# Looking for an AMT concept car?



## SUNGOD

I'm trying to find out which one it is. It was a sleek red sports type car and it might have had gull wing doors (can't be sure though). It was probably released in the early 70s and it might have been a Ford or Chevrolet. The annoying thing is I was only talking about it and looking at pictures about a year ago.

Anyone help?


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## kenlee

SUNGOD said:


> I'm trying to find out which one it is. It was a sleek red sports type car and it might have had gull wing doors (can't be sure though). It was probably released in the early 70s and it might have been a Ford or Chevrolet. The annoying thing is I was only talking about it and looking at pictures about a year ago.
> 
> Anyone help?


This one comes to mind:


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## SUNGOD

kenlee said:


> This one comes to mind:




Thanks kenlee but it's not the Silhouette. I actually know that one.


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## kenlee

SUNGOD said:


> Thanks kenlee but it's not the Silhouette. I actually know that one.


Sorry I couldn't help, that is the first one that came to mind.


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## SUNGOD

kenlee said:


> Sorry I couldn't help, that is the first one that came to mind.






Thanks anyway. It's always good to see these things just in case I've never seen them and that's reminded me that I want to get the Silhouette soon.

Luckily I remembered that I talked about it in the Moebius wishlist section so I searched through the pages and found it on page 12. 

It was the Chevy Astro.


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## scotpens

Ah, you mean this sleek baby!



















The entire rear body section rose along with the seats to facilitate entry and egress. The car was less than 36 inches high.


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## SUNGOD

scotpens said:


> Ah, you mean this sleek baby!
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> The entire rear body section rose along with the seats to facilitate entry and egress. The car was less than 36 inches high.





That's the beauty. Why Chevy never put that into production I don't know.


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## irishtrek

Now that I like!! Who knows, maybe R2 will reissue it some day.


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## SUNGOD

irishtrek said:


> Now that I like!! Who knows, maybe R2 will reissue it some day.




I don't know when it was reissued last but it seems like it's been a long time.


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## fire91bird

The Astro 1 was reworked into the Scorpion, so, sadly, it's probably unlikely to be reissued as the Astro 1. Here's a link to the Scorpion on the Showrods site: Scorpion


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## CorvairJim

The actual 1:1 Astro I still exists. General Motors still owns it in their Heritage Collection with several other Corvair-based prototypes including the Monza GT, the Monza SS, the Sebring Spyder, the Super Spyder, and the Electrovair. The Monza GT has been modeled in both 1:25 and 1:20 scale by Entex. I'd give my left "something-or-other" (I'm not sure what, but my left something... ) for one of those rare Astro I kits! And I could do some real damage to whoever the clown at AMT was who made the decision to butcher the tool from the Astro I kit for that "Scorpion" abomination!


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## SUNGOD

fire91bird said:


> The Astro 1 was reworked into the Scorpion, so, sadly, it's probably unlikely to be reissued as the Astro 1. Here's a link to the Scorpion on the Showrods site: Scorpion




Oh no!!!!!!!!!! I've seen the Scorpion before but didn't realised they butchered the Astro moulds to turn it into that.


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## SUNGOD

CorvairJim said:


> The actual 1:1 Astro I still exists. General Motors still owns it in their Heritage Collection with several other Corvair-based prototypes including the Monza GT, the Monza SS, the Sebring Spyder, the Super Spyder, and the Electrovair. The Monza GT has been modeled in both 1:25 and 1:20 scale by Entex. I'd give my left "something-or-other" (I'm not sure what, but my left something... ) for one of those rare Astro I kits! And I could do some real damage to whoever the clown at AMT was who made the decision to butcher the tool from the Astro I kit for that "Scorpion" abomination!




Yes not one of AMT's finest decisions.


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## Dyonisis

SUNGOD said:


> That's the beauty. Why Chevy never put that into production I don't know.


Because it's too ugly - too futurisitc! 

~ Chris​


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## SteveR

fire91bird said:


> The Astro 1 was reworked into the Scorpion, so, sadly, it's probably unlikely to be reissued as the Astro 1. Here's a link to the Scorpion on the Showrods site: Scorpion


Holy crap, that's heartbreaking.


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## SUNGOD

Dyonisis said:


> Because it's too ugly - too futurisitc!
> 
> ~ Chris​





Ugly? What's wrong with looking futuristic too?


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## Dyonisis

Ugly back in the day meant - too futuristic, and ahead of its' time. Any time something new came along that was considered radical was always bashed by the public, but in this case I have to agree for once! 

~ Chris​


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## SUNGOD

Dyonisis said:


> Ugly back in the day meant - too futuristic, and ahead of its' time. Any time something new came along that was considered radical was always bashed by the public, but in this case I have to agree for once!
> 
> ~ Chris​




I see what you mean about these concept cars like the Astro being too ahead of their time but I think it's a great looking car. 

Maybe I'm biased but it reminds of me of something out of UFO or Thunderbirds and that's cool in my books.


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## scotpens

SUNGOD said:


> That's the beauty. Why Chevy never put that into production I don't know.


After the 1960s, air-cooled rear engines fell out of favor with automotive engineers, making Chevrolet's Corvair-based concept cars obsolete. 

As a side note, contrary to popular myth, Ralph Nader wasn't responsible for the death of the Corvair. Six months before _Unsafe At Any Speed_ was published, Chevrolet had already decided to continue Corvair production only until they'd made back what had been spent on development and tooling. The real Corvair killer was the Ford Mustang.


