“Team ’67 Heaven” – A Special Edition of “Meet The Fleet!”

This started almost as a joke: the white ’67 Malibu seemed unbeatable until it started getting beat by the Orange ’67 GTO. Then came another Malibu, then another GTO, and without even meaning to do anything special, I found that these 4 Model Motoring bodies wound up on awesome chassis and had awesome wheel and tire combos that gave them awesome handling. These 4 cars started routinely winning tournaments, and before long I was referring to them collectively as “Team ’67 Heaven.” The name stuck, so as always, the story followed…

Ever since “White Lightning”, Shane “Storm Rider” Sutherland’s white ’67 Chevelle Malibu SS396 first set wheel to track, a trend start developing. He mopped up handily at the muscle car races and for a short time it seemed no one could touch him…until the arrival of “Skull Crusher”, Todd “T-Bone” Taggart’s orange ’67 GTO. Then it was “The Sultan,” the yellow ’67 Chevelle Malibu SS396. By the time “Scarlett Fever”-the red ’67 GTO-arrived, it was official: these 4 cars and their drivers were frequently sweeping the winner’s circle, and with the 4 of them together, the concept for “Team ’67 Heaven” was born.

Initially just the 4 cars described above, most other drivers learned to fear this exclusive club, while a few wanted nothing more than to get in. The 4 “founding fathers”, realizing they’d created an exclusive circle without any intention to do so, then decided to make it official, with a logo, a jacket, and a set of rules! Those rules were fairly basic: the club was open to anyone with a 1967 model year muscle car with more than 2 victories against a competitor with more than 2 victories! Think that sounds easy? Think again! So, who was going to get in next?

It took many months of practicing, many victories, and even more disappointments, but after nearly 8 months of trying, the now “official” club inducted their 5^th member, Mick “Maverick” McCallum with his hot lime green ’67 Camaro RS, “Magneto.”

As it stands now, there are still only just those 5 members, but there are 3 pledges, and two of them are getting close: Jeremiah “Lucky” Logan has one more win against a winner to go for “The Slider,” his blue ’67 Nova SS, in order to get inducted. Bram “Blackjack” Brodie, who everyone pegged for a lone wolf, is not as close; his white ’67 Camaro SS “Ghost Rider” still has some improvements to make in spite of its already awesome performance. Check the mirror though, racers: up and coming is a young racer named Dale Decker, who’s yellow ’67 Nova SS is being tuned to the hilt. He wants in, and his numbers are showing what he’s willing to do to get in.

Both the 5 members and 1 of the prospective members are Model Motoring bodies, with the two Novas being new Auto World pieces, which are a little larger and a little heavier than the older MM originals. Some of these took more effort to build than others, but all have a history now (the yellow Nova is the newest of the bunch), and the 3 pledges have more incentive than ever to improve their performance however they can!

While I keep making up stories, the cars keep going faster all the time! And the beat goes on, the beat goes on…