Ninco's Lightning Mosler

Instead of calling this a review, let's just call this an opinion ... My Opinion!

Because of a deal that was just too good to pass up, I just got my hands on one of the Ninco Lightning Mosler 1/32 scale slot cars.

I already have a few Moslers but this is my first Lightning model.

The overall cosmetic appearance of this car is superb. All the paint lines are straight with no signs of any bleedover. The tampos are all crisp & clear. The tinted glass helps to set off the paint scheme & the shine is out of this world.

After taking the car off its stand, you notice the clear chassis as well as all of its working parts.

I put the car on the track & pulled the trigger just to make sure it ran and then I took the body off to remove the magnet. Even though I have a plastic track, I run all my cars with no magnets.

After putting the body back on, it was time to run some laps.

My track is a four lane Carrera that is approx. 52 feet in length and, as usual, I test on the Yellow lane.

After about 10 mins. of just driving the car to try & get a feel for it ... it was time to turn the computer on & get some lap times.

Not being a great driver lap times for me with these kinds of cars is somewhere in the 5.5 to 5.7 range ...so here we go.

Test One: Stock out of the box without the magnet. With 10 mins. on the clock the average times were 5.3 to 5.4 & the best time was 5.301.

Test Two: I replaced the rear tires with PPR #1201. I oiled the rear bushings & the motor. With 10 mins. on the clock average times were 5.0 & 5.1. Then with about a min. left I ran a 4.989 & that was it ... I quit. I thought I was gonna have to call 911.

I have never had any car run in the 4's on my track ... never!

Now that I've calmed down & can breathe again let me tell you I really like this car & I'm sure that with some fine tuning I'm gonna love this car.

But that will have to wait ... If you're like me, practice mode & race mode can be as different as night & day. So before I do anything else to the car I think I'll run it in a few races & see what happens.

In closing let me say this:

If you're looking for a car that has all the best parts right out of the box;

If you're looking for a car that pretty much drives itself;

If you're looking for a car that is a total blast to drive ...

Then you owe it to yourself to try one of the Ninco Lightning Moslers ... I'm glad I did!

Thanks for lookin' ... J Y D

Old School Dirt Trackin'

Back in the good old days, if you were from the Chicago, Il area & into dirt track racing, then Sante Fe Speedway was the place to be. Both racers & spectators would come from all over the midwest for some good old bang 'em up racing in the dirt.

Now, some years later, one of the guys I race with from time to time has re-created the old speedway in scale. His track is made out of wood & built to be portable. When still in the planning stages he made sure that once built he would be able to race both 1/24th & 1/32nd scale cars.

One of the classes these guys race is the old Friday night specials. These cars are 1/24th or 1/25th plastic models on brass chassis. The rules are pretty simple, which makes them easy to build. The most important thing is to have some fun & that they do.

Here's a couple of pictures of my 67 Chevelle. It is my first attempt at a dirt track car.

I know you don't find blowers on dirt cars ... but when I put it out on the track ... they all just laugh & one of them will say ... it's gotta be J Y D's car.

Thanks for lookin' ... J Y D

I.R.O.C. anyone

Some years back I picked up a bunch of Ferrari 355's at a swap meet.

They were made by Pro-Slot / Policar who has been out of bussiness for quite some time.

I grabed them for 2 reasons ... 1) they are cute & ... 2) they were under $10.00 each.

Now a new car for $10.00 seems too good to be true, & in most cases, it is. But these cars need all kinds of repairs before they'll even go around the track.

After getting them home I played with them for awhile replacing broken parts & getting them to run.

Then, like a lot of things, they got stuffed in a box & just sat on a shelf. As the years went by I would dig them out & play with them & then again they would wind up back on the shelf.

One day some months back I was reading an article a guy wrote on the Porsche's he had (made by Policar) & when I saw the pictures he posted with all the body detailing & the paint schemes he put on them ... I went & got my box off the shelf ... again.

I guess sometimes you just gotta spend some money ... and really like the car ... so I did.

I took 4 of then all apart & made a list of parts I needed to make these cars what I wanted.

I ordered rear brass bushings, front & rear axles, pinion & spur gear from Slot-it. I also ordered 15' Pro Race front & 17' Pro Race rear wheels from Ninco. I got the front tires from Fly & the rear tires from PPR.

As I started to put the 1st car together (all I had kept was the body, motor & chassis), I destroyed one of the chassis figuring out what needed to be done to really make them right. Lucky for me I have plenty of spares.

I put the 2nd car together using what I had learned on the 1st one & with some testing & a little bit of tuning the car was a total dream to drive. And the more I drove it the better it got. It went from being a parts car at best ... to one of the nicest cars I own. I finished the other 3 cars & as with the first one ... a little bit of tuning & they run great.

