On a cold and winty weekend day I can’t help but think of the opening lines of Sarah MacLachlan’s 1997 track “Sweet Surrender:”
It doesn’t mean much
it doesn’t mean anything at all
Well, it doesn’t mean much, but being stuck at home on a cold snowy Saturday sure isn’t the worst thing that could happen to a guy…at least, not with toys like these! I’ve been continuing to find some really good deals on some classics lately, so while I was not seeking to expand the road crew any further, these things just…happen. You know how the collector’s disease is!
Here for your enjoyment are 3 new additions to the Road Crew and a 4th that has made a rather triumphant return from long-term cold storage!
’63 Riviera in turquoise
Well, shortly after scoring the yellow one at a good price, I did even better on the last remaining color on the Riviera that is available for a reasonable price. I got this turquoise copy from the usual site for a very fair B.I.N. price, and although its wheels were completely yellowed and needed replacement, the rest of the car was in great condition overall. A little polishing on the top to rub out some surface scratches, a new set of reproduction wheels and tires, and good cleaning to the closed rivet “X-mas Tree” chassis was all that was needed to get this beauty to circle the track like a champ, and it looks great lined up with all my others in the parking lot!
Sadly, that’s about it for Rivieras. I don’t think the slate blue one is in the cards; in fact, there’s one for sale on ePay right now, but as you can see from the price, I ain’t buying. I am determined to get the gray one, though, which isn’t quite as rare or expensive but will still definitely be 3 figures, so that’s the next “whale” I’m setting my sights on! That will bring me up to 8, a nice even number, at which point my Riviera armada will be complete!
’65 Mustang 2+2 fastback in tan
Many times within these pages I’ve mentioned that I think Aurora’s rendering of the ’65 Mustang is the worst T-Jet body ever made: it looks nothing like the real car. For a couple of years I didn’t own a single one, but when I found a mess of the late 90’s Model Motoring reproductions for sale at bargain bin prices I wound up buying several examples just for the fun of having the vintage-style body in the vintage car collection. Well, this one is not a Model Motoring repro: this is the real thing, the original Aurora body from back in the ’60’s. Although a previous owner did a little shaving on one of the rear wheel wells, its not too bad, and for what I paid for it, I thought it would be cool to have this body in my collection in this color. I like the way the tan body looks with the black and red interior, and while it may not be “rare,” it seems to have a low survival rate, at least in this condition.
Although it was shipped on a newer open-rivet chassis, I re-mounted it on an older-and more correct-closed rivet pan with an early “X-mas tree” motor and black magnets, so its about as vintage as it can get. Running with Jel-Claws 2030’s on the rear, which are sized like the original tires but have much better grip-this short-wheelbase car goes through the corkscrew with the power and traction it needs to cruise!
’68 Firebird in white
Totally an impulse buy, I came across this entirely by happenstance. Although I love the ’68 F-boid body, I’ve always thought it’s way too plain in white so I wasn’t after one, but this was offered at a B.I.N. price I just couldn’t resist, so I grabbed it. It’s not in perfect condition, to be sure: there’s a hairline crack in the windshield (barely noticeable), one of the A-pillars is a little chewed up (probably from a previous owner’s repair) and there’s an odd crack in the trunk lid that appears to have been caused by shrinkage from a blob of glue put on the underside to hold the back bumper on many decades ago.
But it is complete with in-tact wheel wells and came mounted on what looked like a good closed-rivet chassis. I cleaned and polished it up in my usual way but I did leave it a little distressed, even still wearing the faded chrome wheels it came with, but it runs great now, with an all-red motor and stock back magnets. This one got my very last set of Jel-Claws 2031’s on the rear to match the other 2 ’68 ‘boids in the Crew, the yellow and green ones. I admit I have toyed with the idea of painting the hood matte black since it would look much better, but for now I’m leaving it stock; this is another example of what I consider to be a good “driver quality” classic.
My goal now is to get one of the much harder to come by-and much more expensive-red or blue copies.
SALVAGE: Dash Motorsports ’68 Chevelle returns from the dead
Lastly, here’s one that I gave up for dead years ago! This Dash Motorsports ’68 Yenko Chevelle was one of my earliest slot cars, purchased within the first few months of 2020 during the lockdown period of the “scamdemic,” and it was a part of the muscle car racing fleet for a good year, mounted on an Auto World Ultra G chassis. I never liked this car, however, due mainly to the color, a weak and distasteful shade of “tomato red.” I had a lot of trouble with it performing poorly too, and at some point I just got tired of it and chucked the body into the dark lower bowels of “The Body Box.” It hadn’t seen the light of day for nearly 3 years until I happened upon it a week or so ago while looking for something to mount on a mediocre-running Model Motoring T-Jet 500 chassis. I decided to bring it into the Road Crew to park next to the black copy of the same body I bought in 2020, which was also originally in the Ultra G muscle fleet once upon a time.
I have to admit, that color looks a lot better to me now than it used to! Its still a “weak” red but it looks good lined with beside the black one in the Road Crew parking lot, and with a set of wide 2031’s on the rear it runs decently enough. No clue what the future holds for this one-maybe I’ll just leave it as it is or maybe someday it will get retired again, but for now it provides a good “background extra” for the run of 1968 model cars.
So then, that’s about all the news that fit to print here. Your humble blogger just had a birthday-yep, another year older, it just keeps happening-and I rang it in with a sleepless night of nightmares, so staying safe at home seems like the right thing to do right now while I wait for the ice to melt off the roads. As I get ready for my trip home for X-mas and the all shopping I need to do for friends and family, Drag City is going to be pretty quiet for the rest of the year, but I shall post when anything interesting comes up! Have yourself a happy holiday sneason, race fans!
Some more worthwhile additions and I can imagine that Mustang would have been a popular toy back in the day which would lead to the low survival rate. It’s interesting about the Yenko and how things can look better with a second look after some time. It came out great! I hope you have a lovely time with your family and that the break is good for you Bud!