I always get a bit more excited when the slot car hobby brings in the history of automotive racing to a new release. We get a lot of racing history with the new Auto World release of the BRE Datsun Champions Xtraction race set (SRS353). Peter Brock is a design legend in automotive racing. Cutting his teeth on his first design job working for GM on what would become the racing Sting Ray. GM was still observing the AMA racing ban, so Brock moved on to become Carroll Shelby’s first hire at Shelby American. Brock worked on several projects that included the Shelby Daytona Coupe and Mustang GT-350 racing platforms. Brock moved on to sports cars and focused on the Hino and Toyota efforts. Later Toyota would buy Hino and have Brock work up the JP6 sports car design. In 1968 Brock was expecting the delivery of the Toyota 2000 GT for entry into the SCCA CP Class (“C” Production at that time). However, Toyota sent the cars to Shelby and our story of the Datsun dominance begins. Brock was smarting from the Toyota shift, so he reached out to Datsun North America (NA) to start working up their 2000 Roadsters. Datsun NA was not interested and stated the 2000 would not be competitive. Brock had a contact in Japan that got his foot in the door with the home company Nissan. Two 2000 Roadsters and some minor funding was sent to BRE (Brock Racing Enterprises) and in 1969 the 2000s became a dominant force. Continuing the success of the 2000s with the new 240Z, BRE was becoming the leader in small bore sports car racing. After the SCCA opened up Trans America series to a second class of cars, the 2.5 Liter class, BRE was ready with the Datsun 510. This car and the 240Z so dominated the class, they won the 1971 and 1972 class championships. It wasn’t long before other makes were dropping out because they could not compete. The Datsuns were so successful, they raced themselves into scaring off their competition and having no one to compete against. The new Auto World race set captures the performance of these classic race cars that have some of the best eye catching liveries in racing.
Here’s the content of the box as well as the parts list for all the pieces included with this set.
The primary layout for the set has multi-level racing and is a challenging course.
The pictures above show the primary layout and it easily fits in a 48 inch by 54 inch space.
The back of the box illustrates two alternate layouts that can be built with this set.
The set comes with the adjustable power supply and has color coded controllers.
1972 Datsun 510 – Red/White #46 BRE
1971 Datsun 240Z – Red/White #46 BRE
Here are some action shots of the two BRE Datsuns racing it out.
With exceptionally talented driver John Morton, BRE and Datsun was the team to beat. Once they won the championships in “C” Production and SCCA 2.5 classes, BRE moved on to other forms of racing. That included NHRA and Formula 5000, but they would not match their success they had with the Datsuns. Look for this Auto World Race Set in late September/October 2023 at your local hobby shop or favorite web store.
