Very cool that you worked on that 69 Javelin Luka. I was an SCCA Tech Inspector when these cars were raced. Then, I worked with Ryals Fabrication to restore one of these cars 2x. In 1989, then again, more in depth, in 92. There were 2 cars at least, maybe 3. For the 1971 Trans Am race season, Penske racing re-bodied one of their 1970 cars, and built, IIRC, 2 new 1971 cars. Driver was Mark Donohue who won the Championship for 71. Then, for 72, the cars were sold to Roy Woods Racing whose shop was in the San Fernando Valley near my home. A life-long friend of mine, John ("JT") Ryals worked at RWR in 73-74, shortly after the Javelins were retired, but were still in the shop. At the time Ryals was racing his own Camaro in SCCA amateur events with great success. RWR driver for 72 was George Follmer, who won the Championship for 72 with the same cars that won in 71 while Follmer was driving the Bud Moore 70 Mustang to 2nd in the Championship. Since the early 90s, 3 of the cars have been racing in Vintage Trans Am, one with no. 6, representing the Penske/Donohue version, and the other 2 as RWR cars. One of those carrying no. 1, the other carrying no. 2. The one I worked is the one shown in your picture of them racing with a red acrylic lower front spoiler attached to and extending the factory fiberglass spoiler. In 92, we also restored at the same time for the same customer, a 69 Boss 302 Mustang with Trans Am history. A white Mustang carrying no. 83, if you see pictures of the Vintage Trans Am racing. For full accuracy in building a model, the AMT has the correct roof. The driver's seat in both is wrong. Mark had put in a seat that he designed and was selling to other racers under his RaceMark brand. You can find a 1/25 version of that seat in the AMT kit of the NASCAR race car that was built by Penske for Mark Donohue to drive, then sold to and raced by Bobby Allison. The chassis of these Javelins is very disappointing, but will serve for a shelf model. Note that the fenders were bulged out with some really nice but subtle bodywork to make room for the big tires as Penske did on their 69 Camaros. There was no lip on the fender openings as you can see in that photo.
Hmmm...TH-cam cut me off on that long comment. They deleted the word "Matador" where talking about the source for the seat.. One interesting detail difference between the Penske and Roy Woods versions is that Penske still had Sunoco sponsorship, so the blue for 71 was Sunoco blue. For 72 with RWR, Sunoco was no longer affiliated with the Javelins, and AMC still sponsoring the cars wanted their own darker blue color. One detail left out is the dual exhaust pipes on each side of the car with oval tunnels in the bottom of the car while the kits have single exhaust tubes on each side with cutouts in the rocker panels, but no tunnels in the floor pans. Another detail left out is the dry sump oil system with the tank mounted in a recess in the right side of the firewall. The cars also had a hydro-vac brake booster mounted in the right front floor with a non booster master cylinder on the firewall. Interior is black inside the roof and the stock black vinyl inner door and side panels with no headliner. Cage same blue as outside. Floor is white. Damn that wad fun climbing around in there to mask the cage for painting the floor. Dash top is factory vinyl dash pad. Face is same dark blue. RaceMark seat is blue fiberglass. Minilite wheels are painted white. Never chrome. There is an aluminum panel from top of grille to top of aluminum radiator. Battery in trunk. Oil filter mounted to forward left inner fender panel. I used to have photos in Photo bucket. But when they started demanding $400+ dollars/year for my free account, that went away. Ohh... The rear axle was a Ford 9" with NASCAR hubs with the aluminum wheel guide tube in the center, as depicted by the 1980s/90s NASCAR kit rear wheels.
That's very cool. I got the privilege to get to do a ride along with Ted Roberts in his 69 Javelin T/A race car. The guy I worked for, restoring and maintaining vintage race cars. Owned the Chaparral Camaro and the TG Racing BF Goodrich "Tirebird" Pontiac. The 69 Kaplin Javelin I worked on is a very interesting piece. It has a lot of Penske 70 parts on it. Parts that you, as an SCCA tech official. We're not quite right with the books.
What a cool kit ! Maybe AMT still has the molds for it ? They have been releasing older kits the last few years , would be a cool one to pop up again 😊
Nice comparison. A simple 70’s kit. An easy build, but could be detailed really nice. It would be great to see this kit make a comeback. Thanks for sharing.
I think you're right on the roofs, I think 73 74was smooth and 71, 72 have the t top impression not shore have a friend that owns a few of them, he gave me the low down on them mine years ago witch it went in one ear and out the other
I have a few of those AMX Johans in the stack. Built a few, including the one I posted on your fb page. Having ran a S/S 74 AMX in the 80’s. Love those. But 200 plus for kits. Ugh
Nice comparo video Luka. AMT & Johan shared other Javelin/AMX tooling also. I think that they also shared some Olds 442 Tooling but I'm not positive of this. Have a good weekend & happy Father's day.