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## CorvairJim

scotpens said:


> After the 1960s, air-cooled rear engines fell out of favor with automotive engineers, making Chevrolet's Corvair-based concept cars obsolete.
> 
> As a side note, contrary to popular myth, Ralph Nader wasn't responsible for the death of the Corvair. Six months before _Unsafe At Any Speed_ was published, Chevrolet had already decided to continue Corvair production only until they'd made back what had been spent on development and tooling. The real Corvair killer was the Ford Mustang.


Let me take this a couple of steps further. First, Nader's screed wasn't solely about the Corvair. He claimed it was meant as an indictment of the entire American auto industry... but he failed to mention that he was on the payroll of the Ford Motor Company at the time! As a result, the only mention of any Ford product in he book was that the dash knobs of the Mustang stuck out too far, possibly causing injury in the evenrt of a crash. Chapter 1 was the Corvair part. In it he tells of how the rear axle halfshaft on the outside of a turn will "Tuck Under" the car as it leans into the turn, causing the car to pole vault over it and roll over! There are a couple of problems with that... 1) The axle is securely mounted to the car. There's no way it could drop away from the car in such a manner that the car would "Pole Vault" over it. 2) A car doesn't lean INTO a corner; Centripital force causes it to lean OUT! The outside wheel tucks up into the wheel well, not the other way around. Sorry Ralphie, you're busted.

Get this: Chapter 2 was all about how the horizontal tail fins of the 1959 and 1960 full-size Chevys cause the rear end of those cars to actually lift clearfrod at speeds of around 70 mph, causing an unconrolable situation. Hmmm... Just a sec here... If the rear end (and therefore the drive wheels) of the 1959 Impala that Junior Johnson won the 1960 Daytona 500 with took flight at 70 mph, how did he win at an average speed of nearly 140 mph? A quick fact check here: Ralph Nader knows exactly NOTHING about automotive aerodynamics or physics. He was just a fresh out of law school wet-behind-the-ears lawyer out to make a name for himself.

No, "Unsafe At Any Speed" only caused the Corvir to remain on the market for an additional three years, it didn't kill it off. Think about it: Chevrolet couldn't be seen to be knuckling under to Nader, so they had to keep the car in production for a few more years than they had originally planned to. It was scheduled to go away when it's replacement, the Camaro, was brought to market in 1967. I agree that the Mustang was a prime factor in the death of the Corvair, but the first nail in it's coffin came all the way back in 1962 with the Chevy II. The Corvair was first marketed as Chevy's sole compact car, but they realized early on that America wasn't ready for something so different. As a result, they rushed the 1962 Chevy II into production after an incredibly short 18-month development. Now Chevrolet buyers had a choice: Either the "Normal" Chevy II, which was basically a shrunken full-size Chevy, or the radically different Corvair. Ironically, the Corvair line sold over a quarter million cars in 1962, it's best sales year ever. Chevy went about rebranding the Corvair as the "Sporty" compact, and it suceeded pretty well in that role, handily outselling Fords answer to the Monza, the Falcon Futura. It did so well that Lee Iacocca, Ford's chairman at the time, put a rush order in to Ford Design to whip up a sporty compact body that would bolt up to the Falcon's chassis. They called that car "Mustang", and the rest is history.


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## Marty

Dyonisis said:


> Ugly back in the day meant - too futuristic, and ahead of its' time. Any time something new came along that was considered radical was always bashed by the public, but in this case I have to agree for once!
> 
> 
> ~ Chris​


The Chrysler Airflow is another example of a car maker with a car ahead of it's time, but the public wouldn't buy it.

Marty
Marysville, OH


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## irishtrek

fire91bird said:


> The Astro 1 was reworked into the Scorpion, so, sadly, it's probably unlikely to be reissued as the Astro 1. Here's a link to the Scorpion on the Showrods site: Scorpion


The 1/16 scale Petty Charger was turned into the street Charger which R2 reissued last year before reverse engineering the tooling back into the Petty Charger which should be out sometime in the next year or so.


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## Steve H

The Astro-1 must have had some buzz about it back in the day. Corgi made a die-cast of it, complete with working hatch/lifting seats. It was pretty neat.


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## scotpens

Marty said:


> The Chrysler Airflow is another example of a car maker with a car ahead of it's time, but the public wouldn't buy it.


The Airflow indeed had many advanced features, but the car-buying public may have been put off by its rather dumpy appearance.










By contrast, the 1933 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow special, of which only six were built, was aerodynamically streamlined and pretty to look at (although its engineering was totally conventional).


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## Xenodyssey

The box art looks like it's been done by Syd Mead.


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## djnick66

irishtrek said:


> The 1/16 scale Petty Charger was turned into the street Charger which R2 reissued last year before reverse engineering the tooling back into the Petty Charger which should be out sometime in the next year or so.


I can also see a much bigger market for the Petty Charger than reverse engineering one rather obscure show car back into another obscure car.


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## Daikaiju1

Xenodyssey said:


> The box art looks like it's been done by Syd Mead.


That's what I thought, too.


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## rlk774

CorvairJim said:


> The actual 1:1 Astro I still exists. General Motors still owns it in their Heritage Collection with several other Corvair-based prototypes including the Monza GT, the Monza SS, the Sebring Spyder, the Super Spyder, and the Electrovair. The Monza GT has been modeled in both 1:25 and 1:20 scale by Entex. I'd give my left "something-or-other" (I'm not sure what, but my left something... ) for one of those rare Astro I kits! And I could do some real damage to whoever the clown at AMT was who made the decision to butcher the tool from the Astro I kit for that "Scorpion" abomination!


 I have an AMT Astro I model that is opened but unassabled. Stickers are not in good condition. If anyones interested [email protected]


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