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Junior earned some candy money
by given the car a quick wash, Dad is busy starting up the Chevrolet
and mom is patiently waiting on the porch.
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Ofourse the car is the very rare 1911
Chevrolet by SMP. The story behind this kit is that it was never intended to be sold as a kit. Instead it was produced for GM as a momento of Chevroletâ's 50th Anniversary celebration. Very few of these kits can be found today. SMP could not make a business case out of the kit, no box art was ever prepared and it was never released to the public allthough they were available through Chevrolet dealers in 1961. The idea was that SMP should launch the 1911 Chevy, and the 1962 Chevy at the same time. But SMP got into problems, as already after the 50 first test castings, the mould showed wear as it was made out of aluminium, instead of steel. The instruction sheets was already printed for the kits, but they were never issued. Chevrolet wasn't interested in poor castings with their name on it, and they didn't want to invest in new steel moulds. The tooling was destroyed at the end of the production run, apparently due to the arrangements between SMP and Chevrolet. I have since heard rumors that there was a simple cardboard carton made for dealers, but I have never seen evidence of that. The historical and technical accuracy of this model is a matter of debate and is subject to GM's own interpretation of reality. Since GM hired SMP to produce the kit for publicity purposes, they would know which parts are correct, better than anyone. While early information is sketchy, it is known that the first Chevrolet was not built until late 1912. This kit is a representation of the second prototype, build in 1911. Below a picture of that car. |
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SMP designed the model as a curbside, and therefore it lacks much of
the detail we see in modern kits, like no engine. But he lack of
detail didn't put the modelbuilders off. As soon as the modelbuilder
community discovered this model, prices went through the roof. Up to
$800 was paid for this rare kit, also known as 'the rarest of the
rare'. This kit is, in the words of Tim Boyd, "almost priceless
today!" And in October 2013 I noticed a listing on eBay were the kit
was offered for a 'buy it now' price of..... $1549.79! In December
2015 a kit was sold on eBay for $ 1980.55!!! Priceless
indeed... |
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