Hey guys,
I haven’t raced with the group for a while. Having been invited back into the fold there were a few classes that I need to build cars for. One of which is Hot Rods. During the pandemic I ended up ordering a few movies to pass the time – one of which was Two Lane Blacktop. I had never seen it before, and it’s really worth a watch. It’s French New Wave meets hot rods in the best possible way. The hero car of the film is a ’55 Chevy driven by “The Driver” (musician James Taylor), and worked on by “The Mechanic” (Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson). They travel from town to town with The Girl (Laurie Bird) engaging in street races and trying to hustle a few bucks along the way. Eventually the meet up with “G.T.O” (Warren Oates – I’ll let you guess what he drives) who challenges them to a race to Washington D. C. – the winner taking the loser’s car.
I’m a big fan of movie cars, so after seeing this movie I set out to find myself a ’55 Chevy body. I was lucky to find a Monogram Snap-Tite kit in 1/32 scale on ePay.
Hot Rod rules call for the BWA FF050 slim can in an inline configuration with skinny wheels. Being a fan of the Slot.it HRS2 chassis I was able to source an FF050 motor pod on Shapeways. With all the bits and pieces in hand, it was time to hit the spray booth aka the level 3 stairwell vestibule in my condo’s parking structure. Here’s what I ended up with:
The hood scoop is fabricated out of Evergreen sheet styrene. Driver is a vac-formed interior from Slot Car Corner. I went with the slammed stance since that’s what it takes to get the CG down low. I opted for the side pipes because – why not? Anyhow, we’ll see how well it runs at the next Hot Rod race. See you guys then!
– DrV
