This one was an impulse buy.
As anyone who's seen the list of my diecast cars can tell, I'm mostly a fan of the European exotics. Sure, I have a few Vipers and Vettes, but I haven't usually spent my time or money on the American muscle cars of the Sixties.
So there I was, at a store, and I happened to check and see what they might have in 1:18. Phooey, I thought. All Road Legends. I'm still hugely underwhelmed by my RL BMW 850i, so they'll have to do some really nice models to impress me.
Anyway, I looked at the meager selection: A green Karmann Ghia. A 1967 VW Bug. (Hmm. The selection of Bugs out there is getting more interesting...maybe...later --) And the third -- some kind of Sixties Mustang, in Ocean Green.
But there were some little scoops on the sail panels, where it should have the vents? Kinda like a Shelby --
All that happened in about half a second, about the same time it took to read the box. Shelby GT-500KR, it said.
Well, I had just been paid, and it was burning a hole in my wallet. So I looked it over carefully, as well as I could without opening the box, to assure myself it wasn't much like the BMW. And then I plunked down some of my money and took it home.
And here it is, representing one of the rarest, most valuable cars ever to roll out of Ford's doors.
Notice that I didn't say out of Shelby's doors.
As any car guy knows, Carroll Shelby is an American legend, a good ol' boy from Texas who wound up driving race cars in the Fifties, and actually winning races. A lot of them. So he took the next step, the one that seemed, to him, logical: let's get a little British roadster, import it into the US, and cram the sucker full of American V8 power. The little British roadster was originally called the Ace, and it came from AC. The little British engine was thrown out, and a Ford 289 was shoehorned in. (Actually, the first few got 260s, but that changed quickly.) This was a Mustang engine, in a car much lighter than the Falcon-derived Mustang. Shelby threw the Ace name on the junkheap with the rest, called his creation the Cobra, and automotive history was made.
And the Cobras won races. Ford liked the cars, and offered them through their dealerships. And, continuing his logical progression, Ol' Shel reasoned that, if a little is good, more must be better. That is, if a 289 is good, a 427 would be just about right.
The 427 Cobra was not as well balanced as the 289 Cobra, but it went faster than bad news. It blew the doors off Corvettes, and made the Ferrari drivers sweat in their leather gloves. It was outrageous, it captured the public imagination, and it could be had at your local Ford dealer for about $15,000.
Sure, that was a lot of money back then. But see if you can buy an original one for ten times the price today.
Anyway, racing continued to evolve, and Ford decided they wanted to beat Ferrari for the World Championship (after their offer to buy Ferrari fell through!). So they got Ol' Shel to help them, and his next child was born: the Ford GT-40. This was Ford's most extreme production car ever: 40 inches high (the source of the name), bearing a variety of Ford V8s in a mid-engine configuration. Doors that wrapped around into the roof. And top speeds claimed as high as 204 mph. And yes, you could buy the street version at a Ford dealer -- if you lived in England.
They did it: Ford beat Ferrari, and, having proven their point, quit racing. By this time the guys at Ford really liked Shelby, so when he asked their cooperation in his next project, he got it. He was going to modify a bunch of Mustangs, make them worthy to race. And, of course, he would race them.
Another image builder for Ford, not that they needed it much. Sure, they said. Shelby got his Mustangs, and they stopped being Mustangs. The Mustang and Ford names went onto the junkheap, replaced with SHELBY. First the GT350; then the bigger GT500. (Ford didn't mind too much. They still looked like Mustangs, and people called them Mustangs. Besides, you could buy one at your Ford dealer.)
One of the versions was the Shelby GT-500KR. "KR", according to Shelby, stood for, "King of the Road." (No comments about trailers for sale or rent, please!) This car had a BIG engine: a 428-cubic-inch V8, called the Cobra Jet or 428CJ. The same engine was used in a number of Boss Mustangs (and some of the AC-Shelby Cobras, but that's another story!). It was claimed to produce over 400 hp, and it certainly had no trouble moving the car in a way that consumed tires. Handling was another matter -- no amount of suspension tuning would overcome the handicap of a huge engine up front, and, by modern standards, it would be quite a handful.
Still, it had Shelby's magic touch, his blessing, and, most importantly, his name. It became an instant legend, and it's still valuable and rare (by Ford standards).
