October 17, 2008
 Carrera 2006 Dodge Charger SRT 8 'Super Stocker' Review By Shawn Smith One of the newest Carrera, the 2006 Dodge Charger SRT 8 'Super Stocker', made it to ToyMarts official Carrera race center shelves and they have been kind enough to forward one to us. Zip up the firesuit and purge the nitrous, it's time to do our burnouts!! Appearance:  Holy Mopar Madness!! Big, bad and bright red, the all new Carrera Charger SRT8 Super Stocker is a sight to behold. I wasn't quite certain that I would like the car when I saw the first images of it but it sure knows how to make a first impression face to face.  Man what a face... Looks like one mean machine ready to chew its way through the competition. The hood was perhaps the biggest reason I wasn't certain if I would like this thing close up. 'My lord this chick's got a big nose' I thought to myself, and there is no denying that the opening is huge, yet at track level the flat black paint helps slim the scoop some what.  Ok, who am I kidding? This scoop is a monster!   Panning back away from the hood the contract of flat black on gloss red is really eye catching and the chrome wheels also make this thing pop. Some front fender sponsor logos add a tiny bit of side interest as does the large Charger logo, side stripe and side view mirrors.  The 5-lug, 5-spoke chrome wheels fitted with Goodyear printed logos look really slick even if it's my opinion that the rear wheels stick out a little too far.  Big meaty claws give the Charger it's bite but several times the protruding wheels took bites out of my track walls too. The lettering has held up well considering.  Baby got back? The flat black extends to run from the hood, over the roof and down to cover the entire trunk. Very small Charger, SRT and ram's head emblems are well printed and crisp for being that little and a rear deck spoiler and dual exhaust tips give the eye more to look at. Interior wise, for those who look, the dash and center console are accented in silver with the dash having silver faced guages with the tiniest tampo printed markings. The driver looks suspiciously small inside of the spacious looking tray-type interior but his matching red with black stripe racing helmet looks cool.  A large Mopar logo adorns the roof and the ram's head symbol allows no mistake that this baby is all Dodge.  Bright white LEDs in front and red LEDs in back blaze under power and add an element that many home racers seem to really enjoy. As we'll see later Carrera gives you the ability to cut power to these lights separately which is great as far as I'm concerned.  So how big is it? Yes I know it looks kind of large so here is a Carrera Charger versus Carrera Charger size comparison. I'm not going to get down to 1:1 'down to the inch' specific's but as you can see our 1/32 SRT8 is just a little bit shorter and only fractionally more narrow at the front.  The new SRT Charger gets wider as it gets toward the back and its actually taller in overall profile plus its going to take a lot more gas to get the Hemi turning thanks to the car being heavy. The older stock car Charger weighed in at roughly 106 grams, a Carrera COT was 110 grams on my scale and this SRT8 Charger was the chunkiest of the group clicking off 120 healthy grams. Of course the other two don't have the wiring needed for the LED's etc...  Performance:  Lots and lots of screws! You only need to worry about the two inside of the exhaust pipes to free the back of the chassis from the body and the same goes with the front with the two screws on either side of the guide.  Speaking of guides... yes its the super-duper long guide that's longer than the tires are wide so keep that in mind if you run a home track with a shallow slot or containing turns with very sharp bends.  Body out of the way and look at all that wiring. Yes its nothing really new for Carrera and while I know some don't like it and a few remove all of this I happen to like it.  What I like in all this mess is that Carrera makes it very simple to disconnect the lights and unplug the motor and guide wires of the car if you need to. I think more 'home set' manufacturers should take a similar route with their electronics.  Up front a solid front axle spins in brass bushings above Carreras interesting guide holder. Important to note here that if your front axle doesn't feel as if it spins freely you might want to check for clearance with the wires shown.  In the back everything here is covered up but that doesn't mean it's tough to gain access to things like gears for lubricating.  Notice that the motor and rear magnet sit in a separate motor pod that can be removed from the car with a single screw. You will need to unplug the purple and grey wires to remove the pod completely yet even without diconnecting it all together the pod will swing down far enough to give you access to the gears.    Also notice the thin clear plastic washer on the screw. I like this a lot as I can't count how many times a screw has fallen on the floor as I've worked in a car and this little washer allows you to back it out just enough to free the pod without the screw coming out.  Tunability for magnet racers comes via two different magnets that can be lowered or removed individually and I like this option as well. Remomoval is easy and it offers a little bit of adjustability that some car may not offer.  What I don't like however is the recurring issue I seem to keep finding of Carrera wheels not being dependable. As you can see here all it took was me trying to remove the tire for the wheel to fall in to two seprate pieces meaning I was going to once again have to glue Carrera wheels back together. If memory serves me this is the third Carrera review car this has happened on.  Back together and on the track I'm not going to bore anyone with speed test results, as to be blunt, its size and weight stop it from getting any where close to the speed of other Carrera cars on my track. While it looks the part of a high performance speed car the sum of its parts keep it on the slower side of other recent Carrera cars I have tested. That doesn't mean the car is a bad drive though as its really a pretty stable runner, almost whisper quiet and very smooth around the imperfection showing wood track. Scary as it may seem I liked the Charger Super Stocker better on the oval than I did on the plastic road course. Think it has anything to due with its 'straight line' inspired design? Hmmmmm... The Final Verdict:  Tire smoke cleared and putting it back in the drag-hauler it's the Charger SRT8 Super Stockers looks that I like most. Those who no doubt will attempt to make this a viable dragger' will have a bit of work to do but I know it can be done. Putting it on a serious diet while boosting the RPM and torque will give it more of a reason for the giant basketball eating scoop on the hood yet like I said its a good driving car that looks honkin' fast sitting still. Thanks to our newest review car provider, ToyMart, for providing the Carrera Charger 'Super Stocker' for review. Please stop by the HomeRacingWorld.com Message Board to talk about this and all other models of slot cars. Feel free to email me at the address below if you have any questions or want to share your thoughts. As always happy slotting! Shawn Smith - SJSlots Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com Thanks Go To ToyMart for Sponsoring This Review!
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