# AW R6 Tjets First Glance



## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Just got my case of R6 Thunderjets, and was pleased at what I found:

Bodywise, they all look good. There is a release-wide error......The Kharmen Ghias







and GT40's







come in each others box (GT40 in Ghia cases and visa-versa). I was told this had happened and it did, so be warned about shady ebay sellers trying to sell these as rare error cars.

The Rivieras and Dodge 330's both sit a little high on the chassis, and the Riv can't be lowered







, but the colors are cool (gun-metal slate blue and dark slate blue) The 330's two color schemes are natural drag-strip liveries.

The other 4 bodies fit nice on the chassis, and it's safe to say the Gulf-colored GT40 will be a hit. The Camaros (one is a vinyl top) harken back to the early days of Hot Wheel/Johnny Lightning look..... Just missing the the redlines. The AMX's are very nice repops of vintage colors. The Kharmen Ghia's look cool, too.

I may have a real error as the white Dodge came with black unchromed rims. Anyone get this in their set? 








Overall, AW got another quick seller in this release (imo). They're on a hot streak...


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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Was on ebay and noticed the all of the white Dodges have the black rims, and the yellow ones have black front rims.


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*I saw me some of these...*

And when I took the Red/white/blue AMX out of the box I knew I had to buy it... Now I need to get it to the track...

Scott


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

pics pics pics!

and why can't the Riv be lowered? do the windows hit, or is it actually the underside of the body? (whzzzzzzzzz my dremel is waiting)

--rick


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Can't wait to see them on my doorstep. If the GTs look as good in person as they do in the pictures they will a huge hit.


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)




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## dlw (Aug 17, 1999)

Ok, just added pics above. if you look close, you can see the rear gear cluster shaft up against the rear window on the Riv.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Like you said, they sit kinda high on the chassis. 
For some reason, they make the side doors really short compared to the rest of the car.


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## Voxxer (Oct 25, 2003)

*Amx*

Hi:

I have to say atleast the got the Green " Big Bad " AMX correct. They painted the bumpers as the should be on the " Big Bad" AMX's. I hope the make the " Big Bad " red and orange.

Voxxer


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

got mine yesterday! woohoo! but we are in the middle of a blizzard and i'm kinda involved in digging out. all i've had time to play with so far is the silver blue Riviera. here it is with the quarter window posts removed and the side windows opened:



















i'm a little disappointed that on the passenger side, someone smudged the paint on the side trim below the windows while it was still wet. you might be able to see it in the pic above, but all things considered, it ain't too bad. i took the dot magnet out and this thing screams. needs a little weight in the nose to keep it planted, but it's awesome. i really feel that these cars are tighter and quality control is better than it has been. from the ones i tried out of the box, i'd say that with the dot magnet in, you can hand one of these in the package to a noob and he'd have a good time with it without any tweaking or diddling...

--rick


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Good looking Riv...


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

Anyone got a good side shot of the Blue Ford GT. I want to see how low it is before I go buying one. A shot of one on an Aurora chassis would be nice too. I can see the the Dodge is a 4x4 from the pics posted earlier.


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

So I spent a little more time with the Riviera this afternoon between rounds of shoveling. It was just the smoothest, most powerful runner... I decided to go retro with it and install a 9 tooth crown and skinny tires. Here are some things I found when I opened it up:

First of all, the gear train is MUCH more solid, with very little slop. I kinda think the driven gear is a new casting (sorry for the lousy photography):










The new one is on the right. Notice it doesn't have the raised boss or whatever you call it in the center. Also, notice the shape of the teeth--they are deeper and mesh better with the idler gear. The idler gear no longer wobbles and loses mesh with the driven gear, and I think this might also have to do with the gear plate clamp being VERY snug. You wouldn't see the difference in a picture, but it's much harder to pry off.

On the bottom of the gearplate, the pinion gear seems different with deeper teeth too, though I did find one I took off an earlier release car that seems to look like this one.










Here is the aforementioned crown gear, although you probably can't make out any detail in the lousy pic:










Again, the teeth are deeper and more uniform, and the bosses are better designed to do their job. This looks so much better than the old crown gears that I actually tried to grind down the boss so that I could use this with a 9-tooth pinion. I put it on the end of an axle, chucked it in a drill and started on a piece of sandpaper. It really meshed nicely, but I still had a little ways to go and I would have needed a spacer on the other side between the gear and the chassis, so I ended up going with a stock Tjet part.

