Revell 1/25 Roland Leong's 'Hawaiian'

Roland Leong's first "Hawaiian" funny car wore a full-size fiberglass replica Dodge Charger body, which proved too prone to lift when it launched into the sky at the '69 Winternationals. The car returned to competition sporting one of the first of the radical new "mini-Charger" bodies. Six inches narrower, a full fifteen inches shorter and chopped two inches to boot, the new and unpainted Hawaiian debuted at Irwindale Raceway as an outlaw before the NHRA changed its rules to accommodate this burgeoning new brand of match-racer. Leong's preparation and pilot Larry Reyes' driving talents put the car regularly in the seven-teens at over 200MPH.

Revell has been releasing some very nice model racer kits of late, and adding to the recent 'Chi-Town Hustler' is this new kit on Roland Leong's 'Hawaiian'. Roland was the car owner and had a bevy of drivers behind the wheel of his various cars. This particular car was driven by Larry Reyes with much success.

Like the previous funny car kit, you'll immediately notice that there is a one-piece chassis and nearly one piece body. Unlike the Chi-Town Hustler, this one has the engine in the center of the frame instead of off set. It comes with a full blown 426 Hemi engine with nicely detailed headers a short drive shaft and a well detailed rear end assembly and suspension. A number of the parts for this car are chrome plated and nicely done as well. However, I know that many will be scraping the seams and so this will require re-painting the chrome bits.

A well molded interior with decal belts is included in the kit. There are rubber/vinyl tires for and aft and the clear parts are very clear indeed. A nice touch is that the clear parts can be installed from the outside once the rest of the car is painted. There are hinges in the rear of the body so one can display the body raised up to show interior and engine detailing.

Instructions are superbly printed and drawn. Color and part information is provided for each piece. The decal sheet is an in-house sheet which means it is a bit on the thick side, but appears to be very opaque. No particular paint line is offered for the blue metallic exterior, but there are a number of paints that should match the box image well.

I know that car fans in general and drag racers in particular will be very pleased with this new release. It seems Revell has committed itself to doing some of the iconic cars of the 60s and 70s and I'm very glad they have. You will be as well once you get a chance to check one out yourself.

Thanks to me for picking this one up so you can see what it is like.

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