One of these days I'll pick one of these up. I do have the Jo-Han 1969 Full Competition Rebel (Grant's Rebel SST) 3 in one kit. Still in the box. I'm real proud of that one. Was hard to find. Not sure if I will build that one or not.
I sold mine a few years ago after having it since 1997, still regretting it to this day. Mine was near mint, a side from me replacing the lower corner by the front bumper with one from the '70, that part was busted off and missing on the body. My late friend found the kit for me.
To build a more accurate chassis for this, you could use the front and rear sections, from the AMT 67 Mustang/GT350. Also use the firewall/inner fender panels and core support from the Mustang. Under the real racing Javelin, the suspension front and rear is indistinguishable from Mustang parts. In the stock Javelin, the rear axle is all that's different from the Mustang.
I'm guessing the original molds must be long gone. I really wish someone would release new retooled Javelin kits. It's sorely missing in the collection of muscle car kits from the 60s and 70s..
Very cool that you worked on that 69 Javelin Luka. I was an SCCA Tech Inspector when these cars were raced. Then, I worked with Ryals Fabrication to restore one of these cars 2x. In 1989, then again, more in depth, in 92. There were 2 cars at least, maybe 3. For the 1971 Trans Am race season, Penske racing re-bodied one of their 1970 cars, and built, IIRC, 2 new 1971 cars. Driver was Mark Donohue who won the Championship for 71. Then, for 72, the cars were sold to Roy Woods Racing whose shop was in the San Fernando Valley near my home. A life-long friend of mine, John ("JT") Ryals worked at RWR in 73-74, shortly after the Javelins were retired, but were still in the shop. At the time Ryals was racing his own Camaro in SCCA amateur events with great success. RWR driver for 72 was George Follmer, who won the Championship for 72 with the same cars that won in 71 while Follmer was driving the Bud Moore 70 Mustang to 2nd in the Championship. Since the early 90s, 3 of the cars have been racing in Vintage Trans Am, one with no. 6, representing the Penske/Donohue version, and the other 2 as RWR cars. One of those carrying no. 1, the other carrying no. 2. The one I worked is the one shown in your picture of them racing with a red acrylic lower front spoiler attached to and extending the factory fiberglass spoiler. In 92, we also restored at the same time for the same customer, a 69 Boss 302 Mustang with Trans Am history. A white Mustang carrying no. 83, if you see pictures of the Vintage Trans Am racing. For full accuracy in building a model, the AMT has the correct roof. The driver's seat in both is wrong. Mark had put in a seat that he designed and was selling to other racers under his RaceMark brand. You can find a 1/25 version of that seat in the AMT kit of the NASCAR race car that was built by Penske for Mark Donohue to drive, then sold to and raced by Bobby Allison. The chassis of these Javelins is very disappointing, but will serve for a shelf model. Note that the fenders were bulged out with some really nice but subtle bodywork to make room for the big tires as Penske did on their 69 Camaros. There was no lip on the fender openings as you can see in that photo.
Hmmm...TH-cam cut me off on that long comment. They deleted the word "Matador" where talking about the source for the seat.. One interesting detail difference between the Penske and Roy Woods versions is that Penske still had Sunoco sponsorship, so the blue for 71 was Sunoco blue. For 72 with RWR, Sunoco was no longer affiliated with the Javelins, and AMC still sponsoring the cars wanted their own darker blue color. One detail left out is the dual exhaust pipes on each side of the car with oval tunnels in the bottom of the car while the kits have single exhaust tubes on each side with cutouts in the rocker panels, but no tunnels in the floor pans. Another detail left out is the dry sump oil system with the tank mounted in a recess in the right side of the firewall. The cars also had a hydro-vac brake booster mounted in the right front floor with a non booster master cylinder on the firewall. Interior is black inside the roof and the stock black vinyl inner door and side panels with no headliner. Cage same blue as outside. Floor is white. Damn that wad fun climbing around in there to mask the cage for painting the floor. Dash top is factory vinyl dash pad. Face is same dark blue. RaceMark seat is blue fiberglass. Minilite wheels are painted white. Never chrome. There is an aluminum panel from top of grille to top of aluminum radiator. Battery in trunk. Oil filter mounted to forward left inner fender panel. I used to have photos in Photo bucket. But when they started demanding $400+ dollars/year for my free account, that went away. Ohh... The rear axle was a Ford 9" with NASCAR hubs with the aluminum wheel guide tube in the center, as depicted by the 1980s/90s NASCAR kit rear wheels.
