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All salient points...thanks. TB *NM*
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Maybe at a time when the company was backing away from factory-sponsored race teams, upper management thought that the “Track” part of R/T was inappropriate? I would guess, also, given lead times, that the full focus of the marketing people was on ‘personal luxury’
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MPC 72 Charger decals - aftermarket
I wonder if MPC didn't drop the promo model sheet into some of the kits. I've heard of it, even seen a built model or two with promo decals, but never had one myself *NM*
The MPC 1972 Challenger and Charger Promos (not kits) shared a common decal sheet. It featured planned R/T liveries on both cars; reinforcing that the change to "Rallye" nomenclature was a very last minute (and in my view, very flawed) decision by Dodge Marketers....TB *NM*
I believe I included photos of the sheet in my article in Scale Auto (c.2015?) on kits that replicated still-born 1/1 scale autos that were cancelled very late in development...TB oentron article i n *NM*
Rallye was a way to soften the change in performance and emphasize more holistic benefits... but to abandon the R/T 'brand' built over the years did seem short-sighted
To be fair though, Chevrolet was doing much the same with the SS, and Pontiac let the GTO go downhill after '72 *NM*
It was industry-wide; perfect storm of insurance, emissions and economics
I realize everyone has different perspectives on this, all legitimate. My view as a retired automotive marketer is based on the difficulty of establishing a sub-brand, then maintaining its differentiation vs. others. R/T was a very strong branding, while "Ralllye" was..
Maybe at a time when the company was backing away from factory-sponsored race teams, upper management thought that the “Track” part of R/T was inappropriate? I would guess, also, given lead times, that the full focus of the marketing people was on ‘personal luxury’
All salient points...thanks. TB *NM*
Thanks! I could be completely wrong as well. Just a thought exercise, really. *NM*
Probably not available now, but I remember someone on eBay selling reproduction promo decals *NM*
Thanks for the input, guys, though I got a lot of interesting info I hadn't anticipated. Incidentally, I've also seen repro decals for the promos but they were of the self stick type. *NM*
That's odd; every MPC promo I can think of has water-slide decals *NM*
