Vintage WRC Cars (3) Revell-Monogram

 
＜Opel Ascona 400＞
For many years, my Revell Ascona 400 sat quietly in the collection as one of those cars I was content merely to admire.

But when I finally decided to turn it into a “hot” car, the very first thing that bothered me was the front axle shaft, which was far too short. The front wheels sat buried too deeply inside the fenders, making the car look nothing like a proper Ascona 400.

That had to be corrected first.

Initially, I considered replacing the axle with a commercially available shaft of the correct length. However, both ends of the stock axle were knurled, and pulling them out of the wheels by force would inevitably enlarge the axle holes in the plastic wheels themselves. Trying to achieve proper concentricity afterward using a precision blank axle felt like unnecessary suffering.

Instead, I carefully worked both wheels outward little by little, evenly on both sides, while keeping enough engagement that the wheels would not fall off entirely. Once the tread width looked correct, I checked whether sufficient grip still remained between the axle and wheels.

To fill the newly created gaps, I temporarily removed the wheels completely and inserted spacers on both sides. Afterward, I carefully reinstalled the plastic wheels perfectly straight and fixed them in place with CA glue.

This method was only possible because Revell’s plastic wheels use unusually long hubs.
From there, the rest was fairly straightforward.

I replaced the original guide ― which required Revell-Monogram-specific braids ― with a normal Ninco guide, removed the chassis magnet and added ballast weight, replaced the rear tires with Paul Gage XPG urethanes and trued them, and also bonded the slightly off-center front wheels and tires into solid assemblies before machining them perfectly round on the truer.

At times like this, it is enormously helpful when cars ― like early-2000s Scalextrics, this Revell, or Ninco models ― use removable front axle bushings just like the rear axle. It makes setting the entire assembly up on the tire truer vastly easier.

Finally, I took one of the antennas taped inside the crystal case and mounted it onto the roof, installed Z-Machine LEDs in the front and rear lights, added Patto tire decals, and called the project complete.

Vintage WRC Cars (2) Scalextric

＜Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 WRC＞

While searching for a suitable rival for the Peugeot 307, I got another Scalextric rally car from the same era through an auction site ― only to discover that this one was two-wheel drive.

The car appeared in Scalextric’s 2002 new products catalog, and once I opened it up, I found it to be a very typical transitional-period design with a mixture of old and new features.

The disc guide had not yet appeared, but the lighting had already evolved from a single T4 miniature bulb to dual LEDs. However, these were not modern chip LEDs, but old-style warm-colored bullet LEDs with a strong reddish tint, and there were still no tail lamps at all ― only two headlights.

After replacing the guide with a Ninco regular blade, removing the magnet, adding weight, fitting N22 rear tires, and truing them ― the usual race-prep routine ― the handling became shockingly good. In fact, it almost reminded me of an NSR Abarth 500.

Of course, realistically speaking, the motor performance is entirely different, so it could never actually compete with an NSR Abarth. But despite its relatively tall body, it had that same peculiar sensation of gripping the track stubbornly through every corner. It was an outstanding success… which actually created a problem.

Because no matter how carefully you tune a Scalextric car, they almost never end up behaving anything like an NSR Abarth in the first place.

That made it surprisingly difficult to find another two-wheel-drive Scalextric car with a similar character.

A contemporary Subaru might possibly achieve comparable performance due to its similar body shape and proportions, but neither my wife nor I can stand the styling of the later Subaru front end with the round headlamp housings.

＜Ford Focus WRC Works 2001＞

So I started digging through even older Scalextric catalogs.

As for the first-generation Subaru and Ford Escort shown in the 1999 catalog, I already own the more recently retooled versions. Looking for something else, I eventually settled on the Ford Focus WRC released in 2000.

I managed to find a suitable new-old-stock example at auction and bought it. Even though I should really be reducing the number of “cold” cars in my collection, I somehow ended up increasing it again. Honestly, what am I even doing? Still, I might as well race-prep it properly and turn it into a car that actually gets driven.

Internally, the design was obviously older than the Lancer’s.

The lighting still used a single T4 miniature bulb, with transparent light guides distributing a dim glow to the left and right headlights. It was almost exactly the same system used in the 1999 New Beetle Cup Car.

Looking at the chassis mounting method, the body was secured by two screws at the front and one at the rear. However, that single rear mounting point did not connect directly to the body itself, but instead screwed into a pillar extending downward from the cockpit floor.

The problem was that the cockpit itself was not actually fixed to the body in any meaningful way.

There was no way the rear positioning could possibly remain precise like that.

Compared to the Lancer ― which already handled suspiciously like an NSR Abarth ― this seemed hopelessly outclassed from the beginning.

But after staring at it for a while, I noticed something interesting.

The rear positioning was not handled solely by the screw. Just like on the NSR Abarth, the rear number plate arm ― extending upward from the end of the chassis ― also slotted into the body to help locate the rear section. On the NSR, this piece functions as the license plate light housing.

So first, I cut away the useless pillar at the back of the cockpit. Since the cockpit itself floated freely anyway, I secured it to the body with plastic tape so it would not interfere with chassis float.

The rear number plate mounted at the tip of the upward chassis arm hooks into the rectangular opening for the body’s rear plate area. I carefully enlarged that opening slightly to create enough clearance for proper chassis movement.

Then, to prevent the assembly from slipping back out, I added a small plastic plate inside the opening to act as a depth-wise retainer.

From there, final rear-end tuning became a matter of gradually trimming or shimming around the opening until the handling felt satisfactory.

Just like the Lancer, I fitted a Ninco guide, removed the magnet, added weight, installed and trued N22 rear tires, and the car was ready.

Since I already had setup data from building the Lancer first, I also matched the added ballast weight fairly closely. Whether or not the handling characteristics ended up identical was less important ― at least numerically, I wanted both cars built to roughly the same specifications.

Driven alone, the Focus feels quite different from the Lancer.

But once both cars are on the track together, the pairing actually works surprisingly well. This should allow my wife and me to enjoy long, evenly matched races together.

The Focus seems to have a slightly higher top speed, though its brakes also feel slightly weaker. From here, all that remains is to let my wife drive both cars and decide which one she prefers as her own.

Vintage WRC Cars (1) Scalextric

＜Peugeot 307 WRC＞

As someone who has been an open-air motoring enthusiast for more than a quarter century, I have long been devoted to Mercedes SLs. Yet from time to time, I found myself strangely drawn toward the Peugeot 307 CC.

To be honest, it could just as easily have been a 206, 207, 307, or 308 ― that part hardly mattered. I simply liked the idea of a casual French convertible instead of another heavy, serious German Mercedes.

In the end, however, I never actually switched to Peugeot ownership. It was not that I disliked them. The same applies to Porsche, Bentley, or Jaguar as well ― none of them ever seemed capable of surpassing the reliability, practicality, and overall convenience of the Mercedes SL.

After the hugely successful 206 WRC, Peugeot chose the coupe-convertible 307 CC as the basis for its WRC challenger starting in 2004. But after struggling through two difficult seasons, Peugeot withdrew from the WRC at the end of 2005.

If success or failure is judged purely by results, then yes, the project probably failed. But that was not entirely the fault of the car itself. The Citroën Xsara combined with Michelin tires was simply too dominant during that period.

Still, the 307 WRC attracted attention for one major reason: since the Fiat Abarth 124 Rally of the 1970s, it was the first WRC car based on an open-top road car.

As someone who occasionally considered buying a 307 CC road car myself, I naturally followed Peugeot’s WRC activities with interest. Peugeot made an ambitious challenge and failed to achieve lasting success. Yet those kinds of challenges are often the ones people remember most clearly.

Speaking of ambitious challenges, Scalextric also seems to have a long tradition of occasionally experimenting with front-wheel-drive cars, failing to achieve overwhelming success, and eventually retreating from the idea. And apparently I have a habit of following those same paths myself.

Long ago there was the C76 Mini, and later ― though even that is already twenty years ago now ― this C2560A Peugeot. I believe it was released around 2004–05, and unlike the old C76, whose lack of suitable tires made it nearly hopeless in Japan at the time, this Peugeot looked like something that could actually be made to work properly.

So, as part of my ongoing “lighten the burdens of my heart before I die” campaign, I finally transformed it into a truly race-ready car in 2026.

Over the twenty years since I first entered the slot car hobby, I have accumulated at least some understanding of how to make non-magnet FWD slot cars drive properly, and much of that knowledge also proved useful for four-wheel-drive cars.

The original rubber drive belt had lost its elasticity and stretched badly after roughly twenty years in storage, so I replaced it with an industrial pulley belt of similar diameter. The tension is now slightly stronger than ideal, but cars from this era of Scalextric fortunately used metal axle bushings both front and rear, so durability should not be an issue.

That design also makes axle removal and maintenance very easy, which I consider one of the great strengths of Scalextric cars from this period.

＜Škoda Fabia WRC＞

I believe this one was released around 2004.

The real first-generation Fabia ― the 6Y series ― debuted in 1999. In practice, it felt very much like “Škoda equals Czech Volkswagen,” but while the narrow front face and chunky body proportions looked neat enough, the styling somehow appeared more awkward and less refined than the contemporary Volkswagen Polo Mk3 (6N). Well, perhaps that is simply the sort of face Czech people prefer.

Looking at similar hatchback slot cars from the same era, Scalextric had the BMW Mini Cooper, SCX offered the Lancia Delta Integrale, and I think FLY also made the Alfa Romeo 147 GTA.

The unpopular Fabia was frequently handed out as a race prize at various tracks. The first one I obtained was actually a prize for winning a race at Ebisu RPE.

At the time, my honest reaction was, “I don’t want an ugly car like this.”

But once I actually drove it, I discovered that it felt more stable than the BMW Mini, with handling that was genuinely quite good. In fact, it was probably one of the better-balanced cars of its kind.

Precisely because I knew how capable it was, it always felt unfortunate that nobody around me ever suggested things like, “Let’s race Scalextric belt-drive 4WD cars.” The format never became popular at all.

For me, the main attraction of the Fabia was its large five-spoke plastic wheels. I had always planned to reuse them someday on a TeamSlot ST185 Celica Safari build.

But after thinking about it more carefully, I realized TeamSlot axles were over 2.4 mm in diameter ― similar to Ninco ― so the wheels could not simply be swapped over directly. Enlarging the axle holes in plastic wheels while keeping everything perfectly centered is not easy, yet machining away the rims and using them merely as inserts for aluminum wheels would lose the appeal of their original oversized design.

In the end, the Fabia was not even particularly useful as a donor car, and before long it faded completely from my memory.

The reason I suddenly found myself searching auction sites for one again in 2026 was simple: after completing the Peugeot 307 WRC, I needed another car with similar specifications to run alongside it.

While searching for mid-2000s Scalextric rally cars online, I noticed that sellers almost never photographed the small “4WD” icon printed on the box, and rarely mentioned it in the descriptions either. Since it is nearly impossible to distinguish the four-wheel-drive cars from the two-wheel-drive versions based on appearance alone, the safest solution was simply to search for the Fabia I still remembered clearly.

Unlike the inexperienced version of myself who first entered the hobby twenty years ago, the present-day me has become far more skilled at things like ride-height setup and tire preparation. Because the Fabia already had fundamentally good handling characteristics to begin with, I felt confident I could finally turn it into an excellent runner.

Scalextric 1970’s F1 Cars (2)

＜Scalextric Tyrrell P34 Twin Pack＞
This was released in 2020―I remember it clearly.

Unfortunately, perhaps in order to save licensing costs paid to tire manufacturers, the tires were released completely blank―lacking the Goodyear logos that are such an essential part of the visual identity and atmosphere of vintage Formula One cars.

For one of the greatest superstars in F1 history―the only six-wheeled car of its kind―it feels genuinely depressing that modern Scalextric could release it with such a lifeless appearance and still consider that acceptable.

The driver figures were also disappointing. Their helmets feature open visors with visible faces, but those faces are rendered in a completely flat flesh tone with no shading whatsoever. Honestly, that looks even worse than simply hiding everything behind a black visor.

However, for those who know the solution, these issues are not serious at all.

So I shaded the drivers’ faces with heavily thinned paint, hand-painted black edging around the helmet openings to simulate the rubber seals, and touched up several areas where the helmet tampo graphics had been incompletely printed.

Compared with the Ferrari 312T2 and McLaren M23, the design was clearly much newer, and there was an enormous amount of space available on the chassis for ballast.

In fact, there was almost too much room―enough that I had to exercise some restraint to avoid overloading it.

The rear tires were replaced with Paul Gage XPG urethanes and trued, and Patto’s tire decals were then added to complete the build.

As for the tire lettering on the Ferrari 312T2, McLaren M23, and this Tyrrell P34, I intentionally pushed the realism well past its limits.

Real F1 tires of the period did not carry the “EAGLE” sub-logo, and even the actual “Goodyear” branding used in Formula One had a unique aspect ratio specific to racing tires.

This time, I combined various sizes of Goodyear logos until the tire sidewalls became almost absurdly crowded with lettering.

Perhaps I overdid it a little.

But at least now, I will never have to do this work again.

And perhaps that, more than anything, is what it truly means to lighten the burdens of the heart.

Scalextric 1970’s F1 Cars (1)

＜Scalextric Ferrari 312T2＞

This model was probably released around 2007–08, possibly at the same time as the “World Championship 1976 Twin Pack” boxed set.

Back then, I bought the Twin Pack and immediately started running both cars as non-magnet builds with my wife. At the time, we trued the stock tyres and ran them as-is, but it still required applying tyre treatment, then doing burnouts on a wooden track surface to literally bring the tyres up to temperature.

After repeating this process for a while, the tyres would eventually go in one of three directions: they either lost structural integrity and became overly soft with a glazed surface that offered almost no grip; they hardened and cracked as the rubber aged; or they simply dissolved, as sometimes seen with Carrera or Revell-Monogram tyres.

I often wondered whether this was happening globally, because spare rear axles for the 312T2 and M23 were almost always out of stock. In the end, I grew tired of hunting them down and replacing parts again and again.

When I rebuilt the 312 this time, I removed the magnet and carefully shaved down the driver’s seat area (back, shoulders, elbows) to create space for additional ballast. After that, the only work left was switching to Paul Gage XPG urethane tyres, truing them, and adding Patto’s tyre decals. That completed the build.

Unlike touring cars, Formula cars have extremely limited internal space, so I don’t have much else I can do with them.

＜Scalextric McLaren M23＞

This model was also released as a standalone car around 2007–08.

When running alongside the Ferrari 312T2, the advantage of the M23 becomes immediately obvious. The rear track is roughly one tyre width wider than the Ferrari, which makes a noticeable difference in stability.

I sometimes wonder if this reflects a McLaren design tendency. Even in the “Monaco 1992” set featuring the MP4/7 and Williams FW14B, the MP4/7 also felt like it had a slightly wider track.

On corner entry when running against the 312T2, the M23 clearly holds its line better. My wife may have felt the same, because she said, “If I break the Ferrari’s delicate front wing (and you have to deal with repairing it), I’d feel bad,” and chose the M23 instead.

As with the Ferrari, I removed the magnet and again carved out space by carefully trimming the driver’s seat area (back, shoulders, elbows) to accommodate ballast. After that, I simply fitted Paul Gage XPG urethane tyres, trued them, and added Patto’s tyre decals to finish the build.

SRC Porsche 914

SRC carries the lingering scent of the old FLY days… or more precisely, of Spirit, the company that spun off from FLY.

What I mean is that the engineering always feels slightly half-finished, strangely impersonal and lacking in passion, and somehow there is always some small detail that leaves you just a little disappointed.

With the Alfa Romeo 33T12, for example, the dimensions between the cockpit floor and upper chassis were miscalculated, leaving no clearance whatsoever for the motor lead wires. I ultimately had no choice but to raise the ride height simply to create enough space for them.

And now, with this 914, the relationship between the motor mount and the rear axle bushing carrier is incorrect.

The motor itself is supposed to brace the rear axle bushings in position, yet the motor is not securely fixed within the mount to begin with.

The car does not produce enough power to rotate the motor violently inside the chassis or anything dramatic like that, so in practice I simply shrug and think, “Well… I suppose this is just how it is.”

Still, these little signs of careless engineering inevitably leave me disappointed.

To make matters worse, the locking tabs securing the motor mount also lack rigidity. On the orange car, one of the tabs had already broken.

Neither SRC themselves nor dealers anywhere in the world seem to stock spare narrow-body 914 chassis anymore, so there is no real repair path available. Complaining about it accomplishes nothing.

Again, the only realistic solution is simply to glue the chassis and motor together and move on with life.

What irritates me more is that SRC themselves seem eager to forget the narrow-body 914 ever existed.

The wide-body 914/6, meanwhile, continues receiving competition-oriented “Chrono” updates, revised versions, and even replacement chassis support.

That sort of corporate attitude ― abandoning the products and customers who supported the company in its earlier years ― is disappointing in its own way as well.

I had absolutely no interest in the wide-body 914/6, so I specifically searched for the narrow-body version instead.

Initially I chose the blue road car because I intended to give it a Gitanes-style livery. But then I remembered the Michelin livery from the Mercedes C9, and decided instead to transfer that visual theme onto the 914 for my wife’s car.

As for lighting, the body was clearly never designed with bulbs or LEDs in mind, so I eventually abandoned the idea altogether.

Had I expected to live longer, I probably would have scratchbuilt raised headlamps and fabricated new taillight lenses from clear plastic sheet.

But realistically, I simply do not have enough remaining time to become deeply involved with this particular car.