Editors note: One of the shadowy figures in the world of motorsports, Jim Frederickson joins our DZ team as an occassional contributor. Born in Texas, Jim grew up in the hotbed of motorsports that was Texas in the 50's. While names like Shelby were making motorsports history, Frederickson developed the hubba-bubba-double pump shock absorber which gave cars a spectacular ability to launch off corners (but unfortunately sometimes into the grandstands as happened during the tragic Lubbock 200 in 1959, killing several head of steer and a dog named Idiot).

Undeterred, Frederickson continued to push the hubba-doubler as it became known and despite a trail of metal and animals from Abilene to Arlington his reputation continued to grow. In fact it was Jim Hall who first took notice of his unique gifts by posting a sign at his facility that read NO TRESPASSING AND THAT MEANS YOU ESPECIALLY Mr. F". Later, he developed the Super Sucker to prevent any attempt by Frederickson to secretly install the shocks on his 2J. Welcome Jim to the DZ team!

First, let me say " Incredible, unbelievable, wonderful, beautiful, excellently executed, an unquestionable value and quality standout !" I've been waiting for the GTO to come out as long as each of you have, and when UPS dropped the box off on my door and I had the chance to open it and examine the contents, I can tell you that Kyosho met all of my expectations and a whole lot more ! My only regret is that ultimately, Kyosho will not build as many as we all will want to consume, so you should buy early and buy large because these are going to be instantaneous best sellers and, I predict, the price has a good chance of going through the roof.

They're going to build five separate cars: the red "street" (unliveried) version seen here, a limited edition MCNA black "street" version, two cars that won their class and were 2nd OA at LeMans two different years (19 & 24) and the last car was 2nd in its class at LeMans (22). This leaves a bunch of cars that were successful racers that will never be done by Kyosho. So the street version becomes the "canvas" for the "decaleurs" and "modders" to make into their favorite race participants. As for me, I'll be making a #18 Pedro Rodriguez / NART Daytona winner, thank you.

So feast your eyes on this beautiful replica and get your credit cards at the ready because there's gonna' be a land office rush for these beauties and I expect the first-out-of-the-box, unliveried red car will be the one that everyone will be clamoring for. Just to mention a few of the outstanding features: The doors open with the leading edge turning inside the front fenders like the real car would have had..... not a dog-leg here ! The sliding plexiglass side windows are very convincing and are dimensionally correct, looking to be about a scale 3/4" thick. The hood hold-downs are beautifully to scale making the ones on the HotWheels replica look huge and clumsy. Expanded metal screens under the little clear plexiglass cooling scoops keep pebbles and litter out of the engine compartment. The interior is nicely done with convincing gauges, a photo-etch composite steering wheel, and seats that do a wonderful job of replicating the textured fabric finish with the double-seam "French stitching" on the bolsters.

The Ferrari V-12 engine is nicely replicated with krinkle-painted valve covers, iridite-colored carburetors with chrome velocity stacks and most of the plumbing, hoses and wires to make this engine sing.

-Jim Fredrickson