If you are anything at all like me, your tastes change over the years. Vegetables that were once ‘yucky’ in my youth are all of a sudden pretty complementary to certain foods. Cars I once looked at with disdain back in their day are somewhat cooler now that the nostalgia bug has settled into my latter year bloodstream. Such is the case with the purpose-driven, (pun intended) no-frills, fifty-seven Vette with the goofy hub caps in plain vanilla with stop sign red interior. Today I would sell half of my soul to own a pristine first year fuelie with factory optioned four-speed tranny, column-mounted tach in Polo White with Inca Silver coves.

Does Danbury know us old birds or what? They fabricated up a terrific little reminder of how cool we could have been had we used the forethought to special order one of these thinly disguised road rockets half a century ago. To the moderately knowledgeable car guy of the day, it was understood that the driver of this plastic plaything wasn’t fooling around; they had the goods that could blow your doors off if they so chose. So DM went about making the model with all of today’s tech to replicate yesterday’s highest technology of the time. The chassis carries the wizardry of DM’s craftsmanship with metal anti-sway bars, leather rebound straps tethering the rear solid axle, operational suspension and fiberglass-in-the-raw tub assembly mimicking the genuine article.

They built all the proper features into the new issue; opening fuel filler door, internally sprung doors, lifting top storage deck and superlative chrome metal foiled badging. The wipers have some of the best photo-etched detailing I’ve seen and the trunk has a removable floor mat, sub-floor and spare. The interior is expertly appointed in rich detail and the engine is in a whole other stratosphere. Lift the hood and watch the telescoping prop rod do its thing. The fuelie motor never looked so good. DM crafted up a mess of scaled wiring, plug wires and otherwise, and the plumbing is properly in place to pass off the endeavor as an authentic look at the 1:1. The fuel lines and throttle linkage are well received in this area and help lend a realistic view to the bad boy car in its own day.

The replicated soft top looks good and fits perfectly. DM also added a nice touch by including the little sticker that is found on the lower driver’s side corner of the rear of the top. No doubt prompted by an NCRS-scored 1:1 that was granted extra points for the correct addition. This is a limited edition piece subject to manufacture for the anniversary year of 2007 only. Production will cease on December 31 2007. Issue price is $140.

-Tony Perrone