NASCAR die-cast cars. Not my thing, but I tried.......

Gentle reader,

This morning, I put my entire collection of Dodge die-cast cars on ebay. I needed the room, and I tried, I really tried to get into NASCAR on behalf of Dodge. But I just couldn't. I'm just too much of a sports car guy.

Nonetheless, I said that I'd do a post about those cars and other NASCAR types that I had in the collection in the past. So here it is. Many of the these cars were offered in Post Cereals boxes as part of their sponsorship of many Dodge teams.

First off, here is the lot of cars that are on ebay with the addition of the photos of the chassis of each car:

Above and below are the ten of them that are for sale on ebay as they were in the display.

Below is how I arranged them with the picture. It was as I was editing the image did I see that they were a little out of order.

Above and below is a 1/64th (or so) die-cast replica of their body-in-primer test car. As made by Racing Champions.

Above and below is Ryan Newman's #12. They called him "Rocket Ryan" because he was so fast in qualifying. This one is a Hot Wheels.

 

#22 sponsored by Caterpillar. Another Racing Champions.

#44, another Hot Wheels. No driver name I could find on the car.

Above and below, note the black windows and thus no interior and the simpler chassis and narrower body of this, Bill Elliot #9 car. No maker's name on the bottom.

Below, with no space between the photos is #45 sponsored by Sprint PCS. Sprint was the main sponsor of the top tier NASCAR series. They'd bought NEXTEL which as the sponsor after the long reign of Winston cigarettes.

#43 was Richard "The King" Petty's number for his whole career and the number was kept by his race team after he retired.  No maker other than "GMI" on the bottom. Again, no interior and black windows.

Another version of #43. This one a Hot Wheels with interior and more detail than the #43 above.

Casey Kahne (sp?) was the co-team-member with Bill Eliot and thus the #19. Note the green at the bottom of the front to differentiate the two from the front. The roof number was also green. No maker's name on the bottom. Note that the exhaust comes to both sides. Better job of making the interior fit the windows.

 Lastly of the lot for sale, this #92 made by Racing Champions.

Next are some 1/18th scale cars that I had and later sold, then a number of Kodak sponsored cars that were part of my late-friend's anything-related-to-cameras collection.

These, as I wrote were all 1/18th scale, thus much more detail. The improvement in die-cast production, largely led by the Chinese, has rendered plastic car model making moot. How can an individual match the quality and detail put in and for sale already done?

Below, note the exhaust coming out both sides. An aside. I moved here from Denver. My first two cars, I had "Grand National Pipes" put on. They came out right in front of each rear tire. Unfortunately, in this state (at least in the 1970's) exhaust had to come out in the stock location. So, I adapted stock dual exhaust pipes to my tube headers on my '67 Impala SS convertible. It sounded better and was quicker than with the abbreviated exhaust and "glass-pack" mufflers!

Again in 1/18th scale, the primer painted test car.

Below, as you can see, both pipes came out on the driver's side! Which was correct?

Above is a 1/24th scale one that I bought from our Schwan's dealer. Nice guy, Henry. We miss him. Below is the bigger ones in front of the boxed smaller one.

Now, below are various images of the Kodak #4 cars in various scales from the late Colonel Bill Arps collection:

Again, notice how some of the cars have driver's side and others have both side exhaust. Again, which is correct?

Thanks for looking, now go and buy my collection!

Scott

NOW finished: Upgrading old diecast Realistic Minimus 11 speakers Part 2.5

Gentle reader,

Since I just put a few items on ebay, this morning, there has been a huge upsurge in folks visiting my humble blog. Thank you for looking. In fact, I suspect they are hoping I have gotten to doing a post about NASCAR die-cast cars. Be patient, please.

I like to keep busy while at home doing various things, obviously, since I tell you all about many of the things that I enjoy, and my wife tolerates. I do love her very much!

Today, I completed the conversion of the second Radio Shack Realistic Minimus 11 speaker to new Dayton Audio drivers and Infinity crossovers. The original post is here:

The Robb Collections: Upgrading old diecast Realistic Minimus 11 speakers

Below, you can see them in front of my fantastic Cerwin Vega LS12 speakers. 

Below is the second one I completed. It is in the right channel position.

Below is the first finished unit. occupying the left channel location.

There has been historically and some companies still build their speakers with what was coined: "Time Aligned Drivers". What that means is the voice coils (the actual coil that is wrapped with the fine wire and electrically moved by the signal from the music source) of each driver; woofer, mid-range and tweeter, are in the same vertical plane. In simpler terms, if one were to cut an entire Time Aligned speaker top to bottom, one would see the magnets the same distance from the back of the cabinet. 

The thinking is that the various frequencies of music from each driver should reach the listener's ears at the same microsecond. It seems Radio Shack's audio engineers were attempting this desire with the Minimus 11. This image shows how "horn loading" the tweeter pushes the tweeter back in the cabinet so that it's voice coil is vertically aligned with the woofer's voice coil.

Now, since ribbon tweeters do not have a voice coil, but these are occupying the same location as the original cone tweeters, it is close. I do not know whether they should be mounted like this or 90 degrees from it. They sound great like this!

I made this image large on the page so you could see how I bent each washer to align the washer with the face of the woofer's edge. I will do that to the other speaker as well and probably paint all eight washers black to blend in better. I haven't decided how to finish the rest of the speaker or whether to use the metal grilles.

LISTENING IMPRESSIONS

Last night, I was listening to some classic rock music, and had just flipped Firefall's first album over to Cinderella. It is one of their best songs and as is the rest of the LP very well played and recorded. Anyway, it was perhaps one minute in, and since my wife wasn't home, quite loud, when she walked in. She started singing along and I joined in. The point of this? I am very familiar with this music, so naturally chose it to test both speakers. Plus, I had JUST heard it last night through the Cerwin Vegas.

Of course, there was a lack of deep bass. No way a 5" woofer in a sealed cabinet can come close to a 12" woofer in a bass reflex cabinet. This I expected. Now, so far, I have only played two pieces of music. However, my overall impression is very favorable.

I do not have the knowledge or experience, nor the "golden ears" of some of my fellow music lovers/audiophiles. So, I have no idea if those white polyfil sheets I installed are "enough" stuffing or not. Nor do I have a way of knowing. Since the backs are removable, it's easy enough to swap it with the original fiberglass or add some more polyfill. 

Back to my impressions. I've never owned ribbon tweeters before and have to agree with the reviews that I read as to their presentation and smoothness. The sounds I heard were quite realistic overall and almost gave me a tingling feeling. Eyes closed, I could "see" the musicians. I am going to spend many hours auditioning these. These Dayton woofers are rated down in the mid-fifty Hertz area of bass. Far deeper than the original Radio Shack woofers. I chose them for that reason and that they are of the same efficiency level (88 dB @ 1 watt @ 1 meter) as the ribbon tweeters.

Today, I got eight new matching flat washers, bent them all the same, bead blasted them to remove the shiny rust-proofing and then spray painted them black. Replaced the old washers with the new and here it is. (I shot both, but the other one is out of focus.)

Now, I have "auditioned" these speakers for hours with various types of music and sources. They AMAZE me! I am hearing things that I never knew were there. The width, height and depth of the sound-stage is phenomenal! I could not be happier. 

Will I get rid of the Cerwin Vegas? No. Will I keep these? Yes, I have over a hundred dollars in parts alone and really love the way they sound. Also, the CVs have incredible efficiency. One watt by my meters is very loud. Thus, my 100 watt per channel power amplifier has plenty of "head room" to cover the crescendos. 

Thanks for looking,

Scott