I also noticed something with the brushes: They aren't round.










They have flats on the sides. No more problems with them sticking in the brush holes...

Next up--what I did with the body...

--rick

edit: are any of these improvements from earlier releases and i just haven't been paying attention?


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

After cutting the excess material off the bottom of the windows, I was able to lower the Riviera down to just about the same ride height as the Aurora version:










I didn't touch the front screw post at all to do this, just took a little off the rear one. The wheels have more clearance from the inside of the body than the original, probably because the plastic is thinner, so if you wanted to go all L.A. lowrider with one of these, you could. You would probably have to thin the undersides of the hood and trunk, though.

The Aurora's grille is noticeably better, with sharper detail:










But the little "R" logos in the taillights of the AW are a nice touch, as are the Riviera emblems tampoed on the fenders and trunk:










Just one more comparison shot:










edit: hey i just noticed... i think AW did the wipers wrong. i'm pretty sure this was one of those cars that has both wipers hinged at the outer edge of the windshield, the way some modern minivans do. looks like the aurora version has it correct. just sayin'. 

This car will not accept an Aurora chassis the way some of the older bodies did. It is designed to fit the AW's fractionally longer chassis. Here's what happened when I swapped chassis:










The Aurora body has the front screw post jammed against the AW chassis' front axle, and the driven gear is hitting the rear screwpost. And the AW body's rear screw post barely reaches the Aurora chassis' rear screw slot, while the rear tires hit the fronts of the rear wheelwells... Oh well. If these new AW chassis are all this good, I'll be less likely to want to switch to an Aurora chassis anyway...

--rick


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

Good stuff - pics are worth a 1,000 words.


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Awesome!

Nice to have one of side by side comparo Expose's Rick. It's been a very longtime indeed. Thank you.

Clearly they went after the toothless hypno gears. Gears with teeth on them are a huge step up from the pegged wheel idea they stole from 3rd century Chinese water driven grist mills. I'm looking forward to hearing the mesh. 

I'd also like to see how bamboo axles stack up against tungsten...lord knows the playdoh ones werent cutten' it.


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

What would be the cat's meow now would be for AW to offer these new bits up to the slot shops . . . can you say 'retrofit'


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## slotcarman12078 (Oct 3, 2008)

Ok.. Now I gotta get two..errmmm.. one of these Riv's.. Those pretty little "R"s on the taillights won't last long!! :lol: Now where did I put my checkbook???


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

twolff said:


> Anyone got a good side shot of the Blue Ford GT. I want to see how low it is before I go buying one. A shot of one on an Aurora chassis would be nice too. I can see the the Dodge is a 4x4 from the pics posted earlier.


ask and ye shall get a thousand words. or something like that. anyways...










my measurements are very unscientific, but in this shot, the AW looks--dare I say it?--lower than the Aurora in the nose at least.










this picture is misleading... something about the traction magnet or the way i have the track tilted or some combination of the two has the left front wheel off the track. if it was touching the track, the nose of the AW would again be a hair lower than the nose of the Aurora.










looks just about even here.










and this pic with the Aurora chassis under the AW is also a little wacky... first of all, the rear tires are touching the front corners of the wheelwells. second, the nose is too high... because the extra material at the bottom of the AW windshield hits the Aurora gearplate rails. not an issue with AW chassis because, as you recall, the AW gearplate rails end at the arm hole. so to use this body with an Aurora chassis you'd have to do two things: 1. create clearance by trimming the gearplate rails or the windshield or both, and 2. do a little rear wheel well surgery.

interesting side note: those black headlight covers are actually a black-tinted clear piece of plastic. this car has the whole Flamethrower clear plastic insert. i didn't notice that till i took the chassis off. verrrrrry interesting... weren't there a couple of recent Tjets in other releases that had the Flamethrower piece? the '57 Chev comes to mind...

--rick


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## lenny (Feb 29, 2000)

ParkRNDL said:


> ask and ye shall get a thousand words. or something like that. anyways...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Nice looking car. But they really had to alter the sides and pull the wheel openings pretty far down so that it didn't 'sit' too high. 