I decided to turn them into Iroc cars so I painted each one of them to match one of the lane colors on my track.

We have raced them on several ocsasions & everybody loves them ... & they are still some of the best cars I own.

By the way ... the Pink car behind the Yellow car ... that's the body from the chassis I destroyed sitting on a aftermarket chassis ... but that's a different story.

Stay Tuned & Thanks for Lookin' ... J Y D

Just another Willy's ... I think not

So as I was having coffee with my newest build I got to thinking.

What would I do if Carrera called me up & asked me to take one of their cars & redesign it my way. Carrera would then produce that car & market it to see if it would sell.

So here goes ... Please let me know what you think? ? ? 

I started with there 41 Willy's because in the world of Hot Rods, Rat Rods & Customs it just doesn't get any better than this.

For this build I am using the Ninco Vintage Corvette chassis. I chose this chassis for a number of reasons.

1) The guide flag is located right in front of the front axle which allows it to be used with almost all of the snub-noised bodies.

2) This chassis allows the use of almost any rear bushings as well as an unlimited amount of wheel & tire set ups with the axles of your choice.

3) The motor pod lets you choose one of several motors depending on the performance level you are looking for.

4) The magnet option & location helps to please a wider variety of racers. So whether you are into magnet or non magnet ... plastic or wood track racing ... you're gonna love this set-up.

5) Mounting this chassis into a very wide selection of bodies is, for the most part, very simple.

Next I got rid of almost 10 grams of body weight. I also removed their interior & will replace it with a lighter one using a tray style interior & a driver I got out of one of their GTO's.

Then by swapping some body parts around & replacing their under-sized blower with one more fitting the size & appearance I was looking for I was almost there.

The tires & wheels I'd really like to see on this car don't exist in the slot car world so I'm using the Ninco Pro-Race 15" wheels on the front with Fly classic tires & 17" wide wheels in the rear with the PPR #1201 tires.

I haven't decided yet if I'll paint it or leave more of a Rat Rod kinda thing. But paint or not it's on its way to being one sweet ride.

If I could market the car I think I'd offer it as a kit that would offer two hoods ... one smooth & one with the cut out for the blower ... two sets of rear fenders ... one with open wheel wells & one with the skirts ... and most important of all ... the blower would be included!

Thanks for being part of my little fantasy ... Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Please don't forget to let me know (below in comments) ... is this a ride you would want in your stable? ? ?

Thanks ... J Y D

Meadowdale Raceway in Scale

24 heures du Meadowdale

With the big 24 hours of Meadowdale comming up on June 13th & 14th, 2009 I needed something to practice with so I put this together.

This is a great race & a very long day. The race starts at 3:00 p.m. on Sat. & runs non-stop till 3:00 p.m. on Sun. There are six 4 hour heats & the clock does not stop, there are no track calls & any & all repairs are done under the Green flag. There are 3 teams (1 for each lane) with each team have between 6 & 8 drivers.

And when it's all said & done maybe just maybe in our own little way we became a small part of racing history.

Thanks for lookin' ... J Y D

Stars & Stripes 2

For the Memorial Day weekend we had the 2nd running of our Stars & Stripes Enduro race at "Da Bag" speedway.

This year the race was Trans-Am cars between the years 1966 & 1972.

I had this old Mustang body laying around & I didn't want to be just another guy in a Camaro so the Mustang became my Trans-Am racer.

Thanks for lookin' ... J Y D

Race Wars Lives

Note: This is part two of The Fast & The Furious. It is the artical posted rite below this.

The Fast & The Furious ... the movie became a slot car race. At the end of that long, long day I had to wonder if everybody / anybody enjoyed it. Yeah a good race is always fun, but this one took over twelve (12) hours! In the next week or so all I heard from the guys that raced was it was a total blast & are you gonna do another one? So I decided to make it a once a year event.

 

And I did.

Hopefully we learn from our mistakes ... and I did. For the second Race Wars with some better planning we were able to cut the time down to less than ten (10) hours. And as the years have gone by, there have been several changes to make the race a better race & accommodate more racers without losing the original theme of the race. Now here we are some eight (8) years later & still going strong ... and come September, 2009 Race Wars 8 will be held.

In closing let me get back to the movie.

There has been a second & a third Fast & Furious movie.

The fourth movie was released ... on April 3, 2009 &

like with all the rest I was there

I totally enjoyed it & as soon as it's out on DVD you can

bet I'll buy it..

But I think the first one will always be my favorite

after all, it has already given me & a bunch of the guys

I race with seven (7) years of happiness.

Thanks for lookin' ... J Y D