I'll bet Slot Car Johnny knows more about this.
I too would like to know why Aurora had so many of these around when they went out of business, considering the TJet was put on the back burner years earlier after the AFX, MT, and G-Plus came out. Why aren't there warehouses full of AFX non-mag, MT, and G-Plus chassis laying around? I'd love to have a case of NOS AFX non-mag chassis.
I still believe that the Aurora chassis are superior both in fit & finish and overall quality than the Johnny Lightning chassis. Yes, JL has done a fabulous job recreating a classic design and their on-track performance is even better than the originals. But I've seldom seen mangled electricals, out of round wheels, warped chassis, hole clearances that vary from widely from production run to production run, etc., with the Auroras. Maybe Aurora could afford to throw away more marginally defective parts because of their much larger production runs. JL shipped them, at least they did in the earlier releases. You would think that with todays manufacturing technology the new stuff would be even better than it was in the 60s and 70s.
I wish JL would start selling complete chassis and major service parts (bare chassis, magnets, gearplate w/motor, etc.) for their TJet500 and XT cars. I'd buy them.