In my quest to perfect my T-jet fleet, I have scheduled a very few cars for replacement for various reasons, at which point the old ones will be retired, and either scrapped for parts or offered for sale. Here is the fourth…and it’s taken a long time to get around to this because it’s taken a long time for me to be this foolish.
It was just a few days ago that I posted an entry called “The Non Compete Clause” where I profiled some of my slot cars that do not race in my tournaments for various reasons. One of these was a pristine and completely original green Alfa Romeo P33/3 “Periscopico” which I have chosen to keep completely original and stock; another was my red Mercedes-Benz 300SL roadster, which I noted was the most expensive slot car I’ve ever bought, and due to its value, condition, and rarity, it is essentially a “trailer queen.” Both those cars are relevant to this installment of “The Replacements,” and in the case of the 300SL, the relevant point is that it is no longer the most expensive slot car I’ve ever bought…not since I won this pair of classics on ebay 2 weeks ago.
Sold as a pair, both of these were delivered riding on original, good running open rivet Aurora Thunderjet chassis; a little cleaning and lubrication and they went sliding around the track like new. Considering how desireable this model is, and how hard it is to find, you can imagine there was a lot of competition to win them! Honestly, I’m not even going to mention the dollar figure these 2 cars brought from me, because its downright embarrassing; suffice to say that my being the high bidder meant that the people bidding against me had more sense than I did, because they knew when to stop.
However, I’m going to give myself a break, because even if I drastically overpaid for these cars-and I surely did-I did so with open eyes, and I did it for a reason: to correct a mistake that I made last spring that has been haunting me ever since.
I’ve recounted this story once before in a post called “Protecting your assets: table crash guards” (1/19/21, 8:05am), yet it is a tale that bears repeating, if for no other reason than a form of penance for yours truly. When I first built Drag City Mk III everything was still in the construction phase and there was still a lot to work out; lighting, power, cord management, mounting the TV and the computer-all had to be considered. At first the track was more for positioning than anything. While I didn’t run any type of full blown event on it at this stage, I did feel a need to test the track; it was my first AFX track, after all, and I wanted to see if I truly did prefer it to the Tyco track. So I slowly, carefully, ran a few cars around it, thinking that if I kept the speed down and was careful, everything would be fine.
It was shortly after the tables were covered with cork and the track was set cabled for power that it happened; I had finished working on it for the day and was one my way to bed when I thought I’d put just a few more cars through their paces to see how the different wheel types, sizes, and wheel bases performed, making sure there were no crooked joints or other problem areas. I then made a very bad decision: I took my pristine original blue Aurora Alfa Romeo out of its case. At the time I bought it, this was the 2nd most expensive slot car body I had acquired, and with good reason: it was absolutely mint. The day I received it, it was clear that it had never even been mounted. I put it on a brand new chassis and fitted it with wheels I thought were appropriate, but it was so fast that it was difficult to use on the Tyco track due to the track’s small size and tight corners. Here, I thought, was a chance to see how it did on a long track. I thought I was being careful. I thought I was keeping the speed down. And as it went into the first turn, I watched in horror as the very scenario I had so feared unfolded before my eyes as if in slow motion: my beautiful, perfect mint condition vintage Alfa Romeo jumped the track, barrel rolled across the table, and went off the edge.
I still have flashbacks to that awful night, in part because every time I run a sports car tournament I am faced with the reminder of it:
After spending a year racing with my pair of Alfas, one in the commonly found red and the disfigured blue one, I finally decided I could stand the indignation no longer. Many times I had considered mounting my preserved original green body on my AW Ultra-G chassis and joining it to the fleet, but when I saw this pair come up for sale, I realized I had a chance at TWO brass rings: to replace the blue one I wrecked, and get a duplicate of the green one, which would both vindicate my mistake, and give me a choice of which color I wanted to race.
I opted to go with the green one, and thus the switch was made: the chassis from the wounded car was swapped with the new green body, leaving me with 3 Alfas, a green copy, a pristine blue one, and the disfigured blue one, mounted on original T-jet chassis to be set aside for my “Thunderjet Museum,” while the green one was tested on it’s tried and true Ultra-G and turned in a fabulous time at the traps!
And so, I put the lid on one of my worst mishaps since beginning my slot car hobby in the opening days of 2020. It cost me a LOT of money, but considering the peace of mind it now gives me, I feel like it was worth it. In the end, that’s all that matters.
That your happy is all that matters for sure. I remember that incident and it was tragic. I don’t blame you for wanting and needing to correct that. I’ve done the same with my trains. These are beauties for sure and sometimes you have to pay for quality and it’s worth it in the end.