[TSRF]

Paul, congratulations, and enjoy the car. It is my favorite Russkit car too.

However, and to help you with future "picks" and stricly talking as a purist (you do not have to be one!), you should know that your car is not a genuine Iso Grifo RTR, but a car that was put together from unrelated parts, using the Russkit Iso aftermarket body (sold unpainted and with a different decal sheet from the RTR model), the 2-piece Lola T70 chassis (the Iso had a unique one-piece chassis), motors built with endbells of the wrong color (the Russkit "22" and "23" endbells are always made of white plastic, only Cox and Marx' Mabuchi FT16 motors used black endbells), and the wrong wheel inserts (while they match the "spare" wheel molded with the driver's compartment insert, the genuine Russkit car had the same "wire" inserts seen on their injected-body Cooper-Climax, Ferrari 156 F1 cars as well as their two Chaparral models).
There were two types of front wheels, one "standard", te other extra narrow with specific tires.

This of course does not mean that there is anything wrong with your car, in fact, this should allow you to race it as hard as you want, because it would not be too good to risk a crash and body cracks damage to a rather scarce genuine RTR.

I enclose a few pics of a few Iso RTR models, as well as both their packaging forms.

 

[TSRF]

Yes, it is a lovely body. The mold was crafted by Anthony Bulone, the man who sculpted the Mattel "Barbie" doll, of which features were those of... his lovely wife.

And it is nice to do business with a honest seller!

 

[TSRF]

I'm a little curious about the wheel inserts too

Yes, it is odd. Russkit only offered these (correct) inserts inside a blister pack that had a load of other "chrome" parts. The models that were fitted with the correct inserts were done so by their owner, not by Russkit.
Of course, no Iso cars were ever offered with what had become clearly obsolete by then, the former and glorious Borrani wire wheels. By 1961, Campagnolo and other Italian companies had copied the Americans (inventors of the one-piece magnesium wheels used at Indy since 1949), and most exotic cars from the pasta country came with such devices. Except of course for... Ferrari, last to adopt mag wheels, faithful to the end to the pretty wires. By that time the racing tires had gained some serious grip,and the wire wheels were twisting like mad, not a great way to define precise handling.
The Iso's engineering was mostly devised by one of the world's most brilliant engineers, Giampaolo Dal'Lara (proper spelling, later contracted to "Dallara"). He wanted nothing to do with "glorified bicycle wheels".

As far as the Russkit model unique chassis' wheelbase, I believe that this can be attributed to the body supplier. Russkit did not make their own bodies, they were produced by several suppliers. In the case of the Iso, itwas Tony Bulone in his own shop in Torrance, making bodies for Russkit, K&B and other companies, even having them painted on site. Hence a likely miscommunication between the folks at Russkit and Bulone's network caused the 1/8" discrepancy.

 

[TSRF]

Pete, the Wilson / McLaughlin / Hugus car at Sebring was a private entry, effectively a converted road car entered by William McLaughlin. Yes, it had "wires", because that was an option on the catalogue. It did not go very far in the race, expiring with various maladies about 1/3rd in the race.

 

[TSRF]

Brad, the thing is, all the vac formed Russkit bodies can be mounted on any of the period Russkit chassis, meaning the aluminum "Carrera Series" or the brass "Super Spyder' once fitted with the gold anodized aluminum mount. It is possible that at the time of liquidation and when things were, to say the least, a bit desperate, bodies may have been assembled to previously unrelated chassis, just to get rid of them by any possible means. That, or they were the product of a distributor also desperate to "move the stuff".
Examples abound from other companies, especially at Classic with the last production of the Manta Ray with green bodies, Dynamic/AMT motors, BuzCo wheels and Dynamic racing numbers.

The Iso in the standard "Super Spyder" series always had the black chassis with the two R22 motors, while again, at liquidation time, some R23s and R24s also made it as finished products. Now, the brass chassis? Why not?
If the Iso was produced that way, a simple body switch and... voila, a new and rare model.

