And here it is, the final member of The Road Crew!
I’ve been wanting this car since long before I started developing an interest in the original Thunderjet chassis; I originally wanted it for my numbered racing fleet to mount on an Ultra-G chassis, but, although it is not hard to find-its quite common, actually-I was never able to lay my hands on the Jaguar XK-150 in gray at a price I was comfortable with.
And I absolutely insisted on this color. As a Jaguar fanatic I am particularly fond of the early XK sports cars and I think gray is just about the best color to see one in, and since the white one is too common and I already had the red one, gray was the only option that would satisfy me. I finally found this one, which, though not mint (the rear wheel wells have been slightly enlarged, though it was done very carefully with an appropriate tool) is complete and unbroken. It came on an original Vibrator chassis which the seller claimed was tested and running but it wasn’t when I got it, however that’s of no consequence since I do not run Vibrators. It was dirty and needed cleaning but came out of a hot TSP bath looking pretty good before getting mounted on a very fast T-jet chassis I had set aside for it long ago.
I discovered that it appears those awesome Joe Skylark whitewalls and redlines that I was so enjoying putting on some of my original cars appear to no longer be available. As a result, the gray XK150 wound up wearing the same type of tires as the red one: the urethane “Super Tires” which I bought in solid white, courtesy of the excellent JAG Hobbies in Ohio. I’m not sure if this is part of our “supply chain crisis” (which the corporate media will tell you has absolutely nothing to do with our oh-so-competent national leadership) or if the vendor just got tired of making them, but I even tried to reach out to him on Hobby Talk and asked if he had any he wanted to sell and got no response, so I guess that’s the end of that: no more whitewalls or redlines. The white tires do look pretty good though, and they have much better grip than the JS tires, so I guess I shouldn’t complain: these urethane tires really hold the turns, giving this pair performance worthy of a Jaguar.
And as an added bonus, I finally acquired the correct replacement windshield for the red car; after leaving it without a windshield for over a year because I liked the “racing look” without it, I figured since I was adding an in-tact car with its original windshield it would be best for the two to match.
And so now the Road Crew is complete…leaving me to do…what, now, exactly?
Well as I’ve said before the next big step is landscaping the big track, which I’m hoping to start not this weekend, since I’ll be working at the office, but perhaps next weekend. Guess I’d better start planning some hills and valleys and acquiring some of the supplies needed. So, I’ll be making a big mess of my layout soon, and all my thousands of readers and followers will have that to look forward too as I document all my mistakes! Stayed tuned for more tragedy and triumph from DRAG CITY!
It’ll be interesting to watch your landscaping progress.
That car does look classy in grey and the white tires really worked out well on it. I’ll be excited to hear what your landscaping designs are!