This is one from my sons collection. Scale is not noted and after searching the Welly site the best I can come up with is 1:60-1:64 so maybe they don’t know themselves? Not knowing much about the real car I did a little research and found some obscure things about the Chevelle that are probaly not as widely known as the usual facts. I’ll concentrate on those as the well known facts are well known facts.;)
I found something I feel is interesting about the 427 SS, I know the model of my sons is a 396 SS. Still I think this is a little strange and worth noting.
This is from Wiki;
“There were 1,968 SS427 chevelle’s sold on Indian Reservation’s territory to bypass the GM rules that prevented a car from having more than 1 H.P. per 10 pounds of weight limit (exception was the Corvette.)“. . (even though it looks like my type of grammar I swear I didn’t write this!)
Now at first I thought this was strange but after giving it some thought I have come up with a theory. Indians probably know a thing or two about horses, It would make sense that the horses in the reservation will be in very good order and extremely fit and powerful. This will mean that HP will be measured differently to a horse from outside the reserve. In other words when a horse from the reserve is compared to a horse from off the reserve, the reserve horse will be more powerful. This means if you take a standard non-reserve horse of 1HP into a reserve it will have an output of less than 1 HP the moment it steps inside in comparison to its new peers. So if the 427 SS has over 1 HP per 10 lbs OFF reserve, while on reserve those same HP would be worth less allowing the 427 SS to come in under the self imposed GM rule of 1Hp per 10 lbs, thus making the car saleable only on Indian reservations.
I could well be wrong on this but the only other theory I could come up with was that GM had discovered some strange parallel universe that, although being on the same patch of soil, was somehow a magical land where rules that apply normally are not valid any longer. Strange stuff. You can make up your own mind, or not waste anymore brain power on it at all, your call.
I like the wheels on this model. Tyres are rubber over chromed plastic rims.
BAP..BAP..BAP..BAP..VROOOOMM! (Tyre squeals)
The 1968/72 Chevelle was the last of the metal grill Chevelles, with plastic being used from the 1972 model on(actual real fact). This model uses plastic for its grill. Irony.
No opening bits. Interior looks comfortable but to hard to photograph.
Ok, last (BS) fact; Some of you may have noticed the ‘small’ black box hanging below the vehicle. This was a little known revolutionary idea from GM in the late 60’s that was a reaction to the yet to occur oil crisis of the early 70’s. Of course the idea never really caught on and after very few sales, and most of those cars returned for a refund, the project was canned. All cars were scrapped and there are no known surviving vehicles. Luckily for us Welly has captured the device perfectly for future generations. The idea is a simple one and many theories are bouncing around as to it’s true genesis. The best accepted is the one I’ll go with here. Story goes a lead engineer at GM was spending time playing with his children. While playing with a pull-back car the idea struck him, Why not scale this mechinisim up to full size?
Hindsight is a bitch and it’s plainly obvious for us now to see that arranging for a tow to pull your vehicle back a 1/4 mile to travel 3 miles was not ideal. Although some gains in distance were achieved, it was kind of like ‘two steps forward, one step back’ and not at all practical in reality. No wonder it didn’t take the world by storm.
Underside details close to spot on. Including the ill fated ‘PB transmission.’
>If any of this story made sense to you, please seek medical advice.<