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What shall we do for our 5th banger competition?
Fantasy (not based on a real driver/team) 1 (7.7%)
Vans/Big Vans 2 (15.4%)
Estates/Station Wagons 1 (7.7%)
Hearses 4 (30.8%)
Post '90 0 (0%)
American Demo Derby Car 3 (23.1%)
Japanese 0 (0%)
Luxury Cars (Rolls-Royces, Cadillacs, Lincolns, Jaguars) 0 (0%)
Pace Cars/Transporters/Tow Trucks 2 (15.4%)
Everyone does the same car 0 (0%)
Total Votes: 13
March Contest Options
Topic Started: Feb 25 2007, 04:32 AM (1,879 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
A wide selection of choices!
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
And so far we have a wide range of responses, too!
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Daniel H
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Never Underestimate Guitar Cat
No yank demo derby cars please!! :flamewar: :flamewar: :30lbsledge:
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Daniel H
Feb 27 2007, 01:32 PM
No yank demo derby cars please!! :flamewar: :flamewar: :30lbsledge:

Aww, c'mon. Try it! ;) You might find backing into an opponent's car at 10 miles an hour is just as exciting as banger racing!
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mookie427
I like this guys lack of style
If we do DD cars then what are the main differences between them and banger cars?
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Daniel H
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Never Underestimate Guitar Cat
I think they have twin exhausts sticking through the bonnet and grilles over the windows :blink:

The main problem is that none of us Brits know anything about real derby drivers and teams, and these banger competitions have to be related to the British sport....
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Daniel H
Feb 28 2007, 02:03 PM
I think they have twin exhausts sticking through the bonnet and grilles over the windows :blink:

The main problem is that none of us Brits know anything about real derby drivers and teams, and these banger competitions have to be related to the British sport....

I don't recall any of us ever stating that the competitions had to be strictly British banger related. That said, the poll, theoretically, should have been closed tonight due to this being the end of the month. I'm going to extend it another day though, so we can continue discussing this matter.

The nice thing about demolition derbies is there really aren't particular teams. If you want to model a specific car, I can get pictures of real cars (the Corgi AMC Pacer and Buick Regal both pop to mind as cars I have seen used as demo cars) used in demo derbies. Aside from that, you can pretty much design a car from scratch.

As for what makes a demo derby car different from a banger, I'm going to defer that question to Craftymore- he can give a much more detailed explanation than I can. They're not that much different, and with a little modification, you can turn your demo car into a proper banger after the competition is over.

Good demo derby cars:

Full size:

Matchbox Mercury wagons ('68 and '77 Cougar Villager)
Matchbox Mercury Park Lane
Matchbox Ford Galaxy (1965)
Matchbox Chevy Impala (1964)
Matchbox Plymouth Gran Fury
Matchbox Lincoln Continental
Matchbox Lincoln Town Car
Matchbox Lincoln MK V
Corgi Buick Regal
Hot Wheels Camaro Z-28
Hot Wheels Montezooma (will need a roof)
Hot Wheels Mirada stocker

Compact:

Corgi AMC Pacer
Corgi or Hot Wheels '79 Mustang
Corgi '82 Firebird
Hot Wheels '82 Camaro
Matchbox or Hot Wheels '82 Toyota Supra
Matchbox SAAB 9000
Foreign cars are allowed in compact derbies, but not full size car derbies.
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mookie427
I like this guys lack of style
Don't forget the Majorette Chevy Impala police car, perfect shape
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
The Matchbox Checker Marathon and '80s Ford LTD are another pair I forgot about.

I just checked my harddrive. I have a ton of pictures of derby cars from last summer. For paint schemes:

Several demo derby drivers painted their cars to look like NASCAR stock cars. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Dale Earnhardt Sr., and Tony Stewart are popular choices. Back in the mid '90s there was a street stock oval racer (at Penn National Raceway) painted like Joe Ruttman's '91 season #75 car. I can provide NASCAR paint schemes on demand. I admit, several of my bangers have been painted to look like NASCAR drivers- including Crashmaro (Delma Cowart), Intimidator (Earnhardt Sr.), and the former Lucky car (Bill Elliott). The Maniacs car took inspiration from, but did not use the colors of, Lake Speed's mid-'80s stock car.