That's very cool. I got the privilege to get to do a ride along with Ted Roberts in his 69 Javelin T/A race car. The guy I worked for, restoring and maintaining vintage race cars. Owned the Chaparral Camaro and the TG Racing BF Goodrich "Tirebird" Pontiac. The 69 Kaplin Javelin I worked on is a very interesting piece. It has a lot of Penske 70 parts on it. Parts that you, as an SCCA tech official. We're not quite right with the books.
What a cool kit ! Maybe AMT still has the molds for it ? They have been releasing older kits the last few years , would be a cool one to pop up again 😊
That would be cool!
Nice comparison. A simple 70’s kit. An easy build, but could be detailed really nice. It would be great to see this kit make a comeback. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the comparison Luka😎. Have a Grate weekend.
Thanks, you too!
Thank You Luka. Both kits a really cool.
👍👍 AMT/ Jo-han '72 Torino stocker is another pair. Not sure but there may be 1 or 2 others.
Many thanx Boss.
Yes they are
Thanks Luka! It would be fun if round 2 had the molds!!
Nice simple kit to build.. very much enjoyed to build..thanks for sharing.
Very cool!! I love this stuff!
I know you do. 😁👍
Cool video.👍 I have built the stock version of the jo-han javelin mine was molded in orange a fun build.
I think you're right on the roofs, I think 73 74was smooth and 71, 72 have the t top impression not shore have a friend that owns a few of them, he gave me the low down on them mine years ago witch it went in one ear and out the other
As a guy who still owns the full scale Javelin cars today, yes you are correct, the T roof cars are 1971/1972 and the smooth roof cars are 1973/1974.
I have a few of those AMX Johans in the stack. Built a few, including the one I posted on your fb page. Having ran a S/S 74 AMX in the 80’s. Love those. But 200 plus for kits. Ugh
Nice comparo video Luka. AMT & Johan shared other Javelin/AMX tooling also. I think that they also shared some Olds 442 Tooling but I'm not positive of this. Have a good weekend & happy Father's day.
Cool kit!!!! 👍👍
Luka, thanks for this. This and the street version are my very top holy grail kits.
one of my grail kits … thanks for the video sir
Awesome kits, I'll take them both. 😂 thanks for sharing 👍
71-72 had the indented false sT-Tops
roof, 73-74 changed to full smooth roof
Thank you
cool kits thanks for the look at both wish round2 would bring this kit back think it would be a big seller for sure enjoyed 😁
Great review! I wonder where the moulds ended up? If AMT has them it would be nice to see Round 2 reissue it.
Cool! It would be awesome to see the comparison between MPC and JoHans 72/73 NASCAR Gran Torino kits.
This kit, along with the Revell SCCA Datsuns, probably gave a green light for Monogram's 80's race kits production.
One of these days I'll pick one of these up. I do have the Jo-Han 1969 Full Competition Rebel (Grant's Rebel SST) 3 in one kit. Still in the box. I'm real proud of that one. Was hard to find. Not sure if I will build that one or not.
I sold mine a few years ago after having it since 1997, still regretting it to this day. Mine was near mint, a side from me replacing the lower corner by the front bumper with one from the '70, that part was busted off and missing on the body. My late friend found the kit for me.
Great comparison video Matt and I have the Johan version, but sadly no amt version 😢 lol ❤
C😎😎 LLL STUFF LC Thanks For Sharing n Have a Blessed Week Ahead 🤗 Gary.
Thanks for watching
You're Very Welcome 🤗
To build a more accurate chassis for this, you could use the front and rear sections, from the AMT 67 Mustang/GT350. Also use the firewall/inner fender panels and core support from the Mustang. Under the real racing Javelin, the suspension front and rear is indistinguishable from Mustang parts. In the stock Javelin, the rear axle is all that's different from the Mustang.
71-'72 had the t roof, 73-'74 the flat roof, the 71,'72 had it's own unique taillights, The 73'-74 were the same.
Thank you, Stephen.
Man that's cool!!!!
It is, man.
I'm guessing the original molds must be long gone. I really wish someone would release new retooled Javelin kits. It's sorely missing in the collection of muscle car kits from the 60s and 70s..
So build em
Used to hate these cars....now, I wouldn't mind having Trans Am one in the garage, ready to terrorise the streets! 😉😎
The Bodys are not exactly the same because they are different model years of the Javelin!
Okay, Luka...Matador or Javelin? lol
AMT has better art on that one.