I admit I’ve had bad luck with the Model Motoring ’69 GTO body; like most MM bodies it is beautifully detailed and great to look at, but it seems to be poorly balanced, with too much weight over the rear wheels; the two versions of this that I have in my muscle car fleet have always been poor performers, and although I’ve made a lot of effort to improve them, I’ve only gotten so far. So naturally I bought another one!
Well look at it; could you resist? This is only the second of the “Judge” models I’ve bought for the muscle car fleet (the other one is the “non-Judge” version) and even though it’s been made in many colors, I thought the purple one would be a nice compliment to the yellow one, which was the first one I bought. I configured it with another of the excellent light brown Ultra G chassis made for Auto World’s “Barn Finds” series, and a set of Vincent wheels I’ve only used on one other car (they call them Cragers, which is confusing, since they now have 2 different wheels styles they call Cragers, but whatever), and since only the lowest of the low-profile tires would fit under it, I went with Vincent tires as well, even though these are inferior in quality to the silicone Road Race Replicas versions. They look decent though, and the whole package came together quite satisfactorily. The colors are great, the style is great, its an awesome looking car. The question is, how will it run?
Well, in testing its run very well, but testing isn’t racing, and in the manic intensity of a tournament, what seemed satisfactory during a time trial could seem anything but. I may have to accept that these GTO’s are destined to be “also rans.”
And yet, as I explained with my new “tiered fleet plan,” there’s a place in the sun for lesser performers too; while I’m not a fan of the “everyone gets a trophy” philosophy that has ruined American society, I do think it makes sense to run cars against competitors in the same class. These ‘69’s look so good that its worth having a few around just for the pageant, so let’s light ‘em up and do some Lore!
Nicknamed “The Wraith,” this purple custom job is a “resto-mod” done more tastefully than most such projects were in the ‘80s, with a black interior with white seats to complement the un-stock paint scheme. A well equipped car still bearing several of its options including a factory stereo 8-track and power antenna, the 400 has been custom-built to mimic the uber-rare Ram Air IV specs, turning out over 375HP which is naturally mated to a close-ratio 4-speed and a 3.90:1 limited slip rear. Owner Chandler “Conductor” Carrington of Santee, CA has refitted the car with strong 4 wheel disc brakes and removed the original air conditioning for racing, but other than the color the car appears to the eye to be mostly stock. It isn’t, of course, but who would fault the custom touches on a car that looks this good?
With that color, who could resist it! The proportions on this look pretty good and I know what you mean about that. Proper proportions are a big deal for me and when that is wrong it’s something that bothers me over time. and forced perspective only goes so far.