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One of the earliest boxed sets and at the time of release the most expensive boxed set was the Speedway of the South set... Limited to a run of 1000 pieces, the SOTS set went on sale in May 2008... To be eligible to purchase the SOTS set you had to join the Hot Wheels Red Line Collectors club... I joined in April 2008, and bought one set when they went on sale.
One of these days I'll put the Cars in the display box and put it out on display... For various reasons, many collectors did not purchase the Speedway of the South set when it went on sale... Several of the Piston Cup racers had already been released and they didn't want to purchase Cars they already had... they wanted to purchase just the Cars they needed at the approximate $4.00 price of a single... Unfortunately, Mattel didn't cooperate with those hopes... most of the racers were released, but in various formats and with other Cars or accessories that you might or might not have wanted... In this article, we'll take a look at 6 of the Piston Cup racers from the Motor Speedway of the South set.
This set was originally advertised to be numbered as a limited release... when they shipped, they were not numbered and there was no certificate of authenticity... Due to the threat of lawsuits, Mattel did mail letters containing a hologram with the number on it... Mine is 283 of 1000... I'll add photos showing the letter and envelope that it came in.
The Box
The Speedway of the South set came in a large box:
The display box from the Speedway of the South set is huge... I finally took pictures earlier this week - over 4 years after I got mine... Here's the back of the box:
The thin brown box underneath the display box contains the 2 trays containing the 36 Cars.
Here are close ups showing the back of the box:
Side of box:
Other side of box:
Piston Cup Racers
Of the 36 Piston Cup racers in the SOTS set, Apple was only released by Mattel one time, in this set... This is currently also the only official release of Tach O Mint with plastic tires... At one time, there was a prototype of a Tach O Mint launcher... if they ever release Tach O Mint as a Pit Row Race-off launcher (or Lightyear Launcher) I will buy it.
The rest of the plastic tire Piston Cup racers have been released again as either singles, Lightyear Launchers, Pit Row Race-off launchers, or in multi-packs.
We'll look at photos 6 of the 36 racers from the SOTS set in this article... as far as the order, I picked the ones in order starting with the tray on the left side in the earlier picture.
Tow Cap
Each Piston Cup racer in the SOTS set came in a baggie... prior to taking photos for this article, I'd never opened 31 of the 36.
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
Tow Cap has also been packaged as a Movie Moments with Gasprin.
Nitroade
Nitroade has always been one of my favorite racers:
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
Nitroade has been released in many packages... It has been released as a Pit Row Race-off launcher in both WOC and ROR cardback... it was in a team set with Hauler/Racer/Pitty... it's been in a Target 4 pack... A team crew set containing the crew chief (pickup truck) and 3 pittys was released... A Nitroade pitty was released as a single... A Nitroade Hauler was released... and Nitroade is scheduled to be released in the 2013 Mainline singles series.
Mood Springs
Mood Springs is definitely one of my favorites... I love the blue... Mood Springs was released as a Pit Row Race-off launcher... During the Final Lap series we saw a Race Damaged Mood Springs single... The Mood Springs Hauler was released during the Night Skyline series... A Mood Springs Pitty was announced but not released.
Here are more pictures of Mood Springs from the SOTS set:
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
I also have an error Mood Springs Pit Row Race-off launcher... Everything is Mood Springs except for the actual launcher - the launcher is Nitroade... I'll add the photo later.
Shifty Drug
Shifty Drug has also been released as both a Lightyear Launcher and a Pit Row Race-off launcher... it also was in a Target 4 pack... A Shifty Drug Hauler was released - the hauler was not red and yellow but rather a purplish color - when you watch the movie, the single is the wrong color... No other team members have been released.
Here are more pictures of Shifty Drug from the Speedway of the South set:
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
Due to having white rims, Shifty Drug has been popular for making Apple customs.
Easy Idle
Easy Idle is another one of my favorites... Again, I think it's because of the blue, one of my favorite colors (along with purple)... Easy Idle was released as a Pit Row Race-off launcher and a Lightyear launcher... An Easy Idle Pitty was released as a single... other team members were announced but have not yet been officially released.
Here are more pictures showing Easy Idle from the Speedway of the South set:
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
Transberry Juice
Transberry Juice is another popular Car from the SOTS set... It was one of the 5 Kmart plastic tire racers from the first Kmart Cars collector event (along with Spare Mint, Sputter Stop, View Zeen, and Shiny Wax)... It was also released in a Target 4 pack... Those are currently the only released plastic tire versions... there are currently no other Transberry Juice Team members.
Here are more photos showing Transberry Juice from the SOTS set:
Here's a photo showing the production code, 2777 EA:
In Conclusion
My wife was not happy with me for buying a Speedway of the South Set... with shipping, membership in the Hot Wheels Red Line Club, and the one set, I spent about $362.00... Within a week of receiving my set, she wanted to know why I didn't buy 2 of them... Limited to 1000... some have been broken up and sold as individual singles...We've not seen a large boxed set since then...
It may seem that all of the Cars in the set have a production code date of 2777 EA as all 6 in this article do... but others were made on different dates.
I wanted a complete set of Pit Row Race-off launchers; Mattel released 19 and GotFrank made me the other 17 as customs... I wanted a complete set of haulers and still do... same goes for the team crew sets with crew chief and pittys.
I have not assembled my Speedway of the South set... if any of you have and would like to post a picture showing the fully assembled set, I'd appreciate it.
As always, thanks for reading... I appreciate your comments.
Chris
probably to busy with other things, but might also have had something to do with not shipping outside the US. 
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