Art
Thanks for hosting last night’s test session for our new class; the Boulevard Cruisers.
What a fabulous class of cars. They work so well, my Thunderbird may be the best handling car I own… its definitely in the top three. I can drive it hard into any turn without any concern that it will come off, it glides smoothly and very quickly around any turn. Also, every model is very evenly matched. All of Ken’s models and my car were turning the same lap times within 100’s of a second, it was impossible to pass each other unless one of us let up on the throtle. So much fun racing nose to tail for multiple laps…
The reason our cars were evenly matched was that they are all set up with the same aluminium chassis, built by Ken. I have commissioned 11 chassis from Ken for a number of my cars, the Thunderbird cruiser was one of the first cars. If you are considering building one of these cars, I highly recommend you consider purchasing a custom aluminium chassis built by Ken, you will not be disappointed. I have built over 40 brass/piano wire chassis, each chassis build takes me a full day to complete now, it use to take up to one week and on many occasions I had to scrap a chassis and start over. I was never sure how well my build would perform, and it took a few years of building to develop the skill to build to a competitive level.
Another way to look at it it cost. Assuming you can purchase a body for $30 which would be the lowest cost, most will be around $50 + shipping, any Dart kit will set you back $50 or more to start with. Then you have to add the chassis, and parts including, brass, piano wire, solder, guide, spacers, wire, braid, motor, bushings/bearings, gears, axels, wheels, tires, paint, decals… Your lowest cost build will tally $120 + ($140 average). In my opinion, you will be much further ahead, save yourself many hours of toil while uncertain about your final result. Why not take all the risk out of it and begin with a winning chassis. This especially applies to anyone who is just beginning with only one or two builds under their belts, and even more for those with no builds.
Hope everyone can have at least one completed build ready by end of September when we race our first Boulevard Cruiser events.
Cheers!