Slot car addiction

XY Double Shot

Since my last column, most slot manufacturers have announced details of their expected releases for 2019. As far as Aussie muscle cars go, Scalextric is once again at the fore, with four cars announced: three Fords and a Holden. The Torana L34 gets another run, this time with the Bill Patterson car from the 1977 Australian Touring Car Championship. On the Ford side we start with a silver XW GT-HO street car with 12-slot wheels, which will be a great basis for making the Bruce McPhee GT-HO racecar from Bathurst 1969. From the XB GT mould we have the John Goss XB from 1975, which I also have designs on for a later issue, so watch this space.

Lastly, we have the 1973 ATCC-winning XY Falcon of Allan Moffat. It’s early days, so it remains to be seen how this car will be produced in Group C guise. Given that the

nal slot releases for last year included two red XY Falcons, I thought I would have a go at

anticipating Scalextric’s version of the ATCC winner by converting the red road car version. While we are in XY mode, I’ll also be doubling up on some of the XY modi cations by adding some details to the #65E car. The #65E car is pretty good as it stands, but I did want to try a few things.

As with the Diamond White XW Falcon from AMC #105, I obtained some Oz Legends 1:32 diecast cars as donors for various detail bits. This is an expensive way to upgrade a slot car, but it is a fast way of adding extra detail to your Scalextric muscle car.

First up was the #65E and I opened up the body and set about the interior. Out came the driver’s window, to match the racing regulations of the period. The existing Scalextric interior had the front half removed and deepened with plasticard sections and repainted to match the black interior. Picking up our Oz Legends donor model, I was able to source the seats, dashboard, steering wheel and centre console. While I was there, I swapped the street driver

gure for a Pioneer race driver with the appropriate red helmet.

I preferred the ve-slot wheels from the donor car, so I put some Sloting Plus race wheels on it and turned the donor ones into inserts. Thanks go out to Eddie at Slot Shop in Arncliffe (Sydney) for his help in selecting the right ones. Returning to the donor car again, I plucked off the shaker which had slightly more detailing and swapped it in. Replacing the shaker took a lot of patience, as I had to grind the old one out with a Dremel and reshape the opening with a le, being careful to avoid damaging the paintwork. Some chipping did occur, and this was touched up with black acrylic paint.

As I said, the Scalextric 65E is quite good out of the box so I left it there and moved onto the road car. As long as Patto’s Place keep producing decal sets, these road cars are a way of keeping punters like me happy making their own versions. Although the XY road car colour has been called Candy Apple ever since the release was announced, the packaging says its Track Red, while it is actually the same colour

as the 65E version, which was Vermillion Fire. Using another donor car, I made the same modi cations to the interior.

Next came the external details, the main issue being the standard Globe Bathurst wheels. Appearance wise, moving to the race wheels the XY used under the Group C rules was a big change from the Series Production items. The works team used both ‘jelly bean’ and Mawer

ve-spoke composite wheels throughout the ATCC season. I wanted to replicate the Mawers, but the tapered shape of their ve-spoke wheels was not something I could match accurately. I considered going with some ve-spoke inserts from a Le Mans Mazda but I didn’t think they were close enough. Then, while scouting for something else, I happened to come across the Oz Legends Charger with the ROH 14” jelly-bean wheels and picked one up at a reasonable price. By upsizing to the 1:24 scale version, they are a good match for the larger diameter Group C wheels of the GT-HO.

Then it was a matter of small items, the rst of which was to remove the standard dual exhausts that exited under the rear bumper and replace them with a side-dump pipe I salvaged from an old Trans Am Mustang chassis. Scalextric must have anticipated this mod as the Falcon chassis already has locating slots on either side, similar to those of the Mustang.

Under Howard Marsden’s leadership, spoilers were removed from the works GT-HOs, so these were gently pried off the chassis and body. The

nal detail was the nice 36-gallon fuel tank that pokes out from underneath the rear bumper from the donor car. It was cut out and glued underneath the Scalextric chassis.

All that was left was to add details to the blank exterior, and as usual the decals came from Patto’s Place. The real advantage of these road car versions is that there is no need to repaint the cars – this is a real plus when it is so difficult to match the quality nish of a factory paint job. Scalextric, keep them coming! When working on a remake of the Coca-Cola Mustang, I came across some grey tape which produced a good match for the visor strip across the windscreen.

One nal note on the new releases for 2019. It almost slipped by unnoticed, but Fly slot cars from Spain have announced they will be making the Brian Foley Porsche 911 from 1969. No pictures have been released yet, but presumably it will have the Chester eld sponsorship. As far as I can tell this is Fly’s rst Australian livery – and a rather obscure choice for a Spanish manufacturer. But hey, anything with Australian connections is always welcome.