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The Vroomsporter is a modified Lego City Car Transporter, Set 60305. I bought the set used at the Minifigure store. The original truck and trailer looked too small, and wimpy, so I upgraded it. This Auto Hauler is now longer, more detailed and can hold bigger Speed Champions style cars.
The Truck it self got two extra wheels with fenders givinig it a more realistic look. I also changed the front grill, added exhaust stacks, proper tail lights, fuel tanks, and that horseshoe shaped thing around the hitch that's on all tractor trailers.
The Trailer was lengthened by 4 studs, allowing it to hold 3 standerd 6 wide speed champions style cars. It was also given an extra set of wheels, turn signals and two additional tail lights. My biggest gripe with the original set was the single set of fenderless wheels on the trailer which looked very unrealistic. I wanted to put fenders over the new wheels, but they just didn't work with the flat bed design, not allowing cars to roll on and off easily, so I left it with out. The Trailer's tilted ramp feature is still functional, even though I moved the second set of arms back a bit. I wanted to add more structure like you see on real Auto Haulers, but I found that I couldn't with out compermising the working ramp feature.
The set came with a single orange and black convertable car that was pretty much perfect as is. I only added four 1x1 orange plates behind the front and rear bumpers to close the gap between them and the fenders. Seen here with my Molecule's Revenge cyberpunk car MOC, and my Splinter 453 S car MOC.
This building used to be Wesson Auto Parts. My grandfather, Ben Adams ran it for years and it pretty much died with him in 1986. I can still imagine it's smell and see all the cars in the bank in my mind. I was driving back up to Jackson tonight and decided to stop by to manual the pad out front. I think Ben would have dug skateboarding. I'm sure he took some diggers when he raced. I don't mind running into concrete either.
Strobist: Bare Vivitar 285 on the ground camera right.
Wesson, Mississippi
Rented in Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy.
Lancias have real cool design. Last time in Italy we had a Lancia Ypsilon and loved it, so when they asked us to choose between Fiat and Lancia we didn't even let them finish the phrase :-)
Only problem is, this car is probably too big for Lancia mechanics. It's a diesel with no turbo, so getting up to the local speed limit (130 km/h) takes quite a while, making it a bit scary when you're trying to get onto the highway. I'm sure they have better models, though... we always rent cheap O:-)
Anyway, we gave the car a good spin (1000+ km in two days) with no problems at all.
Incidentally, this time we were arriving on a Saturday evening, and all the offices for the companies we usually use (National and Avis) were supposed to be closed at that time (in the end they were open, though), so we reserved this car through a broker named Nova Car Hire whose database did find an open office.
Verdict: Thumbs up for both Nova Car Hire and Auto Europa. :-)
Picture from our weekend at the Auto Club 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. We were there Friday thru Sunday, February 20-22.
Fun, fast cars, mayhem, friends, beauty, colors and enjoyment.