Just after finishing another sports car-the Porsche 356 resin kit I blogged about in excruciating detail-I have decided to finally activate an idea I’ve had for a while. See, I have a thought, and it is this:
Trans Am cars are really cool, and I have 4 TA style cars in my numbered sports/racing fleet. But is it really right to be racing Fireboids, Camaros, and Mustangs against Chaparrals, Ford GT-40’s, and Porsche 904s?
Well, when it comes to Mustangs, obviously there’s an exception to be made in the case of the Shelby GT350. I know that in modern day vintage racing, you do sometimes see this mix of car types tussle on the track, but even today it’s not common, and it certainly was not done back in the diz-ay: Trans Am racing was very much its own thing.
Of course, 4 cars does not a fleet make, right? But maybe 8 does…and 12 certainly does! And so…I have decided to make a major change to the structure of my racing tournaments and launch an entire new fleet: a fleet of exclusively Trans Am cars!
So if I only have 4 TA cars, where are the others supposed to come from? Well, from the paycheck, of course, because all it takes is money! So I’ve already bought 4 more cars, and they are on their way via the mail, hopefully to arrive within the next week or so (although, with the way is mail is running today, who really knows, right?)
The existing ’68 Camaro, the pair of ’68 Firebirds and the ’70 Cuda will soon be joined by a ’68 Cougar, a ’69 AMX, a ’70 Challenger, and a ’70 Mustang. 3 of these were bought in a lot-what a deal!-while the AMX, always the orphan, had to be brought in special.
Looking at the existing 4 cars, you may notice something; they are all on their stock wheels and tires; a slight exception exists for the green ’68 Firebird since it is fitted with MEV chrome reverses, but they are identical in size to the stock wheels and they carry stock tires. That’s an important detail, because one of the big deals about this is that I am going to keep this series of cars 100% stock: they will run on the stock Auto World wheels and tires, use stock magnets and pins and everything else: no customization, making it a true “factory series” just like the real Trans Am series allegedly was…or was supposed to be, anyway.
Now, maybe that will get boring, but if it does, I’ll change it up! Plenty of time and space to change direction if I choose, and most fun of all, I get to buy a whole mess of new cars! Wheeeee! More cars is always good!
This change, of course, means that 4 slots from the 64-car sportscar fleet will be vacated: the TA cars currently bear racing numbers 7, 26, 42, and 100, so 3 of those numbers now become available; @26, however, is immediately filled by the Porsche 365, as it rotates in as a full time member of the sports car fleet along with the 2 Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinettas. This means I’m still missing one car, since I’ve removed 4 but have only 3 waiting in the wings. Fortunately, I have a “spare” that’s been on ice in the project bin for a while; you can bet I’ll be profiling that very soon in a New Build post!
Welcome to the new series, race fans! Look for tournament results and reports on the thrills, spills and chills from the Trans Am fleet, because the action never stops at Drag City!
I agree about the racing cars of a certain pedigree together and that makes sense. I like the extra realism since that is normally what you see on the real tracks!