#14 Conseco Dodge truck

I did some psychedelic paint gags on this thing, then tarted it up with off the shelf decals for a Pontiac Grand Prix and some custom details on the windows.

First Place, Advanced Concours, NorCal/SCRA 2007

#27 People's Republic of China/Wal-Mart Ford

Home-made decals partly lifted from a book of Chinese propaganda posters and some clean paint made for a popular, if somewhat controversial winner.

First Place, Advanced Concours, NorCal/SCRA 2006

#13 Death™ Pontiac

Hand painted cracks, mold and texture with custom decals and cobwebs in the interior, made for a detail heavy, popular car.

Second Place, Advanced Concours, NorCal/SCRA 2006

#10 "Hello Durl" Monte Carlo

Cheap pandering to the concours judge, a young teenage girl. Custom decals feature a "portrait" of me on the hood and sponsor logos of Japanese snack foods. The "guys" gave me lots of crap for this car. Suckers.

First Place, Amateur Concours, NorCal/SCRA 2005

Third Place, Amateur Concours, NorCal/SCRA 2004

First, I recommend you read some stuff like this to get a little background.

The Car: Depending on whether or not you like painting & decorating your car (which I do), or if you have the basic electrical and technical skills (which I certainly don't), figure that to race in something like Eddie's weekly races, you'll need to drop about $120.00 on a car to be competitive ("BUT," Eddie sez, "you'll be ready for NorCal"). This is based on having Eddie build you a standard 16d Flexi with a ProSlot armature, ready to race. Other tracks can also put a car together for you. Just remember to know what kind of class you're racing in, so you can tell whoever is doing the building what they need to do.

Or you can always try buying a basic 16d flexi ($50), setting it up ($15), paint up your own body ($15), then learning how to drive that. By now, you're in to the tune of eighty bucks, and will quickly grow tired of coming in last every week. Add a Proslot Arm ($35) and now you're at $115, and I forgot to mention you'll want some decent tires ($8), and now you can see that it makes more sense to just shell out the hunnerd and twenty and save yourself a lot of grief. Or you can try the classifieds at OWH or E-bay.

Most area tracks carry pre-painted and/or numbered bodies (which run about $13-20). Clear Lexan bodies run about $5.00. A can of spray paint for Lexan (don't use regular plastic model spray paint, I'm begging ya) is another $5.00. Decals are about $8.00 a sheet but have enough numbers usually that you can do up about nine or ten cars, depending on how you use them. Most tracks charge five bucks to trim and mount a body on your chassis. Eddie can paint you up a body, and if you're not a jerk, he might include it in price of the car. If not, talk to me. I love doing this kind of stuff.

GTP a la EDDIE is a Wong Way-built 16D Flexi with the body painted up by yours truly.

The Controller: Oddly, the most expensive part of the deal. A bottom of the line controller will set you back about $60.00. Something with adjustible brakes and sensititvity (which you will come to need sooner or later) can add another $50.00 for the bottom end (a Parma EC or Professor Motor) controller. I started out with a Professor Motor controller and had brakes and sensitivity controls put on later. The whole process ran about $110.00, but frankly I don't recommend this middle option. For a bit more dough you can get an economy controller with fully adjustible brakes and sensitivity that will make driving much easier, and that means YOU will be more competitive.

New Ruddick DR-30, Difalco E-Motion, or Third Eye controllers run about $250.00, and are available at the tracks. If you enjoy having brand new toys, I highly recommend going this route. If you're a little gun shy about dropping that kind of dough this soon, you can always find used versions of the same controllers for a bit less. I got mine from a guy who decided to quit racing who asked Eddie to sell his stuff. I got it for $125.00, and it's made a big difference.

You can also try E-bay. Same for the classifieds at OWH.

Other crap: Oil is a must! You gotta keep the parts moving freely. Five to eight bucks. A tiny allen wrench to change tires is three or four bucks. Oh, and the tires, which must be changed depending on how much you race, run about $7.50 a pair (don't worry about the fronts, you never have to change them as they rarely touch the track). Braids wear out quickly, and need to be changed every few races or so. Fortunately, they run about fifteen bucks for thirty pair. A box to keep all this stuff in can be a pricey item if you really decide to get into it. But, if you've got a fishing tackle/tool box, that'll do for now. If you don't, Aaron Brothers Art Supplies sells a great wood box that holds four cars, a controller and some other stuff for $18.00 (and thanks to good ol' Russ Toy for the idea). After that, there's always more and more and more stuff you can buy to make yourself faster/better. The sky and your bank account's the limit, but you CAN do it on the cheap, as well.

OR, you can always buy a "starter set": Tracks usually have a deal where, for about $99.95 to $139.00 they'll give you an entry-level car, a box, controller (low end Parma), oil, extra tires, maybe some other stuff, and a certificate for free track time. You'll then need to have the track "set up" your car, soldering in the motor, oilites, pin tubes, etc., which shouldn't be more than $15.00. At Eddie's, if you want the ProSlot arm, add another $35.00 to the deal.