Something I've been thinking of for a while is the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award that gets dished out every year. It's, in my opinion, the highest regarded accolade a car designer/builder car receive. It's not good enough to design a great car, or make cool changes to an existing design, you've also gotta build it with obsessive levels of attention to detail. Poor workmanship and bad taste have no place for an AMBR winner.
Take, for example the 35 Ford above. Great use of colour, crazy levels of detail and finish and a 408 mill that looks like it's been dunked in a vat of chrome. Just the kind of stuff great showcars are made of.
When I saw this car for the first time my modeller's brain started whirring. Yeah, I could make something like that. Nice colour, big bright chrome wheels, I've got a 408 around here somewhere, etc etc. How much cooler would it be to have a whole CONTEST full of cars like this though. You only need two cars to race, so even a second build to compete against would be good. For a while I toyed with the idea of running an invite-only contest to see what some of my favourite model builders came up with for such a challenge. I emailed a whole bunch of people, some of whom were excited, some who werent.
Most helpful was Tim Boyd, probably my favourite builder of all time if I had to choose one. Tim suggested making it an open contest. Why limit it to ten? There's a whole WORLD of great builders out there who'd no doubt love to get in on the action. Yeah, I thought, reading his email, he's right. So, an open contest it is!
Take, for example the 35 Ford above. Great use of colour, crazy levels of detail and finish and a 408 mill that looks like it's been dunked in a vat of chrome. Just the kind of stuff great showcars are made of.
When I saw this car for the first time my modeller's brain started whirring. Yeah, I could make something like that. Nice colour, big bright chrome wheels, I've got a 408 around here somewhere, etc etc. How much cooler would it be to have a whole CONTEST full of cars like this though. You only need two cars to race, so even a second build to compete against would be good. For a while I toyed with the idea of running an invite-only contest to see what some of my favourite model builders came up with for such a challenge. I emailed a whole bunch of people, some of whom were excited, some who werent.
Most helpful was Tim Boyd, probably my favourite builder of all time if I had to choose one. Tim suggested making it an open contest. Why limit it to ten? There's a whole WORLD of great builders out there who'd no doubt love to get in on the action. Yeah, I thought, reading his email, he's right. So, an open contest it is!
Here's the deal. Entrants must build their interpretation of the world's most beautiful roadster with a body from 1937 or earlier. The 37 rule comes from the 1:1 contest, where the cut-off is imposed because that's when Ford stopped making their annual roadsters. Dunno how factual that is, obviously they've done roadsters since, but that's the line I swallowed. The car can me minutely detailed down to the last bolt and wire or simply a curbside. Obviously, being a roadster, there will be an interior to consider, but the engine can be passed by at the builder's whim.
The build runs for almost a whole year, until the end of November in fact, after which voting will take place online. Thus, it's not just good enough to build a great car, you gotta take some decent shots of it too. Presentation is everything. I'll spare you the minute details of the voting system, but come the end of 08 one car will be voted the World's Most Beautiful Model Roaster and the victor will receive the beautiful trophy that I've got planned out in my mind.
I'm excited personally about seeing how everyone else steps up to the plate as much as I'm excited about doing my own build. I havent got my design all planned out yet but it's DEFNITELY going to be a 32 Ford of some sort. I keep thinking of a classic look...black, flamed, red engine, although that's not exactly how the 1:1 winners have been the last few years. I'll be posting up some in build shots of mine and other people's builds as the contest progresses
JB
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