And that brings us to the Road Legends model of this car. It sits on my desk, staring at me, resplendent in its green, two white racing stripes marking its topside. There's something oddly right about its stance, the way it sits on its wheels: more like a boxer, on his toes, than a modern, hunkered-down, lowered sports car. The esthetic was different then, and there was less understanding of aerodynamics. Cars got raised, not lowered. This one looks pretty much stock, but it seems somehow higher than a modern car would stand.
I turn it around and look at it. Yes, it's not a premium model: the fit of the body panels could be much closer: not just Kyosho and UT, but Bburago and even Maisto routinely build them tighter. The tires are primitive, with plain sidewalls and tread oversimplified even for Sixties standards. The thickness in the metal of the scoops is out of scale. Perhaps worst of all (for someone not accustomed to Ertls!), the trunk doesn't open.
The hood does, and stays open easily, and we can see the 428CJ that lives there. Ah, we say, the simple, uncluttered engine bays of the Sixties, before smog pumps and ECMs and all that. Apparently, before the Shelby name appeared on air filter housings or heads. This engine bay seems a little TOO uncluttered, offering us such interesting items as an alternator apparently mounted directly on the battery! To its credit, it does offer us a battery (even if it is red), a black engine bay, an oil filter, fan belt, and a very nicely painted fan (with five blades; should be six).
The paint under the hood is -- well, almost good. But not quite. And, in a jarring inaccuracy, the engine block is cast in red, where it should be Ford blue. In addition, the both the air filter housing and the oil pan are wrong for a 428CJ -- more like a 289.
Moving on, the wipers are heavily chromed, but look pretty good. The doors open nicely, and surprise! there's a little "glass" vent window filling the triangle at the leading edges! Looking inside, we see a tall console, taller chrome shifter (top-loader 4-speed), and a black steering wheel that sports a rather thick chrome horn ring. The front seats are actually made in two pieces, and fold forward easily and accurately to let 1:18 passengers get in back. Behind that back seat, under the fastback glass, is a relatively spacious cargo area.
The interior of my sample has a custom touch: underneath the dashboard, sloping down toward the footwell, can be seen a second speedometer! I'm sure the decal was simply a mistaken application, and won't be found on all the same models. Still, I think I might keep it there, just for fun...
Turning this car over, we see a fair underside, dominated by an accurately configured exhaust system. The layout is OK, but it still looks like plastic, and the tailpipes should have separate tips. ( In fact, all the underside plastic has plasticky finish; it looks like they didn't try very hard to make it look metallic.) The drivetrain suffers from an oversimplified transmission, driveshaft, differential and axles. The wheels are badly mounted, and wobble laterally on their axles.
The wheels themselves are inaccurate, and the tires are bad -- not only do they lack sidewall detailing and look (and feel) plasticky, but the tread pattern isn't even close. These should have been a lot better.
This model also exhibits an unusual problem: Usually the steering of these models is by a simple, direct linkage between the steering column, an extension arm from it, and a slot in the steering linkage. (The exception in my collection is the Anson Lamborghini Miuras, which have a rack-and-pinion system, and suffer clunkiness caused by loose tolerances in the gearing.) The common system is no doubt widely used because it's simple, cheap, reliable, and smooth. This Shelby has that same kind of system, but it's got a unique clunkiness when you turn the front wheels by hand. Turning them from the steering wheel, however, feels smooth! It took me a little examination to figure out the cause: the steering column is loose, unsecured at the lower end, and this lets it flex first, then it hits an obstruction, and only then the steering column turns! When the steering column is turned directly, the problem doesn't show up.
In examining the body of this car, there isn't too much to complain about. The hood intakes look good, in their forward, non-Mustang position. The model is missing its front side marker lights; the rear marker lights are represented by a painted red stripe rather than a lens. The two white racing stripes go just the slightest bit off-center on the roof, which can be seen by sighting down the body. In addition, on the hood they pull slightly toward the right side of the car. The rear bumper is badly chromed, spotty and uneven. Lenses on the lights look generally good all around, but someone didn't realize what the backup lights were, and put red lenses on them instead of clear.
The Ocean Green paint looks good, as do the stripes (except for their alignment). The decals reading "428 CobraJet" were not securely mounted on my model. They seemed to stay after I pressed them down, but they should be better.
To sum it up:
Strengths: Good body, paint, stance; real folding seats.
Weaknesses: Variable fit of body parts; bad tires; many details wrong.
Overall: A forgettable model of a memorable car, with flaws in both design and execution. Still, it's not bad for the price.
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