Finding fast cars...how do you know?
How do you as a racer, know if a car is fast when you purchase it, or does it have to be tested first? Are thier certain castings that are known to be fast? Not asking for secrets, just clues.
Lloyd
Discussion
The Jaguar I-pace has a good reputation. This one was very smooth out of the package, my second one had a bent axel. I haven’t seen anymore since. 81 Fairmont is a $3 Ultra Hot metal body/metal base. My plan was to do everything to her but so far I’ve only tapped the wheels with the $4 Boy Scout lead from Hobby Lobby. She rolls real nice. The number 3 Cobra out of the package with a little lead and wheel tapping is a good car. I see a lot of these at Dollar Store, Walmart and Target. Big potential. Good luck, you have an awesome looking track.
If you browse around and even watch some videos from the past several months, you'll see which cars are known to have a better chance. As was mentioned...Lancer Evos and V16s are consummate winners to point where a lot of tracks don't even allow them because it's "no fun" anymore.
Vintage cars that are metal-on-metal are good candidates too but all of this really depends what type of race you're entering. Drag race? Road race? Jumps and tricks? There's no silver bullet car.
But you know...I guess the real answer is, you have to make the cars fast. I've seen people take classically un-fast cars and turn them into winners. Likewise, I've seen safe bets go wrong.
The fun here is taking a car you think looks cool (or can make cool) and meets the needs of the race you're entering, and then working on it to make it fast as you can. It's a journey of trial-and-error, no doubt.
Some cars look fast while other plain looking cars turn out to be smoking fast. That's why I have a small test track/ road track. Also why I just rigged up a small drag track and it's why I rigged up a timing system
It's 10 years old but my old database of mainlines I ran and measured is still available. Cars pre-2014. Might be helpful...
www.redlinederby.com/topic/rld-fantasy-league-archive-spreadsheet/3531
Here's my latest Quick 56 out of 300 cars. 10'6" orange track. 1.5 foot drop. The fastest is Sidekick at the front right. A dozen of these cars have been modified but I mostly lube and sand wheels. There is a half car length difference between 1st and 56th.
- Formula Firebird is my favorite. Great pic, thank you. — alva1370
- Some of these cars are on the pegs right now. Mach 1 Mustang, 67 Shelby GT 500, Shelby Daytona coupe, Jaguar XKE, Benz AMG, Rivited, Nitro Doorslammer, 69 COPO vette, Stingray vette, Rodger Dodger, 99 Mustang, Jaguar I Pace, Nissan Skyline 3000GTX. My storage space is limited to about 300 cars. I keep adding faster cars and getting rid of the slow stuff. For potential speed I look for medium 12.5 mm wheels size, wheel clearance in the car body, wheels extending beyond the body sides, FRONT and rear ground clearance, longer wheels base. If I dont like the car but it passes the fast car checklist, I will buy some just for parts. Check out" The golden one" thread... racer buys 10 of the same car, one is very fast, one is very slow and the rest are grouped together creating the base line performance for that casting. Happy hunting. — Vulfgang
- The copper Tucker on the bottom is Tight! What's the make? — LordSyosset
- Its a Chysler Atlantic by Matchbox. Released in 1998. In 1985 Chysler revealed this kick butt concept car. Body by Gaffoglio Metalcrafters of California. I put some FTE axles on it, currently ranked 21st in my quick 56. — Vulfgang
- That came out nice! — Object52
- Its one of my favorites. It was super slow when I opened it. Lubed the wheels and it wasnt fast enough. So I spent a hour sanding and swapping FTE wheels, polishing the axles, coating the axles with gun lube, waxing the chassis and body... now one of my fastest cars. The real Chrysler Atlantic was a tribute to the Bugatti Atlantique of the 1930s. Designer guy Bob Hubbach sketched the concept on a bar napkin. They built a straight 8 motor for it by mounting a couple 4 cylinder motors from the Chrysler Neon. — Vulfgang
ultimately everything has to be tested, but fortunately there are people out there putting in thousands of collective hours doing it on our behalf. There are lots of threads on redlinederby like this one, there's a site called Diecast Racer has their top 100 fastest ranked, updated as of April 2024; and if you don't already watch DXP Diecast Racing on youtube, he runs fast cars on a drag strip and keeps the fastest stuff in his wall cases sorted by weight class, he's always running new cars and vintage ones alike.
Some known fast/competitive castings I see come up fairly often in youtube racing are the 08 Lancer Evo, Cadillac V16 Concept (DXP just raced a whole bunch of these) and the older flip-open, metal-on-metal funny cars like the Probe & Firebird.
Happy racing!