Auto World makes their Ultra-G Thunderjet chassis in 4 colors that I have seen to date: in addition to the standard very dark gray (let’s call it black), there are transparent red, transparent blue, opaque white, and a light brown. This last version was created for the “Barn Find” and “Graveyard Carz” series of releases, allegedly to simulate rust.
These colored chassis usually have to be purchased from specialty vendors on ebay as they are not readily available at hobby stores; even most of the online stores do not stock them. As a result they tend to be quite expensive, in some cases costing more than time and a half the price of a “bulk” black chassis. Having now purchased many of these, I have noticed some patterns: the light brown chassis seem to be the fastest and best performing I’ve come across. The blue ones, by contrast, are significantly slower than the standard black ones, while the red ones are essentially useless; every one I’ve purchased has been a disappointment.
This is more than just a matter of magnet strength; the light brown chassis are lightning fast on their stock magnets, and the red ones, even fitted with OS3 Black Dragon high performance magnets, can barely get out of their own way. I’ve had mixed results with the blue ones; most of them have been disappointing, but one, fitted to my yellow Cheetah, has made the car so fast that it has won more sports car tournaments than any other car in my fleet; it’s been given the nickname “King Of The Hill.”
Sadly my few remaining cars with red chassis will be losing them soon: I’m tired of their disappointing performance and at this point feel that I’ve done about all I can to improve it, so I’m planning to ditch the aesthetics and replace them with functional black chassis, relegating the red ones to the junk pile. I hate having to do this since it reduces the cars’ visual interest significantly, but as I’ve said before, there’s a balance to be struck between looks and performance, and I try not to let one suffer too much for the cause of the other!
With only 2 exceptions, the fastest cars I have are the ones running on the light brown chassis, especially those few I did fit with aftermarket performance magnets.
Everyone has their preferences about aesthetics so I can only say what I’ve done and why; I tend to like the look of the light brown chassis on cars with blue, green or black bodies, while I avoid them for cars that are white, red, or yellow. As for the transparent blue and red chassis: the pictures above tell a lot of that story. In particular some cars with large “glass areas”, like the Ferrari 206S Dino, the Ford GT-40 or the Lola GT, which show a lot of the chassis, seem to benefit aesthetically from a colored chassis where ever they can be sensibly fitted. This is especially the case with the transparent chassis, as you can see the armature turning inside them through the windows of the car; a very cool looking affect. As for the white ones: I have thus far only acquired one of these, since they are usually only available on the expensive “White Lightning Chase” cars, which I don’t like the look of overall and won’t pay the premium for. The one white chassis I have has been very satisfactory and I do like the way it looks; I wish these were more readily available.
I have been amazed at some of the older non-traction magnet chassis made by Dash Motorsports back in the day; they seem to have made them in nearly every color imaginable, from bright red to lime green to clear to glow-in-the-dark! Cool stuff; wish they had the traction magnets!
This brings up the topic of maintenance and rebuilds. As a still relative noob I have not yet gotten into removing the pinion gears and replacing armature assemblies, but maybe I should. I don’t recall seeing armatures for sale on their own but maybe there are some available . How difficult a task is it to replace a motor, and how reliable are they after that pinion gear has been removed and replaced? Maybe if I can put some decent windings in my red chassis I can salvage some of that color-coordinated beauty that looks so good on the starting line!
Anyone have any input on this topic? Would love to hear from you on what your experiences have been in improving performance, as well as any other “exotic” Ultra-G chassis colors out there I may have missed!