If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'

Louise gave me a couple of American racers for my birthday.  The Dodge Charger Daytona of 1969:

and the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird of 1970:

These large cars are plastered with sponsorship decals, and have the huge spoilers and aerodynamic noses of the NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) cars of the time.  On first testing, they drove very fast but with unrealistic "glued to the track" handling.  I took out the rear magnets so now the back ends swing out nicely on the corners.

The post title is an old NASCAR expression. Junior Johnson, one of the early superstars of NASCAR, said this about his approach when it came to building cars:

I'd have four of five new things on a car that might raise a question. But I'd always leave something that was outside of the regulations in a place where the inspectors could easily find it. They'd tell me it was illegal, I'd plead guilty, and they'd carry it away thinking they caught me. But they didn't check some other things that I thought were even more special.

Pull over and put your hands where I can see them

A while back, I blogged about a police car I'd bought to chase the General Lee around the track.

A great car but it niggled me that the red light on top was just for how.  So I re-wired it!  Maplin sell a flashing LED for a quid which operates up to 14V.  My layout runs at 16V so a bit of O Level physics with Ohm's Law suggested if I stuck a 200 ohm resistor in series with the LED, it should drop the voltage enough to avoid it blowing.  It works - kind of.  It flashes away when I test it but on the track itself it's pretty much constantly on.  But I guess that's better than nothing.

In the photo, the car is sat on my latest contraption - a little test bed made from a cut up piece of track with a 9V battery box soldered to the rails.  A nice quick way of testing a car and portable enough that I can stick it in my back pocket next time I go to a Swapmeet to test second-hand cars before buying them.

I also bought another police car cheap on eBay last week - a twenty-five year old Rover SD1.  Someone had already replaced the tyres on it, so I just oiled and greased it, and cleaned up the paint work to get it back in good condition.  It's lost its wing mirrors but still has its bumpers and the transfers are perfect.  It has a working flashing light but the siren doesn't work any more.  I've wondered about trying to fix that but suspect it get a bit annoying after just a few laps!

Just the good ol' boys, Never meanin' no harm...

Just released by Scalextric (and delivered a few days ago) is the Duke boys' 1969 Dodge Charger, the "General Lee".

This is a large and fast car, fairly well detailed.  But it can't race around the track on its own.  Fortunately, Andy spotted a Plymouth Road Runner at the Donington Slot Car Festival and I snapped it up.

This is a 1970 American muscle car in California Highway Patrol livery, manufactured by Carrera.  Ok, so it should be Georgia State or Hazzard County to really be Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane's car, but it's not a bad match.  And Daisy Duke did drive a yellow Road Runner - albeit a 1974 model - in later series.  Which is a great excuse for another photo...