Xanthippe's Mystery Box Challenge: GaslandsTV Racer Build

by Ali Kidder-Mostrom

What inspires you? My team “Just Another Pop Culture Reference” is just what it sounds like. But, let’s be honest there is just SO MUCH to choose from when it comes to the world of pop culture. Sometimes, it helps to have a bit of guidance, some selfimposed limitations, to help inspire creative design.

The goal is to create one car per month, each with a random paint color and pop culture theme selected by roll of the dice. Also, there will be a unique challenge for each car (basically the reason I turned to the box) just to keep things interesting. This could be a technique to use or race to prep for or, well, the sky’s the limit!

GaslandsTV just added racing to their repertoire and I promised to send a car into that fray. So, this month’s challenge is building a Gaslands-style car that can also kick-butt on the race track.

Also, from a comment on the first Mystery Box video, for an extra challenge I’m highlight drilling, tapping and weighting techniques a bit more this time around.

If you have a challenge you think I should do for a future mystery box, just reach out to Diecast Racing Report or drop a comment on the Mystery Box videos on our YouTube channel.

Challenge:

Build a car to race at Gaslands TV

Die Rolls:

Theme: TV (6)

Color: Blue (12)

Build/Design Notes:

Spring has sprung and this month I dug it the box of brown paper bags to pull out a yellow Maisto VW Beetle… not what I was expecting, but not a bad place to start.

The form of this car is a little different than your more common Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars, but it still drills apart the same.

Unless you want to take a soldering iron to it, there are two basic ways to open up a car. Drill with the 5/64 bit first and then finish with the larger 9/64. Or use the 9/64 bit and wait to use the 5/64 bit when the car is apart and you’re drilling out the post for tapping. I prefer the latter, but using the smaller bit first can lead to a nifty trick where the rivet edge comes off in a nice clean ring.

A key difference you’ll find in alternate brand cars like Maisto or Greenlight is extra brackets for windshields and such. Removing them is basically the same as drilling posts – all you need is a drill and some care, so you don’t crack the windsheild in the process. I didn’t keep mine in the end, but better safe than sorry.

The wheels that came on this car just won’t do for racing, so I turned to my wheel farm and found a great set of blue Trap5 wheels, from the Hot Wheels La Fasta.

If I’ve learned one thing in my time modding, it is – do all your drilling and tapping before investing more time in the car. So, after stripping the paint, that is exactly what I did. We purchased our tap and associated 2/56 screws from Brightvision Wheels, in case you’re curious.

Using a tap is pretty easy – just put the tap in as straight as you can and apply just a bit of pressure while you turn it clockwise to cut your threads. Be sure to do a slight counterclockwise reverse turn on occasion to release the pressure. If you don’t you could break a tap out in your peg. It’s only happened to me once, but yes… I am still bitter. Some folks use oil or another lubricant for this process, but I’ve never found that to be necessary

When I rolled Blue and TV, the decision was basically made for me that I was building a TARDIS from Doctor Who. Because I wanted a Gaslands styling, I used armor plating to bring a box-like paneled look to the otherwise round vehicle and a small gear to replace the top light with a top blade.

I’ve never built a Warden-sponsored car before, so I thought that would be fun. The idea behind that team is that the driver is a prisoner welded into the car and racing for a chance at freedom. So, the armor plates went right over the door crack and I also added bars over the two side windows, using old cut axles.

After a spray paint coat of Krylon’s Satin Deep Blue, I used three different shades of blue Testors enamel paints, to add a bit of extra depth and TARDIS-y detail. Other detail painting included the door placard, BAD WOLF on the boot and some blood splatter off the top blade.

When it came to installing the axles, the divots in this base weren’t exactly straight on this car, so thankfully I had the axle jig from Redline Derby to use when epoxying the axles into place.

I stripped the chrome off the base using 409 (check out the February issue of Diecast Racing Report if you want all the details on that) and cut off the front bumper to prepare it for racing.

Whenever possible, I want to try to build to the track. GaslandsTV has doozy of a track. It’s a road course that starts with the steepest drop, dubbed rather appropriately the Sui-slide, so I’m going to need no obstructions and really well distributed weight.

So far, I’ve only seen stock cars run down this course so I’m not sure exactly what weight would be ideal, but I’m pretty sure my starting 25.6 grams isn’t it. I ended up getting up to 53.8 grams, which included tungsten bars along the bottom (to keep my center of gravity as low as possible) and a little build-up in the back to center my weight over (or at least near) the rear axle. This is less crucial for a road course than for a drag strip, but hopefully it will give a nice burst of speed coming off the Sui-slide.

This car is already in Canada ready for its Gaslands TV debut. Hopefully, her performance will be FANTASTIC.