Its long past time for me to update my list of car nicknames and driver names; I still have 2 replacements in the Muscle fleet (a ’70 Chevy Nova SS and a ’70 Buick GS-X) and the 2 Ferrari 250GT SWB’s in the sports car fleet that have yet to be named. As for the little “Outlaw” 356, well, we know it has to be called something we associate culturally with German bad-ass-ness. Looking at the squadron of 4 Porsche 904 Carreras in the racing fleet, they are named-respectively-Howitzer, Ragnar, Blitz, and Stormer. Considering what these early 356 air-cooled flattys sound like on open exhausts, it seems fitting that this new addition be christened with the name BUZZBOMB. Yeah…I like that! 😀
Now we need a driver, and I’m keeping the cheesy alliteration for the driver nicknames, so the Buzzbomb’s pilot is Erich “RAMROD” Rall (that’s a 1st name and a surname taken from 2 different Luftwaffe aces).
So…seen in the bright light of day, I think this came out…OK. There’s imperfections in the paint-more than I thought I’d have, I’m not completely happy with the way the hood vents came out-they look exactly like what they are, drawn with a pen-and the window insert is what it is. On the other hand, the decals look great, the wheel style is a perfect choice, and even if the paint is imperfect, the color is insanely cool: this Testors hue was just generically called “Brite Red,” but even though it’s a shade lighter than the classic Porsche “Guard’s Red,” it looks awesome at speeeeeeeeeeeed on the track! And going 110+ MPH, which a 356C Super 1600 can do if expertly race-prepped, its going to be pretty hard to see those imperfections in the finish!
Her first time trial wasn’t stellar. She completed only 6 laps on a 60 second clock, with the fastest time around the track being 0.08.493, which is in the bottom quarter of the fleet. But hey, the real thing is only a 90hp 1600cc 4-banger, so it’s realistic that it’s not going to run alongside the Stingrays, Cobras, and Ford G.T. 40’s that make up the bulk of my racing cars. There’s tuning and improvements to be done-there always is, that’s the bulk of the fun-but as a small sports car, she’s did OK on her first time out.
So, ROCK ON, LITTLE BUZZBOMB! Let’s race!
WARNING: song lyrics in the following video clip are “NSFW!”
CONCLUSION:
If you have the patience to do all the work I’ve outlined here, check out the wares of taillights_fade on ebay; his selection of resin bodies seems to be growing all the time and the prices of the kits are very reasonable. It’s a lot of work to build one, but to me that’s all part of the fun, even with some of the frustrations (no different than building a REAL car!) The only question is how they will hold up over time, and as mentioned, I’ve found this to be a mixed result. My own jury is still out, so give it a try yourself; then you can be the judge!