I miss the days of Fast Fashion Nissans vs. Andy's Jags and Toyotas.

Are these bodies still available? Especially the Jags

If bodies today were that tall and roomy, wiring the car would be a lot easier, for one.

They do need to be shortened slighty, but they will outlast any number of aluminum ones.

And sadly, no those bodies are no longer available unless you find someone hoarding a stash. They don't have the down force of a modern AMR, but I have always thought part of the reason for the decline in 1/12th scale was that the cars no longer bear much resemblance to the real thing. The older bodies weren't scale but they were a lot closer than what we run today. Of course many required a separate wing which would not even be legal today. Stupid rule.

The only vintage 12th scale shell you may still be able to get is the McAllister Chevy Intrepid. I think you can order them directly from Gary on his website.

I think that the decline of 1/12 scale has more to do with the fact that not a single one is sold as an RTR.

Maybe thats what should be done, Associated or some other company needs to build a Ready-To-Run Brushless 1/12 scale pan car for $350 or less. Short Course is popular because they look like real trucks, maybe the same could re-energize pan car racing.

Decline of 1/12th scale? If anything it has been more on the rise these last few years. But when it was its biggest there were no RTR 1/12ths either. The Corally is almost an RTR in that the chassis is pre-assembled but not an RTR...and I believe Academy also tried one as well. I seriously doubt having an RTR 1/12th would make any sort of long term gains as most of the RTR crowd don't have the patience it takes to tune a 1/12th scale.

I fondly remember the days when we had pancar body shells that at least hinted at the look of real group c racecars. Not only the bodies, but also the replica decal sets could be had. Much of what drew me to the hobby was the fun of building up a car that looked like a Miller High Life 962 porsche, an AMG mercedes, a Texaco Havoline 962, a Castrol jaguar, or a GTP nissan. I've had all of those at one time or another. One of my most vivid memories of Cleveland was the year when there was a guy who brought an absolutely incredible looking KreepyKrawly 962 that was all done in paint (no decals). His car was just awesome looking. Incredible workmanship and creativity. Nowadays nobody (including me) does realistic looking paint jobs. That's too bad. Once you've seen one car that's been painted up with the new trend of fluorescent flames or tribal graphix, that style of body all look the same. I long for the days when the RC grid took on the look of real racing.........just shrunk to scale. I'd gladly return to doing up realistic looking cars.........if only I could find the decal sets (and preferably some semi-realistic looking bodies to go along with them).

If you look closely at the shell I posted, I threw a "Strohs" beer decal on the front . I still have a few decals floating around (Autographics?), Sometimes you can get lucky and find the old Beer / Automotive sponsor decals floating around in the old stock of a LHS. I am all for retro 12th shells done in something besides the modern tribal look (not bashing though). I have one unpainted shell like the one I pictured left, came from a huge pile of stuff that Kinwald sold off a few years back, thinking of holding on to it and having his scheme done on it as a display shell. Dude with that large cockpit area wiring was so easy.

RTR? eh, I dunno on that. A RTR dude is going to buy it, run it out in the street (spinning out constantly) and give up. The pricing is so low on most kits anyways.

So if these older shell designs work so good for 17.5... why not a class for that? TC guys get VTA. I know it wont happen but I'd truly enjoy seeing authentic GTP style cars running. Ok then enough nostalgia from me

One more for Lonny



I ran one leg of the Mains at the Norcal Nats with this last year, as a result of winning concourse with it, I had to.

It really was fine for 17.5, no difference in lap times.
But this body always did excel outdoors, or on high speed tracks, I guarantee it has less drag than any of the modern doorstops out there.

Grab your vintage 12th scale bodies, and or realistic paint schemes and rock em fellas

At the risk of coming off harsh and being proven wrong, I bet you don't have a 1/12 scale, haven't raced the class and haven't built a kit before.

1/12 is growing in a lot of places, leave it alone, it doesn't need the instant gratification RTR junk mucking it up. Plenty of newer guys local have put in the research, asked lots of questions, and then laid down their money on a new kit and electronics, and they've all been having a total blast in the class. RTRs can stay in the dirt, don't take away my onroad kits.

+1, we've seen some new faces in the class this year, and looks poised to grow even more next year.

I think 1/12th declined with everything else with the decline of electric. Then electric made a comeback and so did 1/12th. Then the economy tanked and EVERYTHING declined. On average, I think 1/12th is very healthy.

Pretty much. I know that when the economy was good and my business was rolling along nicely, I had more than enough money to play with. so did a lot of others. It's only in the last year or so that I'm getting to where I can have some fun again.

12th has always been cheaper for me to run than TC. It doesn't need spec tires or RTR kits, it's great the way it is (still want more OS bodies, but..) Kits are cheaper, so are batteries, shells, less parts to break, and so on. Knowing that I have a indoor track opening near me soon is awesome, I'm stoked to run it again, much more than I'm enthused about TC (I look at owning one as an emergency plan- you can always count on the class existing). The thing I really like about the class is the people it attracts, by far the best group of racers I've run across.

The need for nearly unobtainable, finicky and expensive batteries killed 12th scale. Now that you can buy fairly competitive lipos starting around $40 and you only need 2, instead of six to make it through a race day, the class is once again growing.

RTR won't help 12th scale, but it's been necessary to keep the hobby going overall. The microwave mentality has hurt our hobby greatly. It's way easier to hit the reset button on the playstation than it is to rebuild a front-end.

Desert Rat does have a 1/12Th and he wheels it pretty well.

Totally agree

You should have been racing when we were running Sanyo 1200s. Those were battery wars. And I know a couple of ex racers who gave up RC to go virtual racing on line,


Love the Marlboro colors, Thanks.