Nascar...no one currently does more Nascar slot cars than SCX. And to add the Dale Earnhardt car to the mix really is a bonus for fans of Dale. This body is a newer body style than Dale actually ever raced. This is a 2005 Monte Carlo, Dale died in 2001 in a crash at Daytona. The nose is a bit more elongated and the areas that the "headlights" are on is concave, the car Dale drove had a more blunt nose and the headlight areas weren't as sunken. All of this is probably lost on most slotters (me too BTW, I had to look up photos to try and compare the cars). I don't think most will care that the body is slightly "off" from being technically correct. Does it matter? Well, if you look at it as a tribute car (as a friend online pointed out) then I don't think that it's a big issue really. It's a well executed model, and a solid slot car, that's really what matters.
The plinth of each car, as well as the chassis itself, is marked with the serial number. In this case mine is #3644.
There is a paint issue on the back deck of this car. It might be hard to see here in the photo but there's a thin spot in the printing on the letters "R" & "M" and a thin area on the checkered flag just below those letters. There are 2 other areas of small bubbles (about 5 bubbles in all) on the car which didn't really show up in the photos but are clear enough to see when you're looking at the car. I've seen a fair number of SCX cars and they don't usually have any paint issues so I'd expect these minor flaws to be isolated.
There really aren't any surprises under the hood of this car. SCX seems to have gone to the new, flat-tone plastic for all new Nascars. The RX-42B is the standard motor as it has been since the SCX Nascar rollout.
So this is usually the point in the photo shoot when I think to myself..."should I take the interior out of the car? Or should I leave well enough alone on a car that most will think of as only a shelf queen?"... with a trickle of nervous sweat rolling down my forehead I reached for the small screwdriver...POP, POP, POP, POP...out came the interior!
The tires on this car were a bit better than most of the SCX Nascar's. I did some trueing on the tires and there really didn't seem to be much wobble or many high spots on the tires.
I did 200 laps with the car and I got an average lap of about 2.6 seconds with one, and only one, 2.4 second lap. The fastest lap came after I'd turned the screws out about 2 full turns on the magnet. It did seems to stick the car down a bit better. Also I'd scuff the tires with sand paper (just like if I'd true them) about every 50 laps or so just to see if I was able to get a bit more performance. I didn't notice very much difference. Still all in all the car was quick, but not blindingly fast.
SCX is really using the Chevy license to the fullest, they've produced a number of Bowtied slot cars recently...
So is the car worth the extra money because of being a special edition? Well it all depends on how big a fan of the Intimidator you are. I'm wondering how the Car of Tomorrow roll out will effect the sales of this "old body" since next year the COT will be the only body used in Nascar. Probably iconic drivers will sell no matter what, and there's no bigger icon than #3.
Nascar
nextel cup
daytona
dei
Chevy
Earnhardt
