“The Final Four”: This McLaren Elva M1A Shows the Finish Line is In Sight for the Auto World Ultra-G Racing Fleets!

I’ve recently come to a consequential decision about my slot car hobby. I’ve decided that the time is fast approaching to wrap up what may be my favorite aspect of it: acquiring, customizing, and building the Auto World Ultra-G racing fleets.

If you look at the case contents shown here of my 2nd case for the numbered sports car racing fleet, you can see that there are four slots remaining to bring this fleet up to my plan for a total of 96 cars. That means there are four more builds to come, and with this post I’m showing you one of them: thus, this post represents the first of four final builds for the Ultra-G’s

Looking over my 3 Ultra-G fleets-Muscle cars, sports cars, and Trans Am cars-and looking at what is available in the world of HO slot bodies, I realized that there were two Aurora bodies that I only had a single copy of in the sports car fleet. The decision to move forward with acquiring these to fill 2 of these 4 slots mirrors the decision that I explained in my last Road Crew Expansion post: a desire to add some cars that I had previously decided I didn’t want. In that post I explained that I had gone looking for some nice examples of the McLaren Elva M1A and the Chaparral 2A. In addition to the nearly flawless blue Elva that I showcased there, there was a turquoise one that landed in my parcel vault that provided the platform for the first of “The Final Four.”

I thought one of my last remaining sets of Road Race Replicas GT wheels in gold would make for a great, “period ‘60s” look, and I daresay I was right! That meant finding a matching number or roundel that had the same gold theme, and I found what I wanted in another old RRR stash. All the numbers are used now, and you know that out of necessity I made peace with duplicates long ago, so #5 it is.

The body was mounted on a brand new virginal Ultra-G chassis that just came out of the package, and in testing it was insanely fast. It has a slight magnet drop for increased traction due to the full-sized RRR tires, a deep OS3 pin, and the best axles a lot of money could buy. In short: this car got the best of everything, as all of these final builds will.

As for the all-important Lore: under its turquoise fiberglass skin, The Wailer is a 1964 McLaren-Elva M1A—the ultra-lightweight sports racer that marked the beginning of Bruce McLaren’s customer car legacy. Powered by a Chevy 327 small-block V8 making over 420 horsepower in race tune, it sends torque through a Hewland LG-500 4-speed transaxle to an independent rear suspension with outboard disc brakes and a limited-slip diff. At just 1,350 pounds, the car is brutally fast, capable of topping 185 mph depending on gearing. With its magnesium wheels, Weber-fed V8, and ventilated Girling brakes, The Wailer is pure 1960s road-racing aggression—refined only in silhouette. It’s the perfect machine for driver Nick “Night Shift” Nolan, a man who only grudgingly shows up before sundown and prefers night racing to the heat of the day. Nolan was born in the hills of Virginia and grew up an avid hunter, where he honed his eagle-like vision and bristling senses and brought them to into his passion for cars and racing.

The motivation for “The Final Four” has been described throughout my last 5 1/2 years writing this blog: I’m at the point now where I simply have too many cars. My fleets have gotten so large that I can no longer effectively manage them, and since I don’t want to leave large numbers of cars sitting in cases, unused-I want them all on the track where they belong-I believe I’ve reached the limit of what I can effectively race.

Now of course, this is not an absolute statement. It’s very possible that in the near future, AW – or even some other outfit – will introduce some awesome new bodies that I can’t live without that will inspire me to add more cars to my collection and if that happens, I’ll gladly follow my instincts. It’s also the case that the last two cars in the fleet are likely to be filled by some very special bodies, which likely means paying hundreds of dollars for some of the extremely rare handmade German Bauer creations that I’ve been salivating over for years. It remains to be seen exactly what all The Final Four will be, but the years of actively looking for new cars to build are definitely at an end.

In the future, I plan to devote my time and resources in this hobby to collecting the Aurora originals that I want, as well as adding a few aftermarket MEV bodies to The Road Crew. Due to the cost of these pieces, this will proceed slowly, but it will all be documented here, because even as the construction of the racing fleets winds down, there will still be plenty of cool and interesting things happening at Drag City!