There was also a Ford LTD painted up like the General Lee from "The Dukes of Hazzard". This is a popular paint scheme for derby cars.

We also had a station wagon painted up like the Ecto-1 from "Ghostbusters" complete with a lightbar, signing, and equipment on the roof!
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Some demolition derby cars, as seen at Buck Motorsports Park in July '06:

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Overall winner. Mid '70s Chrysler Cordoba coupe. Too bad no one makes one in diecast, the Kidco Dodge Monaco coupe is the closest:

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Some estates:

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Who ya gonna call?

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Looks suspiciously like my Damn Yankees Camaro:

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There's even a door plate on this last wagon. Only demo car I've seen with one. I also love how the driver painted over the license plate instead of removing it. Also note the roof is caved in a bit. The driver is helping the car bend where he wants it to bend.
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Posted Image

This Cadillac is literally a Yank tank! This car took what would be the 'best presented' award at a banger race.

This car was the runner up:

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The paint scheme represents Dale Earnhardt Jr. who drives car #8 on the NASCAR Nextel Cup circuit.

Speaking of Nextel Cup drivers, Tony Stewart drives car #20:

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This demo driver is showing he has no love for the two time Cup champion.

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Dodge Coronet/Monaco or Plymouth Fury. Yatming, Tomica, and Zylmex have done the Monaco, Coronet, and Fury respectively. Yatming Monaco below:

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Bo and Luke Duke...wouldn't be caught dead in this General Lee ripoff.

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They even painted the tires!

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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Black with flames on car #16! I also believe this an Imperial, a car banned at most demolition derbies.

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Another estate.

And finally, some of the compacts:

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Dodge Omni.

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Hyundai?

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Buick Skylark. I owned one, just like this (but in slightly better shape!).
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craftymore
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Support your local demo derby.

Hi Swifty. I got your PM and am here to help settle a few things. From the best I can tell, banger cars seem to have roof mounted numbers, a steel bar behind the drivers seat, and for whaterver reason have the front bumpers removed. From my view, that looks like all the modifications that have been done. Derby cars are modified in different ways. They are built to be repeatedly bashed and crashed and are built so they can be easily repaired.

Some of the tricks of the trade:

1.Weld a steel bar from the top of the roof down to the bottom of where the front window was. You can use florist wire to simulate this on derby cars for the competition.

2. Swap tires/rims to tall mud/snow tires with steel rims. The rims are usually 15 inches. For my derby cars, I just use JL rims/axles with rubber tires that JL uses for cop cars and older cars. These help the car sit up a bit higher and keep the wheels and tires from rubbing and against the fenders thus reducing the chance of have a flat tire. Alot of drivers paint their rims silver or white.

3. Drivers cut off the stock exhaust and run headers through the hood of the car. The headers are connected directly to the exhaust manifold. On Chevy 350s, all drivers have to do is just cut the exhaust off and flip the manifolds to run headers. On other engines drivers have to cut and weld a custom set. For this you can use some 1/8 inch aluminum tubing or something similar.

4. A lot of drivers use #9 wire to secure the hood and trunk lid to the body of the car. For my derby models on 1/64 scale cars, I use some florist wire and drill some small holes around the trunk lid and fenders Then I run the wire into the holes to make it look like its holding the hood and trunk lid in place. On stationwagons, Drivers will run #9 wire from the rear roof down to the rear fenders to help keep the rear portion of the roof from blowing up.

5. If allowed, drivers will also run steel thread through their core support around the radiator. This connects the hood to the core support which helps reinforce the front end of the car. Some are also allowed to use steel thread through the trunk lid and through the floor or frame depending on the rules. If you look at the pics that Sean has on here, most of the full size cars have steel thread running through the hood of the car. I've never simulated this on my models, but I suppose some holes drilled in the hood and then placing florist wire would suffice.

6. Most drivers also build/weld and four point drivers cage which prevents the passegner area from caving in on the driver. They run one steel bar across the area where the dash use to be and one bar behind front seats connected to the inside of the doors. They then connect those two bars with steel bars on both the passenger and drivers side. Some also run a rollover bar that extends off of the bar behind the driver that extends the width of the interior of the car. They Weld two bars vertically off of this bar extending from the inside of the doors to over the roof of the car. They then connect those two bars with one bar over the roof. This prevents the roof from collapsing in case of a roll over. This can perhaps be accomplished on derby models by bending some 1/8 inch aluminum tubing which can be found in hardware/hobby stores.

