The Revell-Monogram Shelby GT-350R is a looker. I just recieved the Essex Wire car, and wondered why I haven't bought these pony cars earlier, maybe I thought the almost all white livery looked boring, but when you see the car in the flesh, it actually looks very good, thanks to the very nice and shiny finish that we are getting used to from Revell.

There are several in-depth reviews on these cars all over the web, so I'll only focus on what I think is important: how to make it fun to run!



Almost all Revell-Monogram cars, and especially the classics like Dayotna Coupe, Corvette GS, Porsche 550 Spyder, etc... all looks incredible, but are almost undrivable if you take out the magnet, wich is the way I prefer to enjoy my slotcars.

The typical behavior of a classic Revell is a car that launces off like a rocket, then when you are ready to breake before the first turn you discover there are no breaks, and the car feels like its accelerating against the turn before taking off like a projectile through the air and smashes into the nearest wall before hitting the floor. So then you have to order another one to put on the shelf, becuse it looked soo good that you "must have" a perfect one.

The next time you take it very easy, until you start to get the feel of the car and you can start to push it a little to get some nice tail-sliding action, but what happends? Instead of the expected slide, the car flips over on the the head and plays dead like a well trained dog. Really funny.... not!



After tinkering with several of the Revell-Monogram classics I think I have found a "reciept" that seems to work on them. Here goes:

Lower the car The body is mounted too high on the chassis. If these cars where 1:1 then you could put your fist between the tire and the wheelarch. Rally cars are like that, not racing cars. You can lower this car about 2mm, this will improve looks, but also handling by lowering the COG (Center of Gravity) wich will help against flipping.

First cut down the body mounting post inside the body, until it is flush with the mounting plate for the bumbers.

The post on the right side in the pic has been cut down

The do the same with the mounting post on the chassis:

The post on the right side in the pic has been cut down


You also need to shave off the chassis like this, to make it clear the interior tray, or you can butcher up the bottom of the interior if you dont feel like cutting into the chassis. You also need to trim the front part of the interior tray a little to make it go clear of the motor.

This is how I sliced off a little from the chassis using a sharp exacto knife

To make the car look even more "realistic" and to avoid tire rub after it was lowered I use my exacto knife to slice down the thicknes of the body on the inside of the wheelarches.

The wheelarch on the left side in the picture has been sliced thinner. Compare it to the wheelarch on the right side to see the difference

NOTE! use some lubricant on the tip of the body screws. When screwing the body back on the first time the screws will go deeper than before and need to make themself new thread in the posts. I do this by gently but firmly screw it in 1/4 of a rotation then back, then another 1/4 deeper then back, etc... until they are fully seated.

Results:

BEFORE:


AFTER:


BEFORE:


AFTER:


BEFORE:


AFTER:


Looking good

Ok, the car is lowered wich will make it less top-heavy and flip a little less than before. But there are more issues to deal with.

Add weight add some weight (lead) inside the chassis just before the rear axle. There is plenty of room inside this car. Another option is to put weight inside the magnet pocket wich is located under the chassis. Revell even sell weights that is ment to replace the magnets, that fits perfect inside the pocket.

Get rid of play in the drivetrain Both the rear axle and the mid axle are a little sloppy within the bushings, wich results in sideways play on the rear wheels. There are many options on how to fix this. Some invest about the same amount as the cost of the car, and replace axles, bushings, gears and wheels with high quality parts from Slot.It. But there are cheaper alternatives.

Most Revell classics seems to have quite straight axles and round wheels, so it is possible to get good results using the stock parts. But as mentioned the main problem is too much play in the bushings. It is important to eliminate this play before sanding the tires. One option is to replace the bushings, but a faster and cheaper way is to glue them with Cyano cement!



This might sound insane, but it actually works. Before starting it is very important that you have already cleaned the axles and bushings of any lubricants, then installed the axles, bushings and wheels in the chassis, and glued down all the bushing to the chassis (very important).

To glue the axles, simply add a drop or two with cyano on the axle/bushing (just like when you are lubricating). then start to turn the wheels around by hand, nice and slow, but never ever stop the rotation, until you are 100% certain that the cyano has dried. First you will feel that it gets harder and harder to turn the wheels until you reach the point when the cyano has dried. Then the turning gets easier and you might hear some squeeking noise, keep turning for a few more minutes to be certian all cyano has dried.

The fit will now be so tight that the wheels will not spin freely, to expand the cyano "gasket" place the chassis on the track and place a tire or something under it, so that the rearwheels are liftet off the track. Add max power and after a few seconds you will hear the engine reving higher and higher. When you feel it has reached max rpm take it off the track and feel how the rearwheels turn freely, BUT without any play



Fix the guide The next issue is the guide. It's usually mounted too high in the chassis, meaning that the front wheels will carry all the weight, wich leads to that the front tires will grip the road when going into a turn and either flip the car over, or just roll the car enough to lift the guide out of the slot, and the car countinues right ahead. Another problem is that the guide is "sloppy" with quite much horisontal play.

Shim the guide until the frontwheels barely touch the track, and to get rid of the "play" you can either make a new sleeve from a styrene or brass tube, or use the cyano-trick, wich is to put a little cyano cement on the guide post and then turn the guideflag from side to side with your hands, until all the cyano has dried. DO NOT STOP MOVING UNTIL THE CYANO IS DRY, or you will ruin your guide and chassis. The easiest fix is to replace the guide with a Ninco guide wich will both fit much better and you dont have to shim it. The braids are also softer and nicer.

The final guide fix is to allow the guide to turn more, so take out your exacto knife and cut the guide opening in the chassis bigger, like this:

The lower side in the pic is cut, while the top side is still original

The guide is fixed and the car has been lowered and weight tuned, so it should handle a lot better than before. The final stages of tuning are tire truing and cleaning. Sand the rear tires until the thread is gone, and make sure you round off the edge of the tyres. Then clean them and oil them with WD40, CRC56 or your favorite tire cleaning fluid.

The front tires should have as little grip as possible. To achive this, sand them "skewed" wich will make sure only the outer edge of the tire got traction. Remeber to re-shim the guide to the new wheelsize. To get rid of most of the traction in the front you can simply glue them with cyano. Use a q-tip or a small expendable brush and paint the threaded part of the tire with a very thin layer of cyano cement. Be careful not to paint on the sidewalls of the tires, beacuse Cyano gets shiny when dry, and that don't look good. Also be very sparse when applying, because I have discovered that some Revell tires can react to the cyano if applied too heavy.

Finaly clean up the car and lubricate all bushings and gears. You now have a very good looking car that wants to slide instead of tipping over, and that makes all the difference.

HAVE FUN