This is a reprint of the original edition first published in 2010 in Veloce’s Classic Reprint Series. The author’s biography is available on the Veloce website above and is as follows: “Donald Stevens was born in the East End of London, but grew up in Haywards Heath, the Sussex market town to which he was evacuated in 1939. In his early teenage years he became fascinated by aeroplanes and other machines, and on leaving school began training as a mechanical engineer. At 19, he joined the newly-formed design consultancy Norris Brothers Ltd as its first employee and became a member of the design team for Donald Campbell’s Bluebird hydroplane (K7). Following National Service in the RAF, Donald became project coordinator for the design and construction of the Bluebird car. This is his first book.” I was unable to locate if Donald Stevens has written any subsequent books, but you can see Donald on youtube.com discussing this book.

Engine

There was little flash on the engine parts with excellent details. You get just a basic Hemi engine.

Interior

Deep engraving can be seen on the door panels making it easy to detail paint. Seats and side panels are separate pieces from the floor. I used a Testors flat tan and flat black as called for on the detailed instruction sheet.

Body

The body went together very well with no adjustments necessary. My choice was to go with the Tru-Color artic white paint to maintain the factory stock look.

Chassis

The frame rails are separate from the chassis pan. Front, rear suspension, and exhaust are all separate pieces. All together, they make for a very pleasing assembly.

Instructions

The instructions are several pages long with suggested paint color for specific parts and a numbered list to tell you what part is what .

This is a review of the Revell ’85 Oldsmobile 442/FE3-X show car. I built it as a factory stock 442.

Engine

Zero to very little flash was on the engine components. Two items I disliked were the valve covers and oil pan molded to the block. Should have been separate pieces.

Interior

Extremely distinct engraving on the interior pan. Door panels are separate pieces as are the front seats. The rear seat is molded to the interior pan. Dashboard allows two different decals for the gauge cluster and there’s two steering wheels.

Body

The body offers several variations. If you want to build the FE3-X version, additional body panels are available as well as three different front clips. Fortunately the front & rear bumper assemblies also attach to the frame when installing – makes for easier glue points.

I painted the car with Tru-Color metallic cameo white covered with a 2 part urethane clear.

Summary

After the Porsche 956 was banned from competition in the IMSA GTP in 1981 on safety grounds because the driver’s feet were ahead of the front axle centerline, Porsche made modifications to the vehicle to make it eligible for competition. The 962 debuted at the 1984 24 Hours of Daytona with Mario and Michael Andretti driving. It lead the race until lap 127 when it encountered engine and gearbox problems. These problems were worked through and it had a lot of success from 1984-1993. A total of 91 962s would be produced between 1984 and 1991, with its final victory occurring at the 1993 IMSA GTP Championship.

Kit Contents

The kit consists of a total of around 70 parts on two main black sprues; a clear sprue; several sprues with wheel parts; a rubber sprue with 4 tires; two sheets of decals, one large one with the decals for the car, and the other smaller one with two decals per tire; and an 8 page instruction sheet.

Introduction: I was very excited to have the opportunity to review this kit. I love the older motorcycles and this kit did not disappoint. According to www.Scalemates.com, the kit is a new tool. But I believe it is a reboxing of the old Protar kit from the 70s line the Norton Manx kit. The kit is definitely a product of the 70s era. The term "agricultural" came to mind as I was examining the sprues. Not to say it’s a bad kit at all...far from it, but it was tooled back in the day and it is not shake and bake. The kit comes on seven sprues and has two substantial rubber tires that hold their shape well. There are a large number of screws in various sizes as well. An interesting feature of the kit is the hoses. They are pre-formed in soft pliable rubber. No measuring, no cutting to length. There are a few minor sink marks on some of the body panels, but they are able to be sanded out with no filler. On to the build!!