by slothead » Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:39 am
I tinkered with the RMS Dodge Dart body and figured out how to do body mounts for the Carrera Mustang chassis, then set it aside because even though it was a respectable runner, I had better Scalextric and Pioneer Trans Am cars that deserved to be in the series. The Dart is an iconic Trans Am car because of it's early success in both '66 and '67, but over the course of those years the factory teams from Ford, Mercury, and Chevrolet claimed the top spots.
The narrow wheels and tires on the Carrera Mustang are a detriment, in addition to the narrow track of the rolling chassis. The track of the Dart with the Carrera Mustang chassis is significantly narrower than Scalextric TA cars (especially the '70 Camaro and Javelin), and Pioneer cars. That matters on the tighter turns where the Dart is also somewhat top heavy and more likely to deslot and rollover, earning it a significant time penalty.
The bottom line is the Dart is such a narrow body having to keep the tires inside the body makes it a difficult car to build if you plan on using an RTR chassis. So, I've been thinking about the Dart body as a Showdown Sportsman build, where hogging out the wheel wells would be okay.