but time could be taken to incorporate improvements. The end result bore that out, as the fit, finish and overall look of the car was superior. For example, the upholstery looked more like vinyl than before. That’s not to say it was easy, as this photo shows. It illustrates the difficulty in dealing with someone half a world away who has never seen the actual car. Note the misinterpreted hood on the left and the misplaced SHELBY letters on the right.

 

Now we come to the Cobra Jet. Just to be clear, the ’681⁄2 CJs are about as rare as hen’s teeth or Shelbys. Those that survive have, for the most part, been restored — more or less. My memory of them, on the other hand, is pure, and I was relying on those mental images to lobby for not only my car, but the most accurate CJ GMP could produce. I was asked how it should be optioned. My response: minimally — no A/C, power steering, console or deluxe interior. Cobra Jets were not about cruising the boulevard in luxury; they were made for brutal, power shifting, straight-line performance.

 

My choice for the car’s appearance was easy; just copy my car: black with black interior and gold C-stripes. The only car to have gold stripes prior to the CJ’s April 1968 introduction was the Hertz Shelby Mustang. I thought it looked both fearsome and classy. George lobbied for that look, but GMP had other ideas and prejudices. To their mind, those gold stripes were reminiscent of the later black, screaming chicken-hooded Trans Ams that cruised the mean streets of South Philly. The car would have red interior and red C-stripes. Oh, well.

 

I did provide some input that helped, however. From photos I’ve seen of restored CJs, many cars have a gloss black hood stripe. I understand the reason for this: it makes polishing the car much easier. In fact, however, the original stripe was low gloss black. Polishing cars, both real and scale, with a low-gloss hood can be a nightmare.

 

Pictures of an early prototype GMP car with the CJ hood showed the scoop set back almost to the back of the hood opening. George kidded me, giving me tongue-in-cheek grief about how the whole tool would have to be scraped to make me happy. It wasn’t true, of course, but you can see below (see pic top-left on next page), how much that little adjustment was taken into account. Also shown is the placement of the rear shocks (see pic top-right on next page). This was Ford’s attempt to help reduce wheel hop. I can’t help but think how this, along with so much about muscle cars, must have confused the Chinese factory.