I took a risk today and did something a little out of character; I played hooky from work. Well, for part of the day: I finished my duties early up in the mountain town of Breckenridge, and once I wrapped up at noon, I realized I was about half-way to Johnsville, so I thought I’d buy some extra gas on my own dime and head to my treasure trove out yonder! It is October, after all, and this is best month of the year to travel across Colorado by car, so away I went with a cool audiobook on the radio (“The High Window” by Raymond Chandler, a classic!)
Dillon Reservoir seen from Swan Hill Road
The friendly proprietors seemed glad to see me and took me back to the “T-Jet stash” and let me nose through the treasures to pick out some stuff I wanted. Unfortunately I did have one major misfire, but even it is kind of interesting. But I also got a killer deal on what may be the nicest early Aurora original I have yet acquired, so it all came out for the best!
Here’s a look at the 5 new members of The Road Crew, my fleet of original Aurora-chassis slotties that seems to just keep growing, no matter how insane the prices get…
What was supposed to be the biggest score of the day actually turned out to be the biggest disappointment. What I thought I was getting here was the VERY rare dark blue Aurora Riviera. What it turned out to be was another very early reproduction made by Road Race Replicas which I was unaware even existed, the 2nd such example I’ve found. That said, its a good replica; it looks great and at the price I paid I can hardly complain, but it makes me wonder how many more original Aurora designs were replicated by RRR.One lesson here is: don’t buy a vintage slot car without taking the body off the chassis and examining the markings!
On the other hand, the exact opposite situation occurred with this gray ’63 Galaxie coupe. I originally thought this was a Dash Motorsports replica since it is in dead-mint condition, but after getting it home and examining it in painstaking detail under a strong lamp and lenses, I’m now convinced this is an original Aurora piece and, if I’m right, it’s the cleanest one I have ever acquired from this era! The color combo of the gray body with the white top and the black and red interior is gorgeous, making this a very desirable slot car, indeed!
I never thought I wanted the Olds Toronado in this color until I saw it in the shop. This clean copy-which may have had the rear bumper replaced, I’m not sure-really jumped out at me, and looked super classy with that big back greenhouse exposing the bright copper gear. This one is a great runner too, mounted on a NOS open-rivet chassis that looked unused when I got it!
Now here is another example of why I love MEV: who else is gonna make a 1962 Buick Wildcat??? This lemon yellow example is nicely proportioned and runs on a very fast NOS Aurora chassis. I do think it needs a little detailing on the sides with the chrome pen, but I’ll tackle that over the weekend.
And lastly, although I certainly didn’t “need” it, I couldn’t resist taking home yet another copy of the beautiful 300SL roadster on an original vibrator chassis, especially this one in light gray in near mint condition. Although the chassis looks as low-mileage as the body, it does not currently run, however since I can’t run vibrators on my track anyway that is of little consequence: converting this to a T-Jet is another project for this weekend!
Well, that-in combination with my recent order from MEV, which I will be lucky to get by X-mas-pretty much breaks the bank for October, and we’re only at the end of the 1st week! Since we’ve been told we can all look forward to our winter heating bills being double what they were last year, there might not be a whole lot more action at the track until next month! But fear not, I have plenty of cool stuff in the pipeline: I always have a few projects on “ration” for the lean times!
Like the cars in real life, it’s always cool to see them moving! I have to admit that I find that Tornado strangely attractive and I think I would have had to purchase it too. I know there was the one disappointment but that Galaxie and the rest sure to seem to make up for that to me!
Like the cars in real life, it’s always cool to see them moving! I have to admit that I find that Tornado strangely attractive and I think I would have had to purchase it too. I know there was the one disappointment but that Galaxie and the rest sure to seem to make up for that to me!