Is this a SWB AW body?

Dan


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Yeah, I see what you mean... the reason the wheel well openings have a little less daylight in them on the AW car is that they are lower in the body. And looking at a picture of the 1:1 car, BOTH slot cars have an awful lot of extra room between the top of the wheelwells and the top of the fenders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GT40_at_Goodwood.jpg

And yes, this is SWB like the Aurora, although the wheelwells/screwposts don't line up perfectly for an Aurora chassis.

--rick


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## twolff (May 11, 2007)

Thanks! Tells me what I needed to know. I'll probably pick one up.


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## XracerHO (Feb 6, 2008)

Thanks Rick for all the information & comparison pictures!! ..RL


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## 82whiskey (Sep 6, 2009)

I resisted but I got to have a set. Where is everyone buying from?


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

I got mine from Bud's HO. Motor City Toyz has them too...

--rick


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## 1976Cordoba (Sep 20, 2000)

So far, of what I have, the yellow Dodge is the quickest, followed by the white Dodge, then the Rivs. The Camaros are a pair of 'gob-jobs' with the white grease and will need to be disassembled and cleaned because as they are, they ain't going anywhere fast. The Camaro guy needs to be trained by the Dodge guy.


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

The plastic gears are much better with this release, the chassis feel loose and sound good when turned by hand. I cant wait to try some this weekend!


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

1976Cordoba said:


> So far, of what I have, the yellow Dodge is the quickest, followed by the white Dodge, then the Rivs. The Camaros are a pair of 'gob-jobs' with the white grease and will need to be disassembled and cleaned because as they are, they ain't going anywhere fast. The Camaro guy needs to be trained by the Dodge guy.


I think you may be a little biased twords the dodge product there cordoba guy ! LOL!!!


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## TK Solver (Mar 18, 2004)

I'm really hoping mine arrive today with all I've been hearing about the quality of the chassis in this set.


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## BRS Hobbies (Feb 16, 2006)

Good to hear that the quality is improving on the Auto World Thunderjets. 

We also have plenty in stock.

Best regards,
Brian


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

*Ok, I have run the AMX and a Camaro*

Took the cars out of the package and took the AMX straight to the track.
Zips along pretty well. Not to much magnetic downforce. Nice runner.
Top speed is a bit down from earlier releases. But that is a good thing.
I noticed that the cars are not tied down in the package. That should keep axles from being bent. (If that was a reason) Started looking at the chassis closer when I decided to oil it. What is this? A Super II type crown gear?
(didn't bother to count the teeth) Well, that is one way to smooth out that 14 tooth pinion a bit... Good job Auto World.
Ran the red Camaro, seems the chassis has 1 tub too much grease... I will clean that out later. 20 or 30 laps later it is almost as fast as the AMX...
It seems like AW has been listening after all. Nice job. It looks like AW will have a hit here.

Scott


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

I have officially opened the whole case now. I was going to leave a couple of the cars banded, but oh well. Looks like my screamers are the Karmann Ghias, especially the yellow one, and the black GT. One of the Dodges (I forget which one) is almost as fast, but they are definitely not my best runners, to whomever the conspiracy theorist was. 

Here's a concern that surfaced once I looked close and started running them all: Every body style except the Karmann Ghia and maybe the Riviera has an issue with the rear window interfering with the driven gear. It was pretty bad on the Dodges, not so much on the AMXs and Camaros, and so slight on the GTs that it was only a problem on the black one, not the blue one. In every case, it was solved in less than 30 seconds with a little judicious Dremelage, but it's there. In most cases, you can hear funny squeaks and rattles when you run the motor with the rear tires off the track. Take the body off and run the motor with the wheels up again, and if the noise goes away and the motor sounds smoother, you need to shave a little off the bottom of that rear window.

