Team Caliber raises the bar with new upgrades

How do you stay on top of your game in the ultra-competitive world of NASCAR die-cast? It's easy. Just keep raising the bar. Not only on the competition, but also on yourself.

That's what Team Caliber does on a regular basis, and it's a strategy that has served the collectibles arm of Roush Industries since the brand hit the market in 1999.

This year, Team Caliber has made upgrades across the board, with the most sweeping changes coming to its higher-end 1:24 scale Owner's Series.

"Team Caliber continues to be a leader in the NASCAR collector die-cast Market with its new and improved 2005 Owner's Series products," said Team Caliber President Randy Duncan.

"The Team Caliber engineers did a excellent job in keeping our product ahead of our competition. Team Caliber has dropped the First Choice brand but the new Owner's Series product has 75 percent of the First Choice features plus all of the past Owner Series features. The Owner's Series is popular year after year because of all the bells and whistles we add."

The most visible upgrades to the Owner's Series can be found in the body shell itself. While the previous generation product line had such amenities as functional roof flaps, flexible hood and trunk tethers, windshield clips, opening hood and trunk, raised hood restraint panels, and three-dimensional alloy hood pins, the new edition boasts such additions as:

• Removable body shell that allows viewing of the inside of the car
• Improved hood and trunk hinge mechanism
• External radio antenna on the roof

A peek under the hood reveals that Team Caliber's crack team of designers has been hard at work in the engine compartment. In addition to a more highly-detailed manufacturer-specific engine block and headers, the motor department has stepped up the program with real spark plug wires and more detailed radiator and cooling components. In fact, more detailed engine plumbing includes six more hoses than could be found on last year's model.

Even the 2005 Owner's Series chassis has undergone a major overhaul. The more detailed set-up features:

• Working rear axle gears
• Highly-detailed brake rotors and discs
• All metal A-arms up front
• Authentic rack and pinion steering
• Larger serial number plate on the chassis

Those additions further augment a design that has long included scuffed tires, fuel cell mounted scoring and timing transponder and working front and rear suspension with coil springs.

Any driver will tell you that his office is the cockpit. You'll find a lot of apparatus inside an actual NASCAR race car, and Team Caliber Owner's Series showcases all the tools of the trade. Here's a few of the new features:

• A new driver's seat
• Redesigned instrument panel with clear gauge faces and imprinted dial details
• Radio cables attached to the steering wheel
• Improved trunk compartment details

Combine those features with previous items like a protective kneepad under the steering column, silver vent hoses, and an authentic cool can, and the result is an interior that rivals anything on the market today.

The 2005 Team Caliber Owner's Series will have all new packaging. And in order to insure long term collectibility, production numbers will be at an all-time low.

"The production numbers will be the lowest since we started Team Caliber with as few as 600 pieces in the Owners Series being produced in a production run," Duncan confirmed. "We feel that it is very important not to produce more than the market will sell. Being conservative with our production runs will build more collectibility into the series."

Among the drivers featured in Team Caliber's die-cast line are: Mark Martin, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Carl Edwards, Ricky Rudd, Ryan Newman, Kyle Petty, Jeff Green, Scott Riggs, Jimmie Johnson, Joe Nemechek, Brian Vickers, Terry Labonte, Scott Wimmer, and Kyle Busch.

Team Caliber offers cars in both 1:64 and 1:24 scales, and in a variety of authenticity levels. In addition to the Owner's Series, Preferred, Pit Stop, and Nickel series cars.

Check out the huge selection of Team Caliber die-casts at the NASCAR.COM SuperStore.