It'll easily beat yesterday's RSotD, I'm sure.

Geaux Tigers!

I don't remember flaming barricades being part of drag racing. Those things have glorified bicycle wheels on the front, and I don't think they'd do well under the impact.

This car would look a lot better if they didn't slap a long blank plate on it to try to turn it into a dragster imo.

Sometimes I build oldschool sets when I have the parts. I think I have the parts for this one, but I don't really need a dragster.

I don't understand, this looks nothing like it's dressing like a woman

It looks so dumb. I love it.

They managed to hide the rocket pretty well......I see a V8, I see a pull-back motor....but no rocket anywhere!

@WizardOfOss said:
"They managed to hide the rocket pretty well......I see a V8, I see a pull-back motor....but no rocket anywhere!"

Nobody suspects the dragster itself to be a rocket !

@Binnekamp said:
"So, I finally acquired catalogs of 2002 and 2003 and yesterday I was browsing them. I noticed that the Drome Racers line had 6 or maybe even more pull-back motors, each designated by a gear stick position. For example, the small cars had gear 1 and gear 2 whilst the largest (and therefore most powerful by necessity) had gear 6 (in 2002 anyway).

So, I was about to call out that theme for reusing pullback motors and re-marketing them. But no! This set's pullback motor only appears here, in its counterpart 6714 Speed Dragster and the 2001 technic supplementary set 5223 Windup Motor. So they either just recolored parts of it or they really did create a full new set of at least 6 pullback motors in 2002! That's a lot of very similar and complicated specialty parts!

Idk, just found this fascinating. The large monorail supports seen here a nice too btw. And for a 2000s set the dragster looks quite good!"

I know there are several different pull-back motors with very similar form factors, but the thickness can vary maybe 50%. I'd never actually considered that these were intended to yield different speeds when released.

VROOOM!!!

@Binnekamp said:
"So, I finally acquired catalogs of 2002 and 2003 and yesterday I was browsing them. I noticed that the Drome Racers line had 6 or maybe even more pull-back motors, each designated by a gear stick position. For example, the small cars had gear 1 and gear 2 whilst the largest (and therefore most powerful by necessity) had gear 6 (in 2002 anyway).

So, I was about to call out that theme for reusing pullback motors and re-marketing them. But no! This set's pullback motor only appears here, in its counterpart 6714 Speed Dragster and the 2001 technic supplementary set 5223 Windup Motor. So they either just recolored parts of it or they really did create a full new set of at least 6 pullback motors in 2002! That's a lot of very similar and complicated specialty parts!
"

The pullback motor from this set was also used in 4584 as the gear-4 motor. 4587 claimed to use the gear-4 motor, but actually used the black gear-5 motor.

There was also a gear-7 motor introduced in 2003, which was a palette swap of the gear-4 motor.

@Robot99 said:
"This car would look a lot better if they didn't slap a long blank plate on it to try to turn it into a dragster imo."

Eh, there really wasn't any better solution at the time. (Honestly, I'm not sure there'd be that much better of a solution nowadays.) But this set's true failing is the fact that the rear wheels should have a much thinner tread and a much greater diameter. Very few Lego dragsters get the rear wheels right.

@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"So, I finally acquired catalogs of 2002 and 2003 and yesterday I was browsing them. I noticed that the Drome Racers line had 6 or maybe even more pull-back motors, each designated by a gear stick position. For example, the small cars had gear 1 and gear 2 whilst the largest (and therefore most powerful by necessity) had gear 6 (in 2002 anyway).

So, I was about to call out that theme for reusing pullback motors and re-marketing them. But no! This set's pullback motor only appears here, in its counterpart 6714 Speed Dragster and the 2001 technic supplementary set 5223 Windup Motor. So they either just recolored parts of it or they really did create a full new set of at least 6 pullback motors in 2002! That's a lot of very similar and complicated specialty parts!
"

The pullback motor from this set was also used in 4584 as the gear-4 motor. 4587 claimed to use the gear-4 motor, but actually used the black gear-5 motor.

