RC car painting is typically done using one of two methods: spray cans or an airbrush. Needless to say your skill level will be the ultimate determining factor since most people just aren’t that familiar with the intricacies of airbrushing. Both methods have their particular idiosyncratic advantages and disadvantages, however.

RC car painting via spray cans is the choice of many not only because they either don’t have access to an airbrush or know how to use one, but also because it can be done quickly. A huge amount of space can be covered relatively quickly with a spray can. But RC car painting isn’t the same thing as changing the color of a flag pole.

You want to be proud of that car and make it look as good as it runs. Although personalizing and detailing can usually done much better by airbrush, if you take your time and plan ahead, your spray can RC car painting can wind up looking quite impressive.

Of course, RC car painting with an airbrush is ultimately what you should aim for. The benefits of using an airbrush is that you have access to so many more colors than you can get from using spray cans. And that’s saying a lot, because even if you do choose to use spray cans, you’ll still have over fifty different colors from to pick. But when RC car painting with an airbrush, you can exponentially expand those choices through mixing and blending.

In addition to more flexible use of coloring, airbrushing also affords more control in application. Unlike spray cans, an airbrush can be adjusted, allowing you to spray the paint as thickly or thinly as you like.

The downside to using an airbrush, besides your own level of artistic ability, is cost. For RC car painting with an airbrush you’ll need a compressor. You can try using canned air to begin with, but you’ll quickly find yourself spending more money than you planned on saving because they empty pretty quickly. Better to shell out for an actual compressor, preferably one that produces 25 to 70 psi. By pass the 1/8 HP hobby compressors and go for the ½ HP. Since most RC car painting is now done with next generation water-based paints, also make sure the compressor comes with a moisture trap; if it doesn’t, you’ll quickly find car covered in thick gobs of paint.

RC car painting with an airbrush requires not just air, obviously, but brushes. Ideally, you will want to own more than one brush, but since they can be pricy—the good ones anyway—you may just want to start off with one. The reason for owing two is pretty obvious. RC car painting at its finest creates a work of art that combines both thick lines and fine lines, therefore you want a brush for both thicknesses.

In addition, the paint itself comes in various thickness and some of the finer brushes just handle the thicker paints at the psi the compressor puts out. RC car painting with an airbrush obviously requires more effort, time and expense than RC car painting with spray cans, but the end result usually shows.

If you would like a car that looks almost ordinary, but that is as fast as many supercars, buy the BMW M5. Yes, on the outside, this is an ordinary European sedan – but under the hood is a 500 bhp V-10 engine that you might imagine came from a sports-racing car! Will it do 180 mph? No, it could, but it won’t because BMW uses a limiter to prevent you going faster than 155 mph on all its hot cars. Actually, BMW says it will do over 190 mph without the limiter in operation.

The BMW M5 is powered by a very advanced 5.0 liter V-10 engine, ad fits neatly into the standard engine compartment. This is a very special engine, being built in small numbers and at high cost by BMW’s M Center. It’s a 90-degree V-10, which means that it won’t be quite as smooth as some – in theory, at any rate.

ADVANCED 500 BHP V10 ENGINE

Maximum power is 500 bhp at 7,700 rpm – a real screamer this – while the maximum torque of 380 lb ft is produced at 6,100 rpm. Boy, you’re really going to keep this revving if you want to use all that power. Still, when it’s just mooching along at 4,000 rpm, this amazing unit produces quite a chunk of power.

Needless to say, it has all the features you’d expect in a supercar engine, such as a stiff aluminum block, twin overhead camshafts per bank of cylinders and and narrow 4-valve heads. BMW uses its variable valve timing system, and drives the inlet camshafts on each bank by chain, with a gear drive to the exhaust camshaft, a system pioneered by Toyota to save space.

SEVEN-SPEED SEQUENTIAL GEARBOX

Coupled to this marvel of a power plant, which would seem more at home in a slinky coupe, is a seven-speed sequential gearbox. This is the latest development of the BMW sporty semi-automatic. BMW claims it’s the first seven-speed box of its type. Mercedes-Benz has a seven-speed automatic, and Audi has a CVT with seven stages, but these are not quite the same.

Why all these seven-speed boxes? Well, for maximum acceleration, and so that you have the right gear coming out of any corner, the more gears the better. When you’ve got that many gears, the shift pattern gets pretty complicated with a manual box, so they’re going for either automatics or semi-automatics.

To go with the powerful power train are bigger brakes than standard, wider wheels and tires, and stiffer suspension. The handling is surprisingly good for such an ordinary-looking car.

HOT PERFORMER, QUIET LOOKS

The result of putting this engine in the BMW 5 Series is very hot acceleration for such a big car: 0-60 in 4.7 seconds, and 0-125 mph in 15.6 seconds.

Will people pay over $100,000 or so for a 500 bhp sedan? You bet they will. There are a lot of people out there that want supercar performance, but don’t’ want to have to struggle to get in and out of the car. They also want to travel with plenty of luggage, and have room in the trunk for two sets of golf clubs – and more.

And they’ll get a real kick from burning off cheeky guys in sports cars who get in the way. Cars that are much faster than they look, which we used to call Q cars, have quite a market. What’s it like to drive? Well, at normal speeds, the car is very quiet, and you would not know how power you had. In fact, there is a switch on the steering wheel which limits power to 400 bhp. To get the full 500 bhp, you need to press that.

So, most of the time you’ll drive with 400 bhp, and the problem is that the engine does not have a lot of power until you get to 5,000 rpm, an the power keeps coming in until you get to 8,000 rpm. You need deserted roads to use that power, but the car works pretty well in traffic and normal commuting. Not quite so good in everyday use is the gearbox. It does not have a torque converter, so it can be quite jerky when you shift up.

There’s nothing worse than deciding to try a new brand of product and finding that they just aren’t as good as your usual one. It’s worth the try sometimes to quantify just how good a product really is, because after using or having the same thing for a long period of time you can lose the appreciation of the item.

Just like fashion, it’s also amusing to see trends come and go. And then there are the times where the hardcore fan will tell you that they knew the product was cool all that time. I have a brother that is one of those very loyal nothing else will do fans. Particularly when it comes to Jeeps.

It’s not until you see someone who is really into them that you notice just how much paraphernalia can be associated with one vehicle. Strangely enough, it’s not just what the individual collects; it’s all the things that get given to him because people know how much he loves them. Unfortunately for him, his wife just doesn’t see the same appeal in all the things he has collected over the years. You see while jeep stuff might be appealing for a guy it doesn’t really give a house that homely feeling. There is only so many ways of decorating with posters, stickers, cups, key chains and t-shirts.

Several years of accumulating jeep stuff has resulted in many boxes being stored in the garage and not so much being displayed. There would be no question as to the final resting place of all this stuff once the garage got packed.

Funny then how a change of outlook can make the worthless suddenly seem valuable. You see my brothers’ wife was bidding on some items online when she happened to come across some items that looked remarkably like the ones stored in her garage. On closer inspection she found that the items were indeed the same and to her utter surprise the bidding was strong and the items turned out to be quite valuable.

Needless to say that when she had finished looking on the internet she went straight to the garage and started sorting out the items in the boxes. With a new appreciation of the value of the object she had decided that perhaps she had overreacted in her need to have the items packed away.

When I go to my brothers’ house now there are displays where the older jeep objects are kept. Although they have not been given prime positioning in major living and entertaining rooms they take pride of place in the office.

While I wouldn’t claim that there has been a conversion to the jeep faithful, it is not uncommon now to see my sister-in-law actually making use of the jeep mugs for her tea. Whether she does it because she really values the pieces or whether it’s out of respect for my brother no one really cares.

The most exciting high performance American sports car in history is returning in a new form. After a 40-year absence, Carroll Shelby and the Ford Special Vehicle Team (SVT) have joined forces once again. The ultimate goal was to produce an undisputed reincarnation of the classic and most sought after Shelby Mustangs from the Sixties. The achieved goal far surpassed any expectations, including Shelby’s. Combining the awesome tradition of past Shelby Cobras with modern aerodynamics and performance, this beauty can be touted as no less than an instant performance classic. As anyone who knows Mustangs will tell you, anything with Shelby’s name on it requires a look under the hood and a quick check on the performance statistics. As a living legend in racing circles, Shelby knows more than anyone about big-block performance and eye-catching, heart-racing design: Not only was he the designer of the original Mustang Shelby GT500 classic, he was also the senior advisor on the special team that developed the 550 horsepower Ford GT.

The 2007 Shelby Mustang delivers over 450 horsepower, some, including Shelby himself, say as much as 475 horsepower. With a cast iron block, supercharged at 8.5 pounds per square inch of boost, the 2007 Shelby is the most stalwart production Mustang ever built. In comparison with the wildly popular 1967 Shelby GT500, the 2007 version produces nearly 100 more horsepower with nearly 100 less cubic inches. Besides delivering extraordinary power, it produces more than twice the fuel economy and 300 times less emissions. Four valves per cylinder and a double overhead cam means optimum efficiency in air and fuel ignition. The electronic fuel injection system is a top quality returnless and sequential force feeder. The cast-aluminum intake manifold compliments the equilibrium of the air/fuel system with an air-to-water inter-cooler. Just as the original Shelby GT500 was the next level up to big-block power from the GT350, the new Shelby Cobra GT500 is a giant leap up from the 4.6-liter engine used in the previous generation Cobras. Ford’s 5.4-liter “MOD” (short for modular) V-8 delivers unrivaled and exceptional power. The 32-valve engine and screw-type supercharger delivers the ultimate in performance driving experience.

This super-car is standard equipped with a six-speed performance gearbox that helps deliver an evenly distributed torque curve and optimum power via precise gearing ratio. The heavy-duty transmission is more than adequate to handle the enormous power transfer to the rubber on the road. It has been tested and proven in track competition as well as day-to-day street driving. In the 2005 Mustang FR500C, this racing chassis and suspension rose to the occasion by clinching the Grand-Am Cup series. Needless to say, this makes the 2007 Mustang Shelby Cobra GT500 the best handling high performance vehicle on the road today.

The upgraded chassis and suspension features improvements in many components including shocks, stabilizer bars and spring rates. The independent front suspension boasts genuine MacPherson struts and reverse type lower control arms. It also boasts large 34-mm tubular stabilizers. The three-link solid axle rear suspension is equipped with a Panhard rod for precise rear axle action with coil springs and a 24-mm solid stabilizer bar. The brakes are some of the largest ever designed for a performance vehicle. They feature four wheel power discs: Brembo 14-inch vented, crossed drilled with four-piston calipers up front and thirteen inch vented, crossed drilled with two piston calipers on the back wheels. This combination has set itself apart from the rest of the field as great power requires great control. The 2007 Shelby Cobra features very large wheels: 19 by 9 1/2 inch machined aluminum, which accommodate P255/45R19 racing performance tires.

The Cobra emblems and LeMans racing stripes are Shelby’s signature touches. The gauge face arrangement, console layout and the rest of the interior design creates waves of nostalgia that sweep over the driver. Again, tradition meets modern technology as the light-emitting diode (LED) instrument panel can be adjusted through the MyColor™ color-configurable instrument panel to create more than 125 unique color options for personalized gauges. The tachometer stands out as at least as important as the speedometer. All in all, the design creates a very strong connection with the performance enthusiast whatever age they may be.

Early forecasts of the demand for the 2007 Shelby Mustangs are astonishing. A high profile production car of this pedigree should undoubtedly be priced far out of the reach of most enthusiasts. Thankfully, this is not the case. The MSRP is predicted to be under $40,000. One of the best ways to make sure you will be driving a new Cobra is to plan early. Find out which dealers will be offering Shelby’s new creation, and when it will happen. I can guarantee you the showrooms will be packed wall-to-wall for this one.

The best way to plan for the unveiling is to get on the Internet and visit car finder services (http://www.carfinderservice.com/model/2007-Ford-Shelby-Cobra) These kinds of services can absolutely guarantee you will get your Shelby Mustang at the most rock bottom pricing possible. You can input a description of what you are looking for with your zip code. A trusted in-network dealer will then contact you personally to talk about your request and how to fulfill it. They can also answer any questions you might have. If it is not available locally, you will receive a call offering you information on where the vehicle matching your request is available.

The 2007 Shelby Mustang GT500 is here. It has made a dramatic and grand entrance into the American performance vehicle scene and it arrives with the earmark of royalty and dominance which is rightfully its place. The bar has been set very high with this one. It is, indeed, the new benchmark of excellence.