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Scalextric John Goss Jaguar Bathurst 1985


Vinno

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Since this is an actual new model and not a repaint of an existing I thought it worth putting together a few pictures and initial impressions of the Tom Walkinshaw TWR John Goss Jaguar that raced and won in the 1985 James Hardie 1000. 

1985 was the first year of the International Group A class in Australia and this opened up the Great Race to the Europeans who had the march on the Australian's. Tom Walkinshaw brought across his army of 3 V12 Jaguar XJS race cars and the rest is history.

The Jag's had a 5.3 litre V12 and were well ahead of their opposition in this year. Although they were heavy at 1400 kg's they had approximately 500hp and were able to run with the widest tyres and hence a great package early in the classes history.

So what of the Scalextric version? It is a great representation of the car and surprisingly narrow and long. The cars advantage is the low roofline which allowed a lower centre of gravity. As far as a slot car this seems to work quite well also. The specifications of the car as follows.

Weight 77 grams

Length 151 mm

Width 54 mm

Rear Track 51 mm

Height 39 mm

The car has all the usual Scalextric features like head and tail lights. Detail is good with excellent tampo printing, body detail with dry break fuel fillers moulded in, radiator grille, wheel detail and bumpers that simulate the brushed stainless look. 

The interior is limited due to the in line setup used but the driver, roll cage and dashboard detail almost make it perfect. I am one who is more than happy with Scalextrics move to in line motor setups over their typical sidewinder even if it gives up some space for a full interior.

The only flaw with the Jaguar I can see is the front tyre gap to the wheel arch which measures at 2 mm. On a 1/32 scale car it is pretty obvious and while I don't want to have a complaint I have to call it out. It makes no difference to how the car runs but takes back a little from what is overall a beautiful representation. 

The car runs well in magnet form with perfectly round wheels and true axles. I am not a magnet guy so it ran like this on my Policar, Fleischmann plastic track for about 10 laps until I took out the magnet and gave it a run.

With no weight added and a light spin on some wet and dry the tyres hooked up OK, not great but it was a bit of run controlling slides. Later I added some weight and took it to 89 grams which makes it the same as my Scalextric Sierra's and M3 BMW's. It did help and the car was surprisingly quick with standard tyres but still over half a second down on my Scalextric cars with Slot.it or NSR tyres. I then added some Slot.it N22 tyres and it was running the same times as my Ford Sierra's and faster than the M3's. 

Thanks again Scalextric I love the car and keep them coming.

After all this I couldn't leave the front end alone and had to fix the front wheel gap by adding a brass axle tube and some thinner braid to drop the front end. Sorry to the purists but my cars are drivers and I had to do it. See the last two pictures if you want to know what I did.

 

Scalextric Goss XJS 02.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 03.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 04.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 05.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 06.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 07.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 08.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 09.jpg

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23 minutes ago, kalbfellp said:

Shame that they got the width wrong, it is about 4mm too narrow to be scale.

That resin one I got from you is probably pretty close. It is also pretty much the fastest car on my track, not sure what it has but it is an absolute weapon. I can’t recall a nicer driving car and I am no expert at setting one up. Jagged it I think. 

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3 hours ago, Malomay said:

And also.....what's their excuse for having a wider front wheel track than the rear ??

Optical illusion they are the same width. Might have taken the photo off centre. The real car does have a track 15mm wider in the rear though. 

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15 hours ago, Vinno said:

Optical illusion they are the same width. Might have taken the photo off centre. The real car does have a track 15mm wider in the rear though. 

I measured mine.....my eyesight isn't that bad that I cant read the numbers :-)

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11 hours ago, kalbfellp said:

I think my resin is just on 55mm so Scalex is well under scale width.

The.one I have is 58.5 at widest point and rear track of 55.5. I might have been able to get the track 1mm more but it sits reasonably low. It is actually my quickest sedan by far on my track too with the Baby King motor in it. Centre of gravity is perfect and the balance between grip and tip couldn’t be better. Actually a freak of a car for me and the best one I have built. Waiting for the Bathurst Proxy to happen again. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hate to be a rivet counter but, why couldn't they get the white strip over the guards right

51360666398_fb5a057d13_c.jpg

None of the racing XJS' had the white over the top of the guard 

51361456385_5c5c583582_c.jpg

Scalextric Goss XJS 02.jpg

Oh well, one day

Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

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I dropped the front on my one, more fitting to the way i do things, rip, tear, bust.

Removed the front bumper from the chassis and glued it to the body in the same position

51366745718_2af3454b41_h.jpg

Ground away the inside supports of the bumper so it followed the silver all the way around

Ground the side supports on the body as well as the motor supports on the chassis also the front body mounts.

51368131586_c66fdb66c6_h.jpg

Ground away the bumper supports on the chassis and ground back the top of the spoiler so they were flush.

Cut away the support for the lights and ground the bottom of the light board down about a mill

51367369917_d2d5206f38_h.jpg

Fitted it all back and much more goodera.

Before ........

51365768322_7cd08d74a3_h.jpg

After .......

51369270963_8a7b4de630_h.jpg

 

Still not happy they couldn't get the stripe right, but glad they built it, now for the 3 pack no's 8, 9 & 10, just in time for Xmas  :) 

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Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

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On 8/10/2021 at 6:03 PM, Sports Racer said:

Did you do anything with the guide? I had to fit a deep guide and lower the front because it kept coming out on tight corners.

 

I'm still using the standard guide, still stays in the slot, have to put a bit of weight in it yet

51369040211_bf80b9b61d_h.jpg

 

Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

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Yippee, arrived today and I had time after work to get it ready for slots tonight and a good result that runs well. Gazza's lowering tips (thanks mate), a bit of ballast, Slot.it C1 rears and NSR braid in a somewhat de-wobbled guide and 82gm all up with 47 of those over the rear wheels.

IMGP9256.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/11/2021 at 9:24 PM, Wobble said:

Yippee, arrived today and I had time after work to get it ready for slots tonight and a good result that runs well. Gazza's lowering tips (thanks mate), a bit of ballast, Slot.it C1 rears and NSR braid in a somewhat de-wobbled guide and 82gm all up with 47 of those over the rear wheels.

 

How'd you go Wobble, changes work out all right or did it turn it into a dog.

Quickly read this post before it is deleted or i turn grey again

Gary

http://www.facebook.com/Rallyproxy2017

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3 hours ago, gazza said:

How'd you go Wobble, changes work out all right or did it turn it into a dog.

Changes were/are good gazza and it went even better than expected. I reckon it'll be reasonably competitive and not at all like taking a knife to a gun fight. Just got to wait for this covid thing to sort itself out in the North Island and not pass it on to us, so us mainlanders can get out of lockdown and get on with life and get back to the track.

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