Well, the “Polar Vortex” the media has been hyperventilating about on the radio all week has arrived, so this Saturday, with 9-degree weather and 4+ inches of snow on the ground, seems like a perfect day for staying inside and racing slot cars!
Throughout the history of this blog, you’ve seen me-quite reluctantly, really-go from a slot racing enthusiast to a Thunderjet collector. Not a “serious” collector, perhaps, if-by “serious collector”- we mean someone who spends big money on really rare pieces and only looks for the cream of the crop, the most mint-condition examples to keep on a shelf. I do have a couple of those, but I generally look for rougher cars I can semi-restore because that’s what I really enjoy doing. Whether I have the money or not, I’m not the type to spend thousands on an individual toy car…and that’s the reason why only now, exactly 5 years after first getting into this hobby, you’re seeing my first acquisition of a real original Aurora Dodge Charger.
Since you, dear reader, are probably a T-Jet fan or collector yourself, I doubt I have to go on about the insane values these cars are getting on the market today. A quick glance at any of the collector’s sites or auction houses tells that story right away.
There are, I think, at least 3 compelling reasons why this car is-all variations taken into account-far and away the most valuable of all the T-Jets. The first reason is the passion for the real cars, which are now routinely selling for over $100,000 on today’s market in anywhere near decent condition. I’m still trying to wrap my head around someone paying that kind of money for a mid-60’s Chrysler product with vinyl interior, but as I’ve said before, if any muscle car is worth that kind of money, this one is, on the strength of its looks alone: it is either the sexiest muscle car of all time, or its in the top 3: and the market says almost everyone agrees.
The second reason for this desirability is that the Charger was made in a larger variety of colors than any other T-Jet body: a total of 13 colors have been cataloged for this body (although there is some disagreement among collectors as the whether the “SeaForm Green” and “Olive Drab” are an unintentional production variance as opposed to an intentional change). Contrary to what you may have heard, the “SeaFoam Green” is not the rarest variation: that goes to the orange one, which is almost impossible to find, followed closely by the purple one, which would, of course, by my favorite. Then there’s the 3rd reason why I think this car is so valuable: it is very difficult to find in clean, unaltered condition, in any color. But…why is that?
As you can see from this post-not to mention many others over the last 3 years or so-I have amassed quite a collection of Johnny Lightning and Auto World reproductions! There are 8 of them in the Ultra G muscle car racing fleet, and an additional 6 in the Road Crew, along with one extra “one-off,” an early reproduction by Road Race Replicas. A similar body was also made in the 90’s by “HO Detroit.” As you probably know, these are just fractionally larger than the Aurora original in order to accommodate the slightly larger Ultra G chassis, but the size difference is so negligible that is hard to detect without a direct side-by-side comparison, and even then, we’re talking less than a millimeter. I lack a “drug dealer’s scale” which allows me to measure small items like this down to the gram, so I am still unsure whether this fractional size increase and, perhaps, modern production methods have increased the weight of the body of the copies over the originals.
And I bring this up because, in truth, in my experience with running my copies on both the Ultra G chassis and the original chassis, the Charger is unwieldy on the track: it is long and heavy, and the original release had rear wheel wells that were too small and restrictive. Aurora would later enlarge the rear wheel wells slightly during the production run, but a great many survivors you will find today have, at the very least, had the rear wheels wells “rounded off” at the corners by a previous owner and, more often than that, have had them completely radiused out.
Which brings me back to this one I just acquired, which as you see has just that affliction. Now as you may know, I generally won’t buy cars with cut wheel wells, but this one was offered to me by Mr. Feruli as part of a stash he presented me with, and this is the color I’ve been wanting most, because its the one most unlike any of the many reproductions. Orange, purple, white, lemon yellow, and lime green were all reproduced by Johnny Lightning, and the later Auto World releases have been issued in another dozen or so colors, with increasing inkjet detail as time has gone on, but this turquoise color is one that is unique to the originals. Its’ certainly not the rarest one-it’s one of the more common ones, actually, after white, green, red, and blue-but it is the most unusual (save perhaps for that odd “Seafoam Green”), and I love the way it looks with the black top and tail stripes.
As you can see, though the rear wheel well modification ruins the originality and the value, it was very carefully done by someone with the right tools who took the time to do it right, so it looks as good as it can. It’s also noteworthy that elsewise, the car is in excellent condition, with good A pillars, good “windows,” in-tact screw posts, and remarkably good chrome! So, given all that, and given the chance to buy it, I overcame my distaste for the modification and did so.
Equipped with real AJ’s aluminum wheels and tires and threaded axles and mounted on a very stock open-rivet T-Jet 500 chassis, I have no plans to make any changes to this car save for one: I’m looking for a set of white tires to replace the red ones. The red tires may look good on some cars-I hunted for months for a set for my yellow ‘41 Willys gasser!-but I don’t like the way they look on this car, so as soon as I can find a set of white ones, they’ll be swapped out.
(As an aside: I have some mixed feelings and a lot of thoughts on those AJ’s threaded aluminum wheels as well, and there’s a lot more about that topic coming up in a future post, so stay tuned!)
So now, dear readers, here is the question: should I attempt to get more, and pay the hundreds it will cost to do so? Well c’mon, who are we kidding? Of course I’m going too, but not until I find a bargain, which I think this one was, even with the messed up wheel wells. I’m never going to pay the price for any of the really rare colors, but another one I’d like to have-the “standard” (which is to say: light or “pastel”) yellow may be within reach, and I wouldn’t mind having a red one, as well. So although I’m not actively and aggressively hunting for one, we’ll see what happens! After all, it wasn’t too long ago that I didn’t think I’d ever own a green Maserati either, but I do now, so you never know what interesting new acquisitions might show up at Drag City!
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