7. Alot of drivers will swap front bumpers to cars from the mid 1970s like the 1974/5 Chevy Impalas and 1976-1978 Chrysler New Yorkers. In the US, by 1974 all cars had to be able to have bumpers which could absorb a five mile per hour crashes that would not damage the body of the car. I use the front bumpers off of Maistos 1971 impala, RC 1973 Chevy Monte Carlo, and Masitos early 1980s chevy impala to simulate bumper swaps on certain cars. I just use a dremel cutting tool to cut off the front bumpers of cars and then glue the plastic bumpers on to the front of the car from which i cut off the old bumper. I would not reccomend doing this for your first derby car for the competition as this is difficult to do and it builds up a lot of heat on the car and your can burn yourself doing this.

If you go to http://demoderbytalk.proboards14.com/index...read=1170287440
they show alot of pics on there of American full size cars from the 1970s and 1960s. I'm a member on the board. I'm derbyfan83. Scroll to the second page of this thread to see an awesom pic of flames shooting through the headers of a car trying to refire the engine. They show alot of pics of how the cars are built and painted. This along with Seans pics might help in designs.

Sean you are right, car #16 is a Chrysler Imperial. It looks like a 1967 or 1968 model to me. These were unibody cars with massive subframes in the front of the car. The front ends are those are the stongest of any car ever made. Chrysler saw fit to place a giant steel I-Beam in the front of the radiater. I'd guess that that driver had his shifter in forward gear most of the night! If you look closely at the second pic of the one showing the trunk, you will see the driver replaced his rear axle with a super heavy duty axle. It also appears as though he added some leaf springs as well to help reinforce the rear of the car. He also ran some steel thread in the trunk lid down through the trunk floor as well as through the core support in the front.

I would like to say that I'm not a derby driver but I am a fan. I attend about a dozen demo derbies a year and have been to over a 100 by my count. I first went to one when I was a year old and have been hooked ever since. I hope this gives everyone an idea as too how to build an American demo derby car. :D

If I think of anything else, I;ll put it in this thread.

craftymore
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Daniel H
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Never Underestimate Guitar Cat
Thanks Swifty and Crafymore-Forget hearses, I now want to do a derby car :)
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Daniel H
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Never Underestimate Guitar Cat
What class will this be entered in??

Posted Image
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Believe it or not, that could go either way. It's actually based on the earlier Ford Fairmont, which was a compact at the time it was first produced. But by the time this LTD came around, this car was now considered a mid-sizer. I think the weight cutoff for compacts is under 2600 pounds (when stripped), so it would really depend on how much was removed from the car.
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
And it looks like we're doing hearses for March.

How about American demo derby cars for April, since they came in second this month?
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mookie427
I like this guys lack of style
Hearses for me (and probably all) the UK members presents a huge problem - I can't find ANY hearses in the UK. Not even the new Matchbox one :(
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Okay, who voted for what? I picked demolition derby cars.

I have a hunch we may need to rethink this...
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mookie427
I like this guys lack of style
Same. Something fishy's going on here. Hearses had no votes the other day, now it has 4. I voted for big vans but am more than willing to give Derby Cars a go, should be a laugh
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
Last night, when I should have locked it, hearses were at two, and derby cars were winning with three. We also went from 11 votes to 13, meaning the last two people to vote voted for the hearses...

Derby cars for March? If hearses start showing up we can do them in April?
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mookie427
I like this guys lack of style
Sounds good to me! I've already got a suitable car
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Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
I've got a suitable car ready to go too. Today was beautiful, I painted a few bangers today. Just need to detail them...

Anyone else want to discuss this before we officially make it derby cars?
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Daniel H
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Never Underestimate Guitar Cat
I found the Matchbox batch with the new Jaguar XK today so the hearse must not be far away....
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Chris179
Compact
Hi,

joined your forum quite a while ago, i wouldnt mind entering this contest, what is it this month then?

Hearse's or derby cars?

can i do a Lincoln limo? and can it be in colour's of a english driver?
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