MPC 1/25 '36 Wild One, previewed by Scott Van Aken

Back when I was considerably younger, Friday and Saturday night trips to the stock car races was a weekly occurance. These events were held on 1/5 mile banked and 1/4 mile flat tracks at two local county fair locations. The cars there were big block engines in tube frame chassis with wide, grooved tires for running on dirt. Most of them had bodies from cars of the later 1930s with General Motors Coupes being very popular. Of course, these were simply the main part of the body. There was no sheet metal forward of the firewall and they had no rear fenders with the rear bodywork that was sometimes left abbreviated and reshaped. The black and white image is of the multiple track champion at Belle-Clair Speedway when I attended races. The track was left to deteriorate after COVID, but the county has razed it and will be rebuilding it to 1/4 instead of its original 1/5 mile size.

This sort of dirt racing came about after WWII and quickly spread with the majority of initial cars running flathead engines. As the years progressed, the engines got better and once all the 30's bodies had been scavenged from junk yards, the bodies became newer. Today, these modified racers look like nothing that has ever been on the road. They are basically cookie cutter slabs of sheet metal that still have big block power plants and still make all the right noises, but are, to me, no longer visually interesting.

THE KIT

Originally issued in 1975, this kit has been produced under a number of different names, some with different decals, but the plastic has been the same. The light grey plastic parts are well molded and free from flash. Detailing is quite good as well, though probably not up to modern standards. The parts are flash free and I could not find any other major glitches like sunken in areas or big ejector marks. There are not any clear parts, of course, but you do get a very well done chrome sprue for wheels and air cleaner and valve covers, for example. The tires on this one have had the two piece plasic ones replaced with vinyl/rubber ones by Round 2.

The chassis is the main construct. Undoubtedly, some time will be spent scraping seams on the tube framework, but nothing worse than your standard NASCAR stocker. Painting the frame will be a bit difficult as one needs to have the engine installed at an early part of the construction. All of the suspension bits are separate and again, will require careful construction to get things properly aligned. Unlike modern car kits, this one has a body that comes in sections. However, thanks to the design of these older bodies, you should be able to get away with not having to do any filler work as the seams fall along standard lines. As this is a modified, you may well need to cut on some of the body bits to enlarge the opening for the driver or trim the back a bit. Actually, were I building this car, I'd do some extensive modifications to the rear in order to shorten things to match the cars of my youth. Some hot water will take care of the rear body work and some judicious trimming will work with the frame.

The kit does include a pair of number options along with some stripes and a goodly selection of sponsor decals. You can either follow the box art for yours or pick something else that meets your fancy. Some of these cars were quite colorful and it will give you an opportunity to perhaps do some custom decal work to come up with a sponsor name. All the really successful cars were sponsored by a car dealership, from whence they could get the latest racing bits from the factories. If you like this one, then MPC did three others with different bodies that you might find to your liking.

CONCLUSIONS

Over the years I have built one of these kits. Perhaps partially built would be a better description as I used the body, motor, and some other other bits on a slot car back when we ran jalopies on our club's oval track. One thing for sure, it isn't parts heavy so should build up fairly quickly.

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KIT #:	C929M
PRICE:	$24.95 when new
DECALS:	Two options
REVIEWER:	Scott Van Aken
NOTES:	2020 release.