Considering that I’m such a fan of Mopar Muscle, it might surprise you to learn that your humble blogger hasn’t watched more than a couple of episodes of “Gravyard Carz.” And this is even in spite of Auto World having a series of slot releases dedicated to the show! The reason for this is primarily one of scope: I just don’t watch much TV. I haven’t had cable TV since around 2013 because its just not worth it to me; I stream everything I watch. Fortunately I could do some catching up since the show is now available on YT and elsewhere. Since they seem to do some quirky things on that show, I wonder how many HO-scale slot Dodge Chargers one has to assemble before I get a mention?
Well as you can see, I’m workin’ on it! I’ve added two more Chargers to my ever growing fleet, and these were deliberate purchases I went in search of: I wanted the lime green and the purple one to add the fleet I already have because these are 2 colors that the Aurora original was available in that were reproduced by Johnny Lighting.
The lime green on came in a box on that pull back chassis format they had going for a while in the early 2K’s, while the purple car was purchased for a fairly high price and delivered on an original T-Jet 500 chassis which, I believe, was the dirtiest, filthiest, most neglected chassis I’ve seen. It took me hours to clean and rebuild that thing, but amazingly I got it running, though it was donated to another car.
The reason for that is the all of the JL Chargers in The Road Crew sit on early JL chassis, the types without the traction magnet which, other than the plastic gears, are almost direct copies of the original Aurora “Tuff Ones” design. They aren’t all equal, though; some run better than others, and the chassis that wound up under the purple one is probably the best runner of them all. Note that I did manage to scrounge up one last set of used 5-lug chrome wheels where I had taken off another car, but there’s a happy addendum to this post! You may recall my recent statement that I was no longer able to obtain these wheels from the 2 vendors I used to buy them from, and my warning that there seemed to be a supply problem with chrome plated plastics. I was able to get a few sets of both stock reproductions and 5-lug chromes by buying them from a vendor who I frankly don’t like much. I try not to buy from them, but sadly they appear to be the only ones left in the world that have these parts, so until they run out, I guess I’m stuck giving them my money. I shouldn’t complain: I might not be able to get these parts much longer, so I better enjoy them now!
If any of y’all out there in slot car land know where I can get high quality original chrome T-Jet 500 wheels, I’m all ears!
