Revell 1/25 1957 Chevrolet 150 Utility Sedan “Black Widow”
By Carl Kietzke
Overview
It’s early spring 1957, you have a little over 2 grand burning a hole in your pocket, and you want wheels for cruising and racing. Where do you go? Down to the local Chevy dealer, where a few appropriate marks on the order sheet will bring you the hottest factory wheels around. Yes, Chevrolet’s bare bones, basic 170 Utility Sedan, staple of salesmen nationwide, can be ordered with a set of options that turn it into a screaming street racer. The wheels arriving at your Chevy dealer are propelled by a fuel injected 388 cid V-8. The black and white paint treatment marks it as the ultimate factory racer of 1957. You now own a “Black Widow!”
The Kit
I will start this in-box preview by stating my primary gripe with this kit: while all the parts are included for the base optional Bel Air V-8 engine, the instructions give no clue how to mount the exhaust for that engine. There! All other gripes are minor, including the ejection pin marks on the ceiling.
This is another of Revell’s new tool “Limited Edition” series of classic muscle cars. It is molded in white, clear, clear red, and chrome plated parts. I would actually call this a modified reissue, as the chassis shows a 1997 copyright date. This in no way detracts from the kit itself. All that was required to convert the original Bel Air kit was 3 new sprues, one with the big block engine halves, the second with the exhaust parts, and a chrome sprue with the fuel injection system and some detail bits.
This kit checks out closely with published dimensional data, but most importantly, it looks right. Yet another keeper from the Revell stable of muscle car kits. The review sample was purchased at Skyway Model Shop.