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I modified the 6743 Street Speeder to hold minifigs in what I think of as the Action Scale – the scale for 8-wide cars in World Racers, Agents, Speed Racer, and so on.
Using only the pieces from the set (plus a couple minifigs), I removed the roof, extended the front by one stud (sliding most of the hood pieces forward one stud), repositioned the door hinges, and made a few other minor adjustments. I'm very pleased with the result!
All pictures are clickable for larger images.
The original model is too cramped for minifigs. The roof is too low, and the cabin space is only 2 studs long, with the steering wheel overlapping one of those studs ... any driver would need to be both very short *and* footless! Yikes!
The roof issue is easy to fix: Ditch the roof entirely! Most other action scale cars are roofless, and this one looks really good as a sporty/racing convertible … permanently with the top down! :-)
The cabin space issue is harder to fix, but still relatively easy because the original model affords 6 studs of length to the middle of the vehicle, which is perfect for minifigs so long as the body of the car doesn't use up more than 3 studs of that length.
Summary of what to do:
1) Remove the roof entirely, reconfiguring the rear roof support slopes to be more of a wide headrest or roll bar.
2) Remove the front wall of the cabin, giving the very important 3rd stud length of space to the interior of the cabin. This includes re-mounting the steering wheel in what becomes the new front wall, and also "swinging" the door hinge support plates (the black & brown plates visible just under the rear-view mirror) out to become part of the left & right sides of the vehicle.
3) Lengthen the entire front of the vehicle by 1 stud, which gives the car a more powerful look (i.e., space for a bigger engine), and allows the windshield and gray & white stripes to be slid forward by one stud so that the windshield doesn't overhang into the cabin in an (IMHO) very ugly way.
Some pictures (click to enlarge) that help explain the changes:
Completed Model – Top View
You can see the new front "wall" of the cabin (which isn't completely solid). The original model had brown 1 x 2 plates on the inside of each door, but these get removed and used on the floor of the cabin (for attaching minifigs to their seats). Two more brown 1 x 2 plates (originally from deep within the bowels of the interior of the vehicle structure) support the cabin-side of the windshield.
The view from the front also shows where three of the original roof tiles get re-used: The two white 1 x 4 tiles become stripes on the rear of the car (replacing the white 1 x 3 plates that used to serve this role, but which are necessary elsewhere). The green 1 x 3 slope bricks move to form a headrest. A green 1 x 2 plate rests just below those slopes and between the ends of the white tiles; this is from the bowels of the original model. A gray 2 x 2 tile rests beneath the gray brick just behind the seat backs (replacing a red 1 x 2 plate).
Completed Model – Bottom View
The bottom gray 4 x 6 plate is one stud further forward than on the original model in order to support the longer front of the modified version.
Hood
The underside of the hood shows all of its significant changes. Green plates of various sizes are reconfigured, and augmented by two new 1 x 2 green plates (from the original cabin front wall), allowing the hood to be longer. The adornments on the top of the hood do not change.
Front Fender Holder
The front fender holder is now part of an 8-wide structure that replicates the vehicle's body color scheme when viewed from the side: A gray plate at the bottom, a white plate above that, then a green brick above that. One of the gray plates was already present on the original model's fender holder structure, and the other is from the original rear fender holder, while both of the white plates come from the original model's rear white stripes (now implemented with tiles, as mentioned above).
The brown plate at the top of this structure was from the original cabin front wall. It supports the hood and connects exactly between the two 1 x 2 green plates mentioned in the previous photo.
Under the Hood
The red 2 x 4 brick turns 90 degrees and moves to sit off-center to support the full length of the hood. Since the red brick no longer holds the passenger side front wheel brick in place, a brown 1 x 2 brick (from the original cabin front wall) now performs that duty.
The second picture shows a view from the front with the fender holder removed. A red 1 x 2 plate (just below the red 2 x 4 brick) replaces the original model's green plate of the same size. This green plate now sits underneath the center part of the headrest as seen in an earlier photo.
Rear Internals
The only difference to the rear that hasn't been previously mentioned is to the rear fender holder structure. The original model's gray 1 x 4 plate is now a black 1 x 4 plate (originally from the front fender holder structure).
You can also see the previously-mentioned gray 2 x 2 tile in a couple of these shots.
Edited by Rufus, 25 June 2011 - 04:45 PM.
Indexed
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