NEW BUILDS: A Pair of Classy Cruisers Built For LOOKS

Since purchasing and building cars for my collection has slowed to a fraction of what it once was due to my having acquired about everything I want (or everything I’m willing to pay market prices for, at least), I haven’t had a lot to write about over the last few months in terms of adding cars. There have been a few “impulse buys” lately, though; cars that I can’t use in my racing fleets, but that I have acquired and assembled anyway just because I liked them and wanted them. Here are a couple of Auto World additions that have come out exceptionally well.

’57 Bel-Air in mint green

I’ve been wanting this one for a long time and finally found someone selling one at a reasonable price. It was a complete car too, on its original Ultra G chassis, and I kept it that way, changing only the wheels, tires, and axles to something I thought looked better. She’s now fitted with Vincent “Crager Sports” in size “A” at the front and “B” at the rear with appropriately sized Vincent tires, which don’t give it the best grip, but they sure look good!

As it turns out, the chassis it came on is exceptionally fast! So much so, in fact, that at some point I may rob the chassis off of it for a racing car, since this one will always be a cruiser; there’s no more room in the muscle car fleet for any more racers, and I’m not sure I’d want to bang this one around the track anyway, seeing as how it’s one of the limited edition 2011 Chevrolet “Centenary” models, as denoted by the “100 years” logo on the trunk.

This is probably the best looking ’57 Auto World ever put out; the mint green paint with the gold trim looks classy as can be, befitting one of the best looking cars of the ’50s. They’ve reissued this car so many times in so many colors and some are better than others, but they went all out with this one. Originally it would have been delivered in a black and gold “anniversary” box, which I didn’t get with mine, which is part of why it came fairly cheap, but because it wasn’t a boxed version I could get away with the wheel swap without feeling bad about it. It may never race, but it sure is purty!

’63 Riviera in “Midnight Aqua”

Look at this beauty! This is another one I’ve been after for a while, and its been remarkably elusive in this color for some reason. “Midnight Aqua” is an actual color offered on the Riviera in 1965, so although its not completely correct shown on a ’63, who’s gonna argue?

I got this one at a decent price though it wasn’t mint; there a few tiny nicks on the body and it came covered with some sticky nastiness that required me to give it not one but 2 hot baths in Tri-Sodium Phosphate, although that did clean it up just fine. It came on what I guess was an original early Johnny Lightning Thunderjet chassis with the standard “Tuff Ones”-style wheels and no trac mag, which I set aside for a future Road Crew car, and I knew just what to mount it on: a white Ultra G I’d had sitting around for a while, a used chassis that wasn’t much of a performer but that I’d been saving for the right car, since the white chassis are expensive to obtain. This was the right car!

For wheels, I went with the Vincent “Dotz” design. I haven’t had much luck with these Vincent 2-piece wheels; they look fantastic but they are very delicate, since it is difficult to install them without a risk of popping the inserts out, and I’ve even had a couple that went together fine only to have the inserts fall out on the racing track. If they do fall out, putting them back never works; they never seem to fit right and I can’t adhere them without some kind of glue, which always leaves a nasty mark that ruins the look of the wheel, so I figured I’d probably never use those 2 remaining sets, especially since the insert from one of the rear ones had fallen out in the package during shipping! Not wanting a “D” sized wide wheel on the back of a Riviera, I elected to use the fronts from both sets, since I thought the gold-tone inserts would look great against the dark bluish-green paint. So, what do you think of the finished product? I think it came out quite well!

So this is also a cruiser; it runs around the track well enough but its not fast. It doesn’t have to be, though; although I do have a couple in my racing fleet, slow and low is better in a “Mac the Knife” ride like a Riviera anyway!

So there you have it, two for the show rather than the go, something that’s uncommon in my slot car collection! I can enjoy just running them around at a leisurely pace, “cruising and playing the radio, with no particular place to go.” After all, Isn’t that what these big classic American cars do best?