!!! 128 !!!

It’s actually been here for almost 2 weeks, but due to my onerous work schedule over the last several months-and especially the last several weeks-I haven’t been able to do anything with it until this weekend; the Denver area is currently undergoing a spring “Snowmageddon” which, in spite of the mess I’ll have to dig out of, I’m actually thankful for, since it resulted in the merciful cancellation of this weekend’s work! That gave me a chance to finally open this up and do my final build…

THE SPORTS CAR FLEET IS NOW COMPLETE!

A while back I did a post on the 2^nd to last addition to the sports car fleet, explaining that, as much as I love the fleet I’ve built, I have an awful lot of body styles of which I now have 4 copies, because there are far fewer sports car bodies available for Thunderjets than there are muscle cars. Not wanting to finish the fleet with a 4^th copy of yet 2 more of those styles, I opted to stop at three Cobra Daytona coupes and three Ferrari 250 GTOs, and look for another style that I only had one of, to which I could add a second. So the final choice was to find a second copy of the Chaparral 2F.

My first 2F is the modern-day Auto World reproduction, but this one is an original, and I think I got a very good deal on this, because, if I’m not mistaken (and if I am, someone else who knows better please comment and correct me!) this is the livery that Aurora made for the rare and highly desirable “XLerators” cars that were briefly made in early 70’s.

I did a blog post on XLerators as well, or at least I mentioned them along with several other odd, one-off and unknown variations on the HO slot car theme (see the post ‘“A lot of people make racing sets” – The Collector’s Curse” from 1/10/21). While I have never owned an XLerators track or cars-and I doubt I ever will, because they are not only almost impossible to find in working condition but crazy expensive if you do-I did think it would be cool to fly the XLerator colors on my more conventional 2-lane slotted track.

So, this variation on the Chaparral 2F is finished in a lime green with black and silver trim and a pre-printed #4 on the roof, which I will keep, as that number was vacated when I made the tough decision to remove the Jaguar XK150 from the racing fleet a while back due to its body being too small to realistically co-mingle with the other cars (those early Aurora Vibrator bodies were true HO scale @ 1:87, rather than the later ones which live in the gray area between 1:87 and 1:64).

Now, if any of you have one of these 2F’s in your own racing fleet-either an original from Aurora or the reproduction from Auto World-you probably know that the car’s feature that helped improve the handling of the real version-the large stabilizer wing-actually has a detrimental effect on handling at scale. It’s true the wing is feather-light, but at this scale every ounce is like a pound, and although it looks cool, the wing actually impedes the cars ability. Of course I debated removing the wing and running without it, but the body is in such excellent condition that I just didn’t have the heart to do it. Maybe I will in the future-it can be removed, without breakage, if one is VERY careful-but for now it stays, meaning its performance will likely rarely be other than that of an “also-ran.”

Still, it does have a brand new Ultra-G chassis, and fitted with a set of low-profile Vincent tires on the aluminum-finish steel wheels, it does have a chance, especially in some of the more “creative” race formats I run, other than the traditional elimination-style head-to-head.

With its “tres’ early 70’s” paint style and connection to a piece of rare Aurora racing history, I think this is a cool way to wrap up the project of 64 sports cars ready to run.

But now there’s a moment of sadness…no more builds? 🙁 Nope. 128 cars is enough (its really closer to 135 counting the cars I’ve kept stock as collector’s pieces that don’t race, and closer to 150 to include the few Tyco, Magna-Traction/X-Traction, 4-Gear, and other platforms I have). So now I’ll have to be happy with maintenance and occasional changes to the fleet as time goes on, but the days of building are over. Its time to concentrate on improving the diorama, and there’s a HUGE amount of work to do there, enough to keep me busy for years-which was the point! And of course, there’s always RACING…LOTS OF RACING! So fear not, dear readers; the story of Drag City is hardly over! In fact, in some ways, its only just beginning!

Be on the lookout for the first full “64-pack” SPORTS CAR TOURNAMENT, coming up at some point in the future if I can ever get another weekend to myself!