350Z soft-top conversion

Back in March when I bought my 350Z Roadster, I blogged about buying a 350Z Coupe slot car.  Several manufacturers make the Coupe model but nobody sells the Roadster version.  So I had to make my own.

I bought a 350Z Coupe in silver made by Autoart, and converted it to match my real car.

The first step was to take the Coupe apart:

And then get the Dremel out at remove the roof and back pillars:

Then I superglued in a piece of plasticard to form a new base for the bodywork:

Using Milliput I shaped the rear of the car and the wind-deflector pods behind the seats:

Undercoated the Milliput in grey:

And then painted the whole car in blue and varnished it.  Finishing touches were glueing the windscreen back into place, painting the tan seats black, and using black wire to form the roll hoops behind the headrests:

It's not a perfect finish but it's not bad, and as far as I know, it's the only 1:32 350Z Roadster slot car in the world!  Unusually, Autoart sell this car without a driver, which looks fine on display but ridiculous when it's on the track, so I need to get a driver to properly finish it off.

EDIT: 27 July 2012 - Now with a driver...

Z-Cars- 1:1 and 1:32 scales

I waved goodbye to the Lotus today but said hello to a 2006 Nissan 350Z Roadster GT.  Specification includes: 300 bhp 3.5 litre V6, azure blue metallic paintwork, charcoal leather seats, electric hood, electric heated seats, air conditioning, 18" Rays alloys, Brembo brakes, cruise control, 7 speaker Bose music system.  And yes, I am rather fond of it already ;-)

Nobody makes a 350Z Roadster as a slot car but several manufacturers make versions of the Coupe.  I wondered about attempting a conversion with a cheap Scalextric model but in the end went for a rally version from Powerslot, which has the same base blue paintwork as my car.

It arrived a few days before the real one.  Another nicely detailed model that drives very swiftly with moderate magnatraction so the back end gets out nicely on the corners.

Reach for the Skylines

A trio of very fast Nissan Skylines.  These are manufactured by HPI Racing - currently the only slot car they make, the rest of their extensive range is all radio-controlled cars.  The Nissan Skyline R34 GT-R is one of the iconic Japanese supercars and the Skyline models have always showcased the latest driving technologies that Nissan engineers could fit into a road-going car.  The GT-R continued this tradition, with up to 500 horsepower coming out of a 2.8-litre, dual-turbo 6-cylinder engine.

I bought the red and white models a few weeks back, and after a thorough testing with Stuart this weekend, I decided to get a third for a bit more variety and as a backup.  These cars are very fast and stable, with high levels of detail.  The exterior details like radiators, disc brakes, brake calipers, mirrors, wings, exhaust, headlight buckets, mirrors, tow hooks and radio antennae combine (along with lots of decals) to make the models extremely realistic. Inside is a fully painted and detailed interior, steering wheel, and dashboard.