Flexing your Muscles

Carrera Classic Car Round-Up!

Last year Carrera finally brought to the American market cars that a lot of enthusiasts have been screaming for: Classic American Muscle. Not so much as dedicated racing cars, but more for the street rod racers, these machines have their strong points, and they deserve a closer look.

Each one of these models has its own style and virtues, but all of them give the hobbyist a chance to add a good amount of diversity in their racing and collecting. Some die-hard racers may pass on these cars, but they might be missing out on some of the most fun they could have in this hobby.

The models they chose to bring us are the 1956 Thunderbird, 1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427 Coupe, Shelby GT350 Mustang, and a 1966 Pontiac GTO. Carrera has done a great job capturing the overall look and feel of each model, and detailing here is simple, yet sufficient. The GTO and T-Bird have full interior detail, whereas the Mustang and Vette have a half interior, showing just top half of the driver, obviously because of space restrictions, still, I would have liked to see them added. With no racing liveries, and that the bodies are molded in color, what markings and paint that are on the cars are well done, with decent emblem detail, chrome finish was realistic, and personalized license plate names add a nice touch. All models had very nice clear coat applied with no visible runs, dust particles under the finish, or unevenness in the luster itself.

The chassis on these models are different than some enthusiasts are used to. Having the VMS (variable magnet system) alone changes this. The VMS is simple, allowing you to move the powerful magnet forward or backward at will with using just your finger or a small flat tip screwdriver. I like this feature because it allows you to adjust the down-force to suit your own driving taste without removing the body. Therefore, you can adjust your cars to run closely without a lot of time or maintenance involved.

These cars utilize the inline drive system, which I felt Carrera accomplished very well. The motor they chose to include seemed to have an abundance of power, at least more than what most enthusiasts will ever need inside of these beauties. The guides on these cars are deep with thicker, wider braid than seen on other brands of cars, this means that trimming the guides down will be mandatory before driving these cars around on most any other track system, I found them to be excellent guides, and the quick changing of the braid especially. Not to fancy, just simply pop out the old braid by hand, and push the new one in. You can see the wire inside the guide, and the brass tipped braid simply makes contact by pressure. Also present is the polarity switch under the chassis, allowing you to change the direction of your racing. The wheels and tires on these models were good as well, being very round and true. The white walls on the T-Bird really set this car off, and add to its scale appearance.

Now its time to see how they perform, I approached this in a different method as in other purpose built racing cars. Trying to compare the performance of these models to say, a Fly Corvette or Scalextric NASCAR is like comparing Apples and Oranges. You simply can’t do that and be fair to what the models are intended to be. My own personal opinion is that they are high quality slot car models, not model racing cars. Does this mean you cannot race them? Quite the contrary, as racing these cars around the track can be very tight, close competition.

First and foremost, these cars are very smooth. The first test laps produced a smile to my face, tooling the cars around the track and having them run so quietly, and solidly, told me that attention to detail was employed here, and that time and effort were put into these cars running gear. It had to be for them to run so nicely. As expected, some great tail-out drifting action is here in all its glory, we simply had a blast sliding these cars around the track!

This is not to say they are not fast. In fact, lap times on these cars were surprising; averaging 5.7 on our Carrera track, beating several of my older, Ninco Porsches by at least 1 full second. The tires, although not true racing tires, had a fair amount of grip, along with the stronger magnet gave these cars decent cornering and handling. However, it is the magnet here that does most of the work; so really, comparing it to the weaker magnet Ninco’s are not fair either. The bottom line on the action of these cars is that they are fun to drive. They give you almost a vintage feel to them, but a lot smoother and better quality than some of the 60’s or 70’s era models offered in that time.

These cars were meant to be driven, and at the same time add a lot of personality to your track. The visual appeal of these classics roaring around your layout adds a great deal to the fun of these cars.  You don’t have to have a number on the door to have fun running a slot car. My friends and I had many a mile burned into our old HO scale Bel Air’s and Nomads, not to mention those old Woody panels! No number on those cars!

Simply put, these models filled a void in this scale that was missing. Moreover, Carrera has not stopped there, as more have arrived! The 69 Camaro and 70 Hemi Cuda are now here as well as additional liveries of the Mustang, GTO, and Thunderbird.

I have to recommend these cars to those who desire classic American muscle, also to the enthusiast who is into kit bashing as these cars give you a great head start in your efforts to produce those racing cars of a time long since gone. These models offer a great deal of driving pleasure to many racers and collectors, the price is right as well, for around $30.00, it makes it even more difficult to pass these classics up. I had to get all 4, and was glad I did. 

Harry

As always, feel free to email me at wiseone@yhti.net or drop me a line in the Home Racing World Message Forum about these classics, or the hobby in general.