Notably, though, I am not in a hurry to pop the traction magnets out of these. I did on one Riv and one GT, but I am really enjoying the cars with the magnets in, whereas I haven't with past Ultra-G releases. I took the yellow K-G and ran it against my kid driving a Tyco '40 Ford with some kind of stock 440 chassis under it. I wasn't any way gonna beat him, but I was kinda staying within a turn or two and sometimes sneaking up to pass for a straight or so. The car just felt pretty good running like that, like a detuned 440 or HP7. I think the stock tires work better than slip-on silicones when running with the traction magnet. Previous releases with the dot magnet, unless you happened to get a really good car, seem to have felt like the magnet was a band-aid masking a bunch of other problems, sometimes making them worse. Now that the other issues like gear mesh and straight and concentric wheels and axles and sloppy tolerances have been addressed, the magnet enhances as it is meant to do. These really are cars that could get newbies interested in the hobby. (Just please be aware of that rear window...)

--rick


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## bluerod (Nov 1, 2005)

i think all the yellow and black dodge needs is maverick decals on the sides and blue and white one color me gone did afew up a few years ago bluerod


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

I was able to get my case at Bob's Show last weekend. Reliable ol Rob Budano had em for us. Been buying off him since he started 12 years ago. Haven't been to his store in like 9 years or so. Good guy with fair prices.

Anyone know him? Might be a dumb question but im a noob.:hat:

Cool stuff.


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

I've been buying from him at shows for years, and just last year my inlaws built a house within an hour of his shop, so now i actually look forward to visiting the inlaws... He's always been good to deal with. I actually bought this case from him, but I mail ordered it before the show because I thought I might be snowed in...

-rick


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## shocker36 (Jul 5, 2008)

I noticed in the pre release pictures from AW that half the release has clear windows and the other half have black. Is this true if so why? The clear looks better. IMO


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

AW has done a few releases that way now... one set of 6 has tinted windows, the other set does not. Interesting note about the "tint"--it really is a layer on the inside of the windows, like add-on limo tint, only this stuff is apparently sprayed on. If you grind on the inside surface of the glass at all, it grinds right off...

--rick


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## Joe65SkylarkGS (Feb 15, 2010)

ParkRNDL said:


> I've been buying from him at shows for years, and just last year my inlaws built a house within an hour of his shop, so now i actually look forward to visiting the inlaws... He's always been good to deal with. I actually bought this case from him, but I mail ordered it before the show because I thought I might be snowed in...
> 
> -rick




I did the same kinda thing. I ordered it from my local store and then was able to get it at the show. We had like 8 inches in jersey and Long Island had zero inches!!


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I've unpacked 5 of the 12 Release 6 TJets so far.

- One of the VWs only had 1 brush.
- The Dodge is totally bound up because the top drive gear is contacting the heavy window glass.
- Grease aplenty.
- The shoes on most of the cars are bent really weird in the back, around the hook. There is a long tail hanging down, with one being about 1/8 of an inch. 

The ones that run are strong. I noticed they all seem to have a condition where the bottom electrical plate is askew because of interference with the traction magnet socket. This means the shoe hook is not riding parallel to the rectangular hole in the hanger. They needed to shave a tad bit more off the plate instead of mounting it crooked. Judicious use of pliers should fix this. Will have to grind the excess tails off the shoes.


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*ok... I'm a bad machine...*

 a very very bad machine... but may I ask if *any* of these bods fits an NOS chassis? Also, is the Karmin Ghia a little on the large side?... looks as long as the AMX and the Riviera in some pics.... (could it just be the pics?) nd


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

The AMX should, or at least with minimal hassle. I know I have the white one from a previous release on an NOS chassis, and I highly doubt they changed the body. I also have the gold Dodge from an earlier release on an Aurora... that required some work because the inside of the body was too narrow to fit even skinny silicones under it...

Never tried the Camaros or KGs... tried the Riviera and it doesn't look right... tried the GT just as a test-fit and it looks like it should work without too much trouble.

The Karmann Ghia is short wheelbase. It seemed small enough to me...

--rick


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

Thanks Rick, :thumbsup: nd


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*At second glance...*

It's good to see that they finally seem to be getting away from putting the same number on each of the same 2 cars in each release (Camaros/GT's). That is something they should keep doing from here on forward for both the Tjugs and Xtracs. Nobody needs 2 cars racing against eachother with the same dang number. Extra mfg cost or not... it just plain looks better... Do it again. nd


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I'm almost totally unpacked, tuned, and tweaked. So far, so good. Mostly a matter of straightening the electricals, tweaking shoes, leveling brushes, replacing heavy grease with lighter racing oil, and minor gear adjustments having to do with the drive gear shaft. A few of mine had the rear drive gear riding a tiny bit too high on the drive shaft. 

