Quote:
Originally Posted by Hoity
Ever since dad rocked home in the early 1980s with a scalextrix set and his car was the ford cobra, I could have any other car except that one. I have often thought about owning one. As life unfolds the reality of actually doing it gets a bit closer, I am at the point now where I want explore the possibility and would like to understand some of the reasons behind why people have gone down the path they have. Ie, chev motors in ford cars, why they chose the kit they did, how have the kits available today evolved, are donor cars no longer the way to go?
I have started my journey by talking to two kit suppliers, both appear very knowledgable and are very passionate about what they do. Read a whole lot on this forum, and I must say some of the detail some forum members go to is simply amazing. Whilst this is great see photos and read along as they ply their craft, it can be a little intimidating, then their are others who have stunning cars to look at and plenty of bling but not quite the extra 20% some of the artisans go to, which gives me belief I can do this.
So my first question for the forum, would be why you chose the kit you did?
Appreciate any and all comments
Cheers jon
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Jon,
Firstly, welcome to the forum. We need more members and we need good build threads.
As you can see from my avatar, there's a Scalextrix Cobra in my past as well, so yes, I've always wanted one but only in recent years realised that it was within reach.
The Scalextric car is a 289FIA, so naturally that's the one that I've always wanted to build. None available here in Australia, so I had a deposit down with ERA for one of their wonderful 289FIAs, but soon realised that it would be a long hard road bringing in a car and having to have much more individual 'engineering' done to enable registration.
That was the point that I started talking with Craig White (Absolute Pace) and made a visit to the factory. Craig was enthusiastic about my idea of building an FIA replica here in Australia....so we talked about it on and off over a couple of years and then I finally decided to jump in and get moving with it.
....so, my car is - as far as I know - the first 289FIA in Australia (anybody - please correct me if I'm wrong). My car is of course the prototype for AP, so it's really a project that's developing as the car's being built. There are no surprises so far; I'm 2000km from the factory, so I get update pictures every week.
Here's my build thread if you're interested:
AP2289 build log
So, Ford vs Chev? It's a personal thing, and for me the originals had a 289 SBF so mine absolutely had to have an SBF as well. Yes, it's a little different to the original, but at least it is still the same engine family.
There are a few of us around the place with Ford engines in our cars. We're probably the quieter ones, because we don't have to make excuses
Some advice - don't jump into it too quickly; if you see pictures of cars or features on cars, or colours etc. take copies and put them in a folder for reference. That way, you will narrow down on what you want, and you'll also become aware of what you don't want. More advice - use this forum; ask questions ...there's a lot of experience and knowledge here.
Cheers,
Glen