Another North America only set that I decided to Bricklink and build in the UK - and it involved more from-the-USA post charges!

In the late 80's, Lego made several racing theme sets, most of them using the printed slope bricks in this set (numbered 1 to 4 in different colours), and many using the new (at the time) large spoiler/wing piece shown in this set.

Building Experience

The two dragsters are identical builds, just with different colour schemes. No clever building techniques, very straightforward to put together, mostly. I do like the build of the engine - creating a "V" engine with very few parts. The dragsters bear more than a passing resemblance to 6526 Red Line Racer.

BUT the rear axle with the larger tyres is a right faff to put on - it involves a standard 6-long technic axle and 6 technic half bushes with teeth. The half bushes need to be pushed into the standard (for the time) big tyre, then pushed into the axle. An absolute nightmare to put on - it's difficult enough to put the half bush into the tyre, but as soon as you start to try to push it onto the axle either one or more of the following occurs i) bush pops out of the tyre, ii) the exhaust part of the engine assy (a minifig goblet) gets knocked off by the big wing, iii) half bush against the body of the car locks together so the wheels don't turn. Multiply this by 8 wheels and 12 bushes, and you have a recipe for swearing and frustration and almost constant re-assembly of the darned goblets!

I do like the simple drag race start lights - dead simple but quite effective.

Parts

It's another one of those very simple looking sets with a couple of rare parts.

The two wings on the back are printed, one with "Shell" and the other with stars design with the number 2. The Shell wing is unique to this set, the "stars and no 2" wing is used in this set and in one other - 6551 "Checkered Flag 500" (sic), which is another North America only set. The two wings are generally only available from Bricklink or Brickowl sellers in North America.

The rest of the parts are straight out of the standard very-late-80's parts bin - the 2x3 33 slopes are printed, again these are used in many sets. There's a surprising variety of parts in these sets - 65 different parts/colours excluding the minifigs, mostly in qty 1. But, it just goes to show (I'm talking to you, 2021 Lego designers) that you don't need a myriad of special curved pieces to make a racing car.

The minifigs are very generic with different coloured zipper torsos and helmets - but entirely adequate for the set. I'm sure one of these minifigs has been seen moonlighting on a motorbike somewhere else in Lego Town!

Special mention for those spoilers/wings (part no. 2440) - the part is still in use today, as usually a spoiler, radar dish or snowplough/bulldozer blade. But some clever designer has started using it as a textured roof element in 10261 Roller Coaster !

Playability

I think the dragsters look very cool - especially the printed rear wing pieces - and show good playability promise with the drag race start lights. The fence with fire extinguishers(?) seems pretty pointless, though.

But the main downside to playability is the construction of the rear wing and engine. The rear wing is mounted on the top half of a hinge brick and has a little up/down and side/side movement. A slight tilt of the wing, and the minifig goblet "exhausts" fall off (there's 2 on each dragster). So you adjust the engine block (again on hinge bricks) to move the exhausts away from the rear wing - and the 1x1 clip with ring locks into the wheels and stops them turning. So you adjust again, then accidentally push the wheels in so the technic half bushes lock the rear axle. Then you knock the exhausts off again while fixing the rear axle.

Once you get over the falling-off exhausts and decide to leave them off the model, there's much fun to be had racing the twin identical dragsters.

Overall

This is a nice looking set that creates a good-looking model with few parts. Simple classic Lego colour scheme - and no stickers!

The only downside is the faffy rear axle build and the "won't ever stay on whilst playing with it" exhaust goblets. But once you decide to use the goblets for serving the winners champagne, you can play along quite nicely with this set. At the time this was released, there were many other racer sets available to enhance it, and create your own living room carpet race track!

And, why was this North America only???

I never liked the idea of having a couple of dragsters, but no drag strip. The cars were well made, for being the small scale early Lego designs. The engines were a fun feature, since my collection before never had cars with engines.