I had no idea how little I knew about building slot cars!

I hired the talents of a man named Pablo to build a IRRA legal Can Am car for me.  I have raced with Pablo and know him to be a talented racer and his reputation for building cars is excellent.  When I told him I wanted him to build the car for me he asked me where I would be racing it.  I had to admit I didn't know.  I will have to travel to race a Retro car anywhere.  So, he decided to make a car that would be competitive at most any track.  I am sure if I told him of a specific track he would have built the car differently with that track in mind.  Pablo has kept me in the loop during the build of this car with pictures and descriptions of what he was doing.  Let me say, I have built many a car up from a bare chassis.  I thought my cars did pretty well, and they did against local racers.  But, I have never had a car that was built with such dedication to details.

I am not going to tell everyone here how he did the things he did as I paid to have it done.  If you want to know all that I have learned and am learning from this car you can pay to have Pablo build one yourself.  Here is a listing of some of the things he has done that I would not have done.

To start with, he machined the guide flag.  By that I mean he worked on the surface of the guide flag to improve it.  I am not completely sure looking at the pictures, but I believe he "pinned" the guide flag post to make it stronger.  I will find out about this when I pick up the car tomorrow.  The tongue of the chassis where the guide flag attaches was doubled in thickness to make it stronger.  He then machined the surfaces of the guide flag tongue.  I know this has to make the guide flag move more smoothly.  He used a light weight guide flag nut on and trimmed on it a little more.

The front axle assembly was set for the height of the tires being used.  It is my understanding he trimmed the axle spacers and machined the surfaces of them as well.  I have never even thought of machining the surfaces of the spacers.  I am sure these will be the most free rolling front tires I have ever had on a car.

The soldering job on this car can only be attributed to a master at the craft.  I had never heard of anyone using a mic on solder to determine how thick it is after the solder was applied to achieve a previously set thickness.  I will go farther into the side pans and the chassis other than to quote someone from JK Products, "It is too much of a work of beauty to race".

The rear axle assembly blew my mind.  You have your uprights for the olites to attach to.  They are attached via a tube connected to the uprights.  The tube was machined to match up to the "Racing Bushings" that were used.  This allowed for perfect soldering.  The tube was mounted to the uprights then supports were built to attach to the chassis and axle tube.  While setting the axle up the free fall test was used and the axle went through the bushing cleanly by its own weight and gravity.  I have been warned that the tolerance here is so low that oiling is a must.  If I do not oil it, it will probably seize up within 3-5 laps.

I will not get into the spacers on the rear axle as I paid for that info.  If you want it you can do the same.  I will say the axle has no excess rolling mass.  The rest of the rear end of the car is to beautiful to express here other than the axle tube is no longer a one piece job.

This car is beautiful and I cannot wait to get my hands on it.  Thank you Pablo, you have lived up to your reputation.