Die Cast X Summer 2021

One of the responsibilities I take most seriously in putting together an issue of DCX (and the thing I most frequently second-guess!) is weighing the balance of competing subjects and interests. There are only so many pages, and trying to decide how to divvy those up to make readers happy ties me in knots! Sometimes it comes down to deciding between a popular mainstream subject and giving some attention to a less broad category that happens to be the most compelling or newsworthy story of the moment. Take this issue as a perfect example. The Super Sport feature takes on a perennial favorite in Chevy’s most iconic muscle car brand. That story is always going to be a hit and it’s always going to be relevant. But the flip side…

Spellbinding Muscle Truck Auto World 1977 Dodge Warlock 1:18 | $100 With muscle car performance on the wane in the mid-1970s, Dodge turned to its D-series trucks to take up the slack. With a full slate of V8 engines, beefy drivetrains, and free of the emissions restrictions that strangled car engines, it was an ideal solution. All it needed was some muscular graphics to match—and that’s just what the Warlock delivered. Introduced in late 1976 as a ’77 model in either red, black, or the metallic green you see here, with gold pinstripes and accents, gold wheels, authentic oak bed sideboards, and chrome running boards on the stepside short bed. The Warlock package could be ordered with either two- or four-wheel-drive, and with any engine offered in the D-series truck line, from…

As it had with its entry in the pony car rivalry two years previous, Ford landed the first shot in what would become the battle of the mainstream sports utility vehicles in 1966 with the introduction of the original Bronco. But it wasn’t Chevy that Ford had its sights on, at least initially. It was Willys that had owned the market for small, utilitarian 4x4 vehicles since the end of WW II when its military MB had been decommissioned and morphed into the civilian Jeep CJ. Toyota had copied the CJ design with its early Land Cruisers and Land Rover had its British take on the concept, but it wasn’t until International Harvester released the first of its Scout series in 1961 that Jeep had any serious domestic competition. The…

I grew up around a large family farm and I have distinct memories of the vehicles we used. The first is of the huge tractors—some that stood upwards of two stories tall—that were still dwarfed by the 5000 acres of crops they tended. I also have memories of an old truck that, although small, could—and did!—take quite a beating. It was a vehicle my uncles would take off-road, pull fallen trees out of the many hollows that surround the fields, or just whip it up and down the dirt roads for fun. It was a work truck, one with scuffs and dents from long seasons on a commercial farm. I think it was originally red, but the scratches and rust made that hard to tell. What I do know is…

It seems like Chevrolet spent much of the 1960s playing catchup. Caught flatfooted by the overwhelming success of Ford’s Mustang it took Chevy nearly three years to build their own sporty compact to compete. But even before the pony car wars began, another battleground was brewing. Jeep had dominated the passenger-carrying 4x4 market throughout the 1950s, and in 1961 it was joined—with surprising success—by International Harvester’s Scout. Ford and Chevy both took immediate note and started working up concepts for small 4x4s to compete. When the Mustang began raking in cash for Ford, it decided to use some of those profits to bring its other equine-themed project—the Bronco—to market for 1966. Meanwhile, Chevy was forced to make some tough choices. Ultimately Chevy decided the market would be stronger for its Camaro…