Time to have a little fun... not that we don't normally have fun doing slot car reviews, as we do, however when cars like Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli of the recent CARS 2 movie show up its just bound to be a 'different' sort of review. Fact is, this review might really not be for you yet if you have young kids at home like I do these just might be a great way to get them to show some interest in slot racing. These cars have 'for the kids' written all over them, not litterally of course but I have a feeling kids of all ages will appreciate them.



It's not every day we get to review slot cars where focusing on their scale accuracy isn't important. Lets face it, most in the hobby are here due to the scale realism of the cars. Most cars are replicas of real life racing icons and because many have historical significance for us how close the car appears to the real version it was modeled after is often critical to our enjoyment. In the case of our recent review subjects, Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli of the movie Cars 2, its impossible to compare them to anything real life as both are based on fictional movie characters. That doesn't mean however that their 'looks' aren't important as for the ones that are most likely to enjoy these.



My kids of course saw me get these out of the box and both of my sons, ages 11 and 7, loudly proclaimed 'COOL, are those ours?'. 'They likely will be' I said, 'but Dad has to review them first. Wanna help?' Needless to say I didn't have to ask twice. Before I could let them loose on Dad's track though we have a little house keeping to deal with.



As you could see by the case sleeve in previous images these cars are the 'digital' versions but I will be racing them in analog mode. Each car comes with a separately detailed sleeve showing each car on the front and both of them on the back. Francesco, having F1-like wings is additonally protected inside of the case with clear plastic inserts where Lightning, never one to shy away toughing it out, relies only on the large thumb- screw to hold him to the case. Speaking of the case I really like the decal on the normally mirrored backdrop.



Now when it comes to looks I have nothing to compare Francesco to, as he's a new character in the second CARS film. Lightning, in contrast, I have seen hundreds and hundreds of times due mostly in part to my now 7 year old. I can't tell you how many times he 'had' to watching the original movie but I know I can recite more lines from the movie than most people should be able to. He also has countless toys from 1/64 (roughlly) die- cast cars to a giant 1/12 scale programmable plastic car that would perform a circuit you told it to perform through pushing a series of buttons on the roof of the car.



Both of my sons liked the looks of the new Lightning but it was Francesco here that they both seemed most interested in (you'll notice a theme soon). Both liked his more sleek open wheel look and both also asked if they could drive him first.... go figure.



I was mostly shocked that my youngