Table of contents for Summer 2021 in Die Cast X

One of the responsibilities I take most seriously in putting together an issue of DCX (and the thing I most frequently second-guess!) is weighing the balance of competing subjects and interests. There are only so many pages, and trying to decide how to divvy those up to make readers happy ties me in knots! Sometimes it comes down to deciding between a popular mainstream subject and giving some attention to a less broad category that happens to be the most compelling or newsworthy story of the moment. Take this issue as a perfect example. The Super Sport feature takes on a perennial favorite in Chevy’s most iconic muscle car brand. That story is always going to be a hit and it’s always going to be relevant. But the flip side…

I grew up around a large family farm and I have distinct memories of the vehicles we used. The first is of the huge tractors—some that stood upwards of two stories tall—that were still dwarfed by the 5000 acres of crops they tended. I also have memories of an old truck that, although small, could—and did!—take quite a beating. It was a vehicle my uncles would take off-road, pull fallen trees out of the many hollows that surround the fields, or just whip it up and down the dirt roads for fun. It was a work truck, one with scuffs and dents from long seasons on a commercial farm. I think it was originally red, but the scratches and rust made that hard to tell. What I do know is…

Hollywood’s Walk of Fame has hundreds of movie stars’ names pressed into the sidewalk, but if they ever make a Hollywood Drive of Fame there will only be two sets of Mustang tire tracks burned into its tarmac. One of them will belong to the beauty you see on these pages. As you probably know, “Eleanor” is the name given to the custom 1967 Mustang GT500 lookalike from the 2000 remake of the cult car classic Gone in 60 Seconds. It’s been more than 20 years since that blockbuster reboot (and more than 37 since the low-budget original) but Eleanor has taken on a life of her own, eclipsing even her human costars Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie as the face of that film. She is now easily one of…

454 SS (1990-93) After the Monte Carlo and El Camino SS models departed the market in 1988 Chevy was left without a viable car to carry the SS badge. They solved that quandary by tacking one onto a truck and playing off of one of the most prestigious models in the Super Sport stable. Chevy stuffed the giant 454 big block from the heavy-duty 3500 series truck into a short-bed 2-wheel-drive C1500, and boom—instant muscle truck! In addition to 255hp and 405lb-ft of tire incinerating torque, it came with beefed-up suspension, and a blackout trim accompanied by bold billboards displaying “454 SS.” S-10 SS (1994-98) Hoping to capitalize on the success of the 454 SS, Chevy introduced an SS variant of the compact S-10. Powered by the ordinary 4.3L V6…

Spellbinding Muscle Truck Auto World 1977 Dodge Warlock 1:18 | $100 With muscle car performance on the wane in the mid-1970s, Dodge turned to its D-series trucks to take up the slack. With a full slate of V8 engines, beefy drivetrains, and free of the emissions restrictions that strangled car engines, it was an ideal solution. All it needed was some muscular graphics to match—and that’s just what the Warlock delivered. Introduced in late 1976 as a ’77 model in either red, black, or the metallic green you see here, with gold pinstripes and accents, gold wheels, authentic oak bed sideboards, and chrome running boards on the stepside short bed. The Warlock package could be ordered with either two- or four-wheel-drive, and with any engine offered in the D-series truck…

It seems like Chevrolet spent much of the 1960s playing catchup. Caught flatfooted by the overwhelming success of Ford’s Mustang it took Chevy nearly three years to build their own sporty compact to compete. But even before the pony car wars began, another battleground was brewing. Jeep had dominated the passenger-carrying 4x4 market throughout the 1950s, and in 1961 it was joined—with surprising success—by International Harvester’s Scout. Ford and Chevy both took immediate note and started working up concepts for small 4x4s to compete. When the Mustang began raking in cash for Ford, it decided to use some of those profits to bring its other equine-themed project—the Bronco—to market for 1966. Meanwhile, Chevy was forced to make some tough choices. Ultimately Chevy decided the market would be stronger for its…

The Chevy Super Sport is among Detroit’s most storied performance nameplates and it has tantalized members of the Bowtie Brigade for more than 60 years. The SS moniker came to prominence thanks to the efforts of two of General Motors’ most iconic heroes: “Father of the Corvette” Zora Arkus-Duntov and one of the fathers of the muscle car, Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen. The first car to officially carry an SS badge was a one-off 1957 Corvette show car built by Duntov and his team to explore the competition potential of the Vette platform. It debuted at the New York Auto Show in December 1956 and made some demonstration test runs at the Sebring 12-hour race a few weeks later. It also served to introduce the Rochester Ram Jet fuel-injected 283 to…

Detroit has produced many an iconic performance package over the years. Ford has its Cobra Jets and Bosses, Dodge the R/T. But Chevy’s Super Sport goes so far beyond those; it isn’t a mere performance package—it’s an institution. In 60 years there have been no fewer than 15 separate models to carry an “SS” badge, with 33 distinct vehicle generations among them—and counting! There have been Super Sport coupes and sedans, luxury cars and compacts, trucks, and SUVs. But of course, the core of the SS has always been the muscle car—two-door performance coupes with big V8 power, beefed-up running gear, and tough-looking trim to announce that you were dealing with Chevy’s fastest and most formidable performance models. The Impala SS kicked things off in 1961, but it was soon…

I always find it amusing that Don Yenko, purveyor of Yenko Supercars—some of the most hairy-chested mega-motor muscle cars ever to terrorize a drag-strip (or a local street-race spot!) actually got his start tuning one of Chevy’s smallest engines to go road racing! Indeed, Yenko’s first Chevy performance upgrade of note was the original Stinger, a modified 1966 Corvair Corsa with its diminutive 164ci Flat-6 tuned up to go road racing! Of course, Yenko graduated to the new Camaro in ’67, and that’s when the horsepower numbers—and the Yenko reputation—really took off. I love that Johnny Lightning has paired up some of Yenko’s most notable cars into special two packs to make it easier for fans of the legendary Chevy tuner to collect a full set. One set pairs a…

As it had with its entry in the pony car rivalry two years previous, Ford landed the first shot in what would become the battle of the mainstream sports utility vehicles in 1966 with the introduction of the original Bronco. But it wasn’t Chevy that Ford had its sights on, at least initially. It was Willys that had owned the market for small, utilitarian 4x4 vehicles since the end of WW II when its military MB had been decommissioned and morphed into the civilian Jeep CJ. Toyota had copied the CJ design with its early Land Cruisers and Land Rover had its British take on the concept, but it wasn’t until International Harvester released the first of its Scout series in 1961 that Jeep had any serious domestic competition. The…

There is no one in the world whose name is more synonymous with the sport of drag racing than Don Garlits. “Big Daddy” has been so good for so long that he has left his indelible imprint on the entire sport. He is unquestionably in a class of one among top fuel drag racers; it is hard to imagine anyone ever eclipsing his accomplishments. When the NHRA compiled their list of the Top 50 most important and influential racers during the “First 50 Years of Drag Racing” (1950-2000) Garlits was listed Number 1. Behind him were John Force, Don Prudhomme, Bob Glidden, Shirley Muldowney, and Kenny Bernstein. Where there might be some argument about the relative positioning of other individuals within the Top 50, no one who follows the sport…

COBALT SS (2005-10) By 2005 Chevy had fully embraced the concept of FWD Super Sport models. Needing to inject a little excitement into the new Cobalt compact they added an SS to the lineup using another Super Sport first—a 205hp supercharged 4-cylinder engine. In 2008 that was switched to a turbocharged inline-4 with a startling 260hp, making the Cobalt SS surprisingly quick! MALIBU SS (2006-07) While the SS Cobalt’s performance makes the case that it belongs in the Super Sport family, the SS versions of the 2006 Malibu (and the bizarre Malibu Maxx crossover thing) do not. They lasted just two years—which was probably two years too long. HHR SS (2008-10) The HHR shared the Cobalt’s chassis, so Chevy figured why not give it the SS treatment too? The 260hp…

To many, a Barchetta seems like the product of a bygone era. The idea of a minimalist sports car—one not only without a roof above the driver’s head but with little or no windshield in front of them either—seems out of place in today’s world of luxury-laden supercars. A modern open-air Ferrari is much more likely to have a power-operated folding hardtop than no top at all, to say nothing of omitting a windscreen! But the Prancing Horse has a rich history with Barchettas; so much so that the term is virtually synonymous with the beautiful 1948-53 Ferrari 166 MM, the exquisite sports racer that holds the distinction of being the only single model in history to win the prestigious the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Targa Florio, and…

Frequent contributor and longtime friend of DCX Bill Bennett had a big month leading up to this issue. It started off with a road trip to central Florida to visit Don Garlits’ Museum of Drag Racing, which included a sit-down with Big Daddy himself! (See page 32) Bill is not one to miss out on any opportunity for automotive adventure, so after a couple weeks back home he was off again—this time caravanning from his home in Southern California to Nevada for his birthday—but not for anything so mundane as gambling in Vegas. Nope, Bill was entered into the Nevada Open Road Challenge—the springtime event for the Silver State Classic—the world-famous high-speed open-road race held near Ely, Nevada. (Diecast fans may know the Silver State Classic races—which are held on…