There was also a gear-7 motor introduced in 2003, which was a palette swap of the gear-4 motor."

So my initial hunch that they were the same was right?
Well... kind of.

I've done some digging and it turns out the bottom section is a different part, as this one has no studs and the Drome Racers one does have them. As these come pre-assembled Bricklink considers them different parts when the top parts and the mechanism inside are probably identical.

Gray-black without studs (2000-2001):
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32283c01&idColor=10T=C&C=10

Gray-black with studs (2002 only):
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32283c02&idColor=10T=C&C=10

That one also has a pallet swap of black and dark gray, as you mentioned.

Black-Gray with studs (2003 only)
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=32283c03T=C

What a rabbit hole this turned out to be :)
Once again it's quite clear why lego wasn't turning a profit come 2003. That's three versions of the same part in only four years!

@Binnekamp said:
"What a rabbit hole this turned out to be :)
Once again it's quite clear why lego wasn't turning a profit come 2003. That's three versions of the same part in only four years!"

Not to mention the motorbike-type pullback motor that was only used in four sets in 2003, and THEN the pullback motor introduced in 2004 which came in dark gray and black variants, though there was no explicit difference in performance between colours.

The 2004 motor became the standard for the rest of the 2000s into 2010 (when it also appeared in blue!), though the big Drome Racers gear-6 motor recurred in dark bluish grey in 8651.

There was also the flywheel motor in 2006 (technically not a pullback, but listed here anyway), and that tiny pullback motor from the 2012 Ferrari sets.

And, finally, 2013 saw the introduction of the Technic pullback motor that's been the standard for going on 13 years now (more Monster Jam sets have been confirmed for next year). Whew!

@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"What a rabbit hole this turned out to be :)
Once again it's quite clear why lego wasn't turning a profit come 2003. That's three versions of the same part in only four years!"

Not to mention the motorbike-type pullback motor that was only used in four sets in 2003, and THEN the pullback motor introduced in 2004 which came in dark gray and black variants, though there was no explicit difference in performance between colours.

The 2004 motor became the standard for the rest of the 2000s into 2010 (when it also appeared in blue!), though the big Drome Racers gear-6 motor recurred in dark bluish grey in 8651.

There was also the flywheel motor in 2006 (technically not a pullback, but listed here anyway), and that tiny pullback motor from the 2012 Ferrari sets.

And, finally, 2013 saw the introduction of the Technic pullback motor that's been the standard for going on 13 years now (more Monster Jam sets have been confirmed for next year). Whew!"

You know your stuff :)

I don't know why Brickset / Bricklink doesn't list names for the Race guys. As Atuin says, this driver's name is Chip, as given by the Stunt Rally video game that was based on this theme and so definitely canon.

Interestingly, he's the only Race / Stunt Rally driver not to share a set with one of the others; both of his sets have just his car (or boat, in the case of the 1285 polybag) with the one driver, as opposed to the other racers who were each included in one - or in Lucky's case, both - of the competitive sets that included two cars.

Whether related to that fact or not, he's ALSO the only racer (at least from the sets, I'm not counting the several game-exclusive characters) who didn't feature in either of the Stunt Rally comics in Lego Adventures... or in any other story media to the best of my knowledge, since from what I've seen of Mania magazine online it didn't feature any comics about this theme... and therefore the only 'hero' racer who I have no idea what his personality is supposed to be. Honestly, with a smirk like that it could be just about anything and he's clearly not telling...

@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"I don't know why Brickset / Bricklink doesn't list names for the Race guys. As Atuin says, this driver's name is Chip, as given by the Stunt Rally video game that was based on this theme and so definitely canon."

Funny thing is, it’s absolutely, fully, 100% canon that the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is called the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, and that’s even how the Dimensions pack was marketed…but that’s not the name that Bricklink assigned to the minifig.