Johan 1/25 scale 1964 Chrysler Turbine Car By Al Superczynski

Chrysler saw great potential in gas turbine powered cars and built 55 of these Ghia-bodied beauties, five prototypes and 50 production models. The production cars were loaned to 203 everyday Americans for three months at a time. For more info on the program and the original Jo-Han promos and full detail kits see Chrysler's Turbine Car .

Okey Spaulding has resurrected Jo-Han models as Johan and one of his first releases has been the old promo in kit form as part of the "EZ-Build" series, and it truly is an easy build. While the kit was extremely detailed, especially for the era, it was difficult to assemble and now the casual modeler can add the Turbine to his or her collection in just a few hours, including painting.

The kit contains seven parts molded in white plastic, eight in 'chrome', a clear window unit, transparent red taillights, and four vinyl Firestone tires. There was only a little flash on mine and I was able to snap it together temporarily in just a few minutes. My sample, purchased at a local hobby shop, suffered from poor plating on a couple parts and a short shot wheel and steering wheel but an email exchange with Okey brought perfect replacement parts.

The high point of this kit has to be the absolutely super decal sheet, a feature quickly becoming standard practice with the revived Johan. Racing numbers, stripes, whitewalls, sponsor logos and a great selection of license plates make a very complete package indeed and they're all high-quality and in perfect registration.

The instructions consist of an exploded drawing on one side of the box, sufficient for such a simple kit, and the other side gives painting suggestions for the exterior of the car.

My only criticisms of this kit are minor; I'd prefer clear headlight lenses but I understand this would have meant some very expensive redesigning and retooling, and detailed painting instructions for the interior would have been welcome. References are of course available online but not all builders have easy internet access.

I highly recommend this kit and look forward to further reissues from Johan. Here's hoping sales will allow Okey to invest in some entirely new tooling in the future!