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A few days ago John Mears called me from Bakersfield and asked if I could build an open wheel NASCAR Whelen type modified for the Tomy Turbo and Super G+ car. He sent me a picture of a car that ran at Mesa Marin in the late 1990's that was perfect and looked pretty simple to build.
I started looking at the Tomy Turbo chassis that some of you sent me, and at the G-Jet that Mike King sent and discovered that the finished car would also fit that chassis. Having an old Turbo chassis in my box I found the SPEC wheels and tires that John will be using in his series and set to work. From the very beginning I wanted something low slung and real looking, and the 94' Mustang modified in the picture was a good model.
As I always do I boxed in the chassis and got the general shape of the rear end and front end. I have to take some general liberties with the roof line and rear spoinler because of the shape of this chassis; it's quite a bit wider than the MT/XT chassis I've been building on. But by making the top lower and the spoiler smaller it worked out well. I think I nailed the roofline of the Mustang nearly perfect.
The pictures John sent showed the top slightly offset to the right, and the engine offset to the left. I decided not to do this mainly because most of the Whelen cars I've seen only had offset suspensions, not engine and drive train. John's group is a detail oriented bunch, they tend to make little neft bars for their cars so I'll give them plenty of space on the side of the body to have the bars go through. I also will be using the body tabs on the Turbo chassis as a mount, although the Super G+ and G-Jet cars will have to use 2-sided tape.
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As you can see the car looks longer because it's lower. Lower, in fact, than a Super G+ Formula car is.
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I have some minor sanding and shaping to do but essentially it's complete. I'll do a test draw, make sure it fits the chassis and then send some test pop's to John for his approval. If he likes it his Turbo series starts in May. John's a great guy, to develop this mold and to make 25 cars he paid me $100 which will go a long way to getting stuff for my 500 coming up the end of May. But I made sure he would allow a general release at the same time so you G-Jet guys and Tomy drivers can finally get a modified designed for your cars.
I started looking at the Tomy Turbo chassis that some of you sent me, and at the G-Jet that Mike King sent and discovered that the finished car would also fit that chassis. Having an old Turbo chassis in my box I found the SPEC wheels and tires that John will be using in his series and set to work. From the very beginning I wanted something low slung and real looking, and the 94' Mustang modified in the picture was a good model.
As I always do I boxed in the chassis and got the general shape of the rear end and front end. I have to take some general liberties with the roof line and rear spoinler because of the shape of this chassis; it's quite a bit wider than the MT/XT chassis I've been building on. But by making the top lower and the spoiler smaller it worked out well. I think I nailed the roofline of the Mustang nearly perfect.
The pictures John sent showed the top slightly offset to the right, and the engine offset to the left. I decided not to do this mainly because most of the Whelen cars I've seen only had offset suspensions, not engine and drive train. John's group is a detail oriented bunch, they tend to make little neft bars for their cars so I'll give them plenty of space on the side of the body to have the bars go through. I also will be using the body tabs on the Turbo chassis as a mount, although the Super G+ and G-Jet cars will have to use 2-sided tape.
As you can see the car looks longer because it's lower. Lower, in fact, than a Super G+ Formula car is.
I have some minor sanding and shaping to do but essentially it's complete. I'll do a test draw, make sure it fits the chassis and then send some test pop's to John for his approval. If he likes it his Turbo series starts in May. John's a great guy, to develop this mold and to make 25 cars he paid me $100 which will go a long way to getting stuff for my 500 coming up the end of May. But I made sure he would allow a general release at the same time so you G-Jet guys and Tomy drivers can finally get a modified designed for your cars.