 

[TSRF]

Brad, yes indeed. Now to figure out who did what.... ???

P - I think you mean the Iso in the standard "Black Widow" series...

Have never seen a Russkit 24 in one of these - does the museum have one? How about the Russkit 28 - any of those in the 1/24 cars? Maybe the Italian Honda issues...

Don

Don, yes of course, the Iso was sold as a car from the "Black Widow" series, not the "Super Spyder' series. My error.

As far as the "24" in one of these cars, yes, I have seen a pair over the years, and they APPEARED to be genuine, from their wiring and the quality of the assembly VS what a customer or retailer would have accomplished. Again, possibly a matter of product liquidation.

I have never seen a "28" in a Russkit 1/24 scale cars. But all the 1/32 scale Russkit cars I have ever seen, in kit or RTR form, had/have one. We have a dozen or so of the Russkit 1/32 scale models at the LASCM and all have the "28".
Let's not also forget that the same cars (but in different body colors) were marketed by Parma in the early 1970s until stocks were exhausted.

 

[TSRF]

Don,
Parma and REH both sold the the 1/32 scale with the Rattler chassis and the Russkit "28". See, Parma's Ken McDowell and Bob Haines each purchased all the remaining inventories of these from Russell when he closed shop and went to work for Aurora in 1970. Not sure of what the split was.

REH merely sold the cars as they got them from Russkit, in a clear acetate 2-piece box, in kit and RTR version. Russell had purchased 1/32 scale bodies from Lancer, the Ferrari 350P and the 1/2 scale version of the Cro-Sal Special (Russkit made their own 1/24 scale version of that car). Russkit also had modeled a smaller version of their 2-man dune buggy, but I am not sure that Russell ever sold that car as a RTR.

The "Parma" versions were sold in a small cardboard blue and white window box, and there were three models, the former Russkit Corvette (there were two different bodies), the "Group 7 Special (Cro-Sal Special) Can-Am car and the 2-man Dune Buggy (of which vac forming mold was sold by Russell to Riggen, so you also see Riggen RTR models of that car).

Ken also purchased the tooling for the chassis, and when the brass chassis stocks were exhausted, had some made in zinc-plated steel. I think they were still selling these cars by 1972.
I looked for pics in my files but could not find any, but the LASCM has one of these Corvettes, new in its box.

 

[TSRF]

Stuck,
yes, you effectively got a genuine Russkit "Rattler" Vette. This must have been before Parma used their own packaging (the acetate little boxes must have run out...)
The "spider" was the Parma "Tiger" logo they used on all their products until well in the late 1970s.
Picture of a "28" below:

If your car came with one of these (see below), that is a "27", used on earlier models, and it was likely a mix of whatever was available either from Russkit or Parma.

 

[TSRF]

We still don't know for sure if Russkit did these with other than the Porsche body... a guy here has a McLaren as well, out of a hobby shop as NOS, but still no smoking gun, ie, a MIB example.

Don,
of course Russkit did more than one model, in fact there are 3. Here is the McLaren-Elva:

You already know the Porsche (which came with two different styles of body mounting, the first being the same as the McLaren-Elva with soldered tubing, the second, a gold anodized aluminum bracket to accept the standard Russkit formed wire)

Last is the most difficult to find new in box, the Cooper-Climax:

Equally, there were three "Black Widow" series cars, the Lotus-Ford Type 38, the Lola T70 and of course, the Iso.

 

[TSRF]

I was talking about a McLaren with the aluminum bracket instead of the soldered tubing.

Never seen one, but since the McLaren-Elva body never had the pre-drilled mounting holes like all the Carrera series bodies, I truly believe that it was the product of someone switching the body from a Porsche. It would have been almost impossible for the ladies assembling these cars to figure out where to drill the holes for the formed wire, while they had a fixture for the standard mount with the pins.
Also by the time that bracket came out, both the Cooper and the McLaren were out of production, and the sole survivor of the series (the Porsche) got updated packaging (see and compare the box's colors).

So, I guess it is left to personal beliefs.