81 replies to this topic

[TSR]

They did in the HO scale...

[don.siegel]

Max,

You might be thinking of the prototype Marx 1/24 thingies that came up a couple years ago on ebay...

Don

[don.siegel]

I was just looking back at this fascinating thread because an eBay seller came up with a "mystery" car that's none other than the early Pittman powered Americana... 

 

Hi Bertil: did you ever come to any other conclusions on this? 

 

As far as I remember (which isn't far), don't think I ever came up with any other info on the infamous "Mako Shark"... but I've got some more period trade magazines waiting for me in Chicago... 

 

Don 

[TSR]

While no "Mako Shark" show cars ever had a quarter window behind the standard side window, this is what those Americana cars were called by most (now older) racers who knew them. In fact the design is a fantasy, kind of a concoction made up by an AMCRC consultant (I now have his name) who penned the design, AMCRC using another outside consultant (I also now have his name) to not only produce the molds (with an "S") because there were 16 of them molded at the same time) but to produce and paint the actual bodies. 

 

They always were "Americana" cars in the USA, "International" cars in Europe, never "Mako Shark" in any AMCRC or AMF releases or adverts, that I have seen, but the kids called them that way anyway because the Mako was quite popular in magazines and media in general, and the kids never called them "Americana" or "International," as the first thing that hit the dumpster were the boxes, and this is why the boxes, especially the American ones, are so rare today. The British issues are a lot more common because someone discovered a pretty sizable stack of them about 15 years ago and they slowly found their way in the collector's market.

However, I certainly am not obsessing over what the heck it is, for a very simple reason: the car was an absolute dog in any form, and when I drove one with the steering wheel at Paul Pacini's raceway in Paris in 1968, it almost turned me off the hobby, if as advertised, it was the future!... Funny how I feel the same about the "self-driving" cars pushed upon us today. 

Just happy to have discovered a lot of stuff about that weird AMCRC/AMF association that royally fell on its face by mid-1967, and totally collapsed in the early months of 1968. 

[Cheater]

Some years ago, I spent a lot of time searching CA corporate records for any evidence of the company and it's like it never existed, but of course, we know it did. Always wondered if there were some financial shenanigans under the surface.

[TSR]

It was incorporated in Delaware if I recall correctly, and did business from offices on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles, then from a warehouse in Santa Monica when things turned ugly. I think that some of the track plans show the Delaware address. To be verified because I have not looked at that stuff in a long time.
 

[MattD]

I think the correct phrase for you guys is "almost right, most of the time"!