The magnets have changed from earlier releases. They seem a tad bit looser in their sockets and they are very strong. I don't have a gauss meter, but my guess meter indicates that they are very strong. The arm looks a little different, cleaner and flatter, probably a different supplier. The comm plates look great and the solder tabs are nice and not solder blobbed in any way. The windings seem tight and the rough order balance seems okay. The only issue per se is the wires that are being brought out from the windings to the tab sometimes have a couple of loops of loose wire hanging out in space where it could conceivably get caught by a ham fisted tuner playing around with his armature. It could also provide enough slack to allow the last few winds to loosen up. If you are really concerned I guess you could tack the excess down with super glue or a tiny bit of epoxy. Something to keep an eye on. 

I am blown away by the Camaro bodies. They are absolutely beautiful. The GTs, the blue/orange and white/orange are also super crisp but I was prepared for them based on earlier pictures. In gazing at the GTs I overlooked the picks of the litter in this release, which are the Camaros. I teamed these up with the same style Camaros from an earlier release, swapping UG chassis from the Rivs in this release with the regular chassis from the earlier Camaros. Now I can run 4-lanes of UG Camaros and they all look like genuine vintage race cars.

My monobrush Ghia is now the fastest one in the bunch because I slid in a pair Wizzard copper brushes. These cars are definitely faster with two brushes than with one. Yeah, they are a bit noisier but I am willing to live with the noise as long as there is motion. Just watching the car sitting there gets boring real quick.

Almost all of the cars have window glass interference problems, with the Dodges being by far the worst and the Camaros being close behind. My Dodges are still on the bench because they will require more radical surgery because of the massive glass interference issue. I always run the rear screw with free play, but these are too extreme. You should be able to completely tighten the rear screw if you want to but the Dodges will squeal or be locked up if I attempted to tighten the rear screw.

Update: 

The Dodges are fixed. Had to Dremel down the rear glass between the glass mounting posts using a 1/4" ball shaped cutter at slow speed so as not to melt anything. Easy fix to get it to stock ride height. If you want to lower these you'll have to do a lot more grinding in a lot more places.

Upon closer inspection I found that my white Dodge with the dark wheels had a dark blue paint blob on the drivers side quarter panel, right in the middle of the white. Very careful rubbing with a barely moist with alcohol cotton swab removed the blob - but also the shine. If the blob was on anything other than the base plastic color I would not have touched it with alcohol. Alcohol will strip the paint off a JL/AW in short order. Anyway, once the blob was removed I gave the whole car a dip in Future and the shine is back. Woo hoo.

By the way, the rear hubs on the white Dodge are actually dark blue and the front hubs are black. The yellow Dodge has chrome rear hubs and a black front hubs. The hubs on all the cars are painted silver - not chromed.


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## T-Jet Racer (Nov 16, 2006)

I had my first run with the r6 cars, here are my results:
A few ran ok out of the box but was short lived. It seems like the brush tension was to light. took it apart. pushed the springs up, cleaned what looked like vasoline off the gears put oil on the usuall spots ran great.
it seemed like the black gt 40 was the hot one out of the box damn thing was about as fast as a tommy turbo, not timed but by eye.
A few had the cluster gear put together upside down, they have a relief on the bottom of the gears. 
all in all they were the best out of the box I have dealt with. I want to do the dremel and drill axel on them to see how they react but I was out of time.


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*Easter Egg !*


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## 82whiskey (Sep 6, 2009)

Rather get a basket full of these than chocolate bunnies.


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## buzzinhornet (Jan 20, 2000)

Nice egg:thumbsup:


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## noddaz (Aug 6, 1999)

Now that is a funny looking GT40... :lol:


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I got the all white GT40 in my 12-pack. Swapped out the white tires for black ones and now it looks normal.


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

I like that lil K-G, it was the one car I DIDN'T want out of the 12 pack, and when I got them I was impressed with the car's handeling.


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## RacerDave (Mar 28, 2006)

Seems like a very nice looking release. And It's great to hear AW has made some improvements. Thanks for the reviews guys. Dave.


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