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| Mike Vitale (MEV Originals) has been making bodies a long time now, and as most of you know, he usually steps out of the "mold" and selects cars that no one else makes. Maybe it's an issue of vision. Mike seems to have it. This time he designed two sedans and a GT car. The two sedans are long wheel based, and the GT is short. All are color-in-resin, with clear vacu-formed glass. Fit and finish is excellent. Bodies come in a box, and are pre drilled, and have screws. 1965 Impala This was a seminal year for most car makers, and especially GM. They started considering aerodynamics in there sedans. From the box that was essentially the 64 Impala, Chevrolet went off the charts in their design of this body. Fisher would have been proud. The revelation was in the lines of the hood melding into grill, the swept roof's confluence into the rear deck, and the rounding of the sides. It would also be the last year of the signature Chevy 6 tail lights. I loved that car. Mike Vitale has brought all that to HO scale. This is maybe his best work ever. The dimensions are very proportional to the 1:1 cars, and the detail is all there, including door handles, and wipers. Window frames are also in proportion. The wheel well openings are exact, and the chassis fits them like a glove. | Below are Mike's comments on how he designed the cars. For more information, email him at mev@tjets.com Impala 1965: Made From: Car body is a re-sculpted 1962 Catalina from my lineup. Bumpers were designed from scratch with only headlight detail and grill mesh borrowed from other HO models. Why did I choose this car? Popular demand! I also figured it would sit nice on the tjet chassis due to the fastback design. Price: $50 w/chassis; $44 body only Starliner 1960 : Made From: Car body is a re-sculpted 1961 Starliner from my lineup. Bumpers were designed from scratch with only headlight detail and grill mesh borrowed from other HO models. Why did I choose this car? Being a big classic NASCAR fan .. I'm trying to make all popular cars used for NASCAR in the late fifties and early sixties. I'm also trying to make available all full size Fords from 1957-1964 in tjet. Price: $50 w/chassis; $44 body only 60s Ford Mirage: Made From: Car body's front portion is a re-sculpted Tyco-S Ford GT40 MKII. Rear portion was carved from a plastic 'skeleton' which I made and then attached it to the front portion before re-sculpting. Why did I choose this car? I wanted a Ford GT in my lineup other then the Ford MKIV but I wanted to stand out with something a little different.. Price: $18 body finished; $15 body unfinished To further clarify ..'re-sculpting' is the repetitive process of taking a body I carved up to look close to another car with the addition of body filler, putty, etc and then casting it back to plastic. Sometimes repeating this up to 4 times is necessary to get the final piece as accurate as possible. This method also allows the polishing of the final piece now made out of plastic to get a nice smooth finish. Some detail is left off until the final mold master is made so the polishing won't 'wash' it. All the windshields are vacu-formed. Some cars can share windshields (Like their 1:1 counterparts). If a new windshield is needed .. a new male mold is carefully 'tuned' so the windshield is fitted as best as it can to the inside of the car | |||||||||||||||
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| 60 Ford Starliner This is also a major design change for Ford. There is not one line left from the 59 Ford, which was a huge seller for them (actually outsold Chevrolet that year). Vitale has this model very close to the original. We would be picking nits to say that the front grill does not quite match the curves, or that the rear fins are a little too crisp, but when you deal with this scale, these things are expected. I would also like to see the backup lights in the rear bumper painted in. The details are all there. Very nice job on the rear quarter trim around the wheel wells. Even the keyhole in the door is present. The wheel wells are exactly cut, and line up with the chassis perfectly. The car sits high on the chassis as delivered, but it appears that that is an easy fix by shortening the post. | ||||||||||||||||
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| Ford Mirage The GT car is the only one we will consider a race car, and the only one that we placed on the HO World test track and skid pad. The results were that this is a nice car for the average racer, but cannot accept the necessary modification to become Fray competitive. The reason is that the rear cannot be lowered enough. That said, this is a great looking car with a lot of curb appeal. Way nicer, and better proportioned than its Aurora cousin. Workmanship is top shelf. | ||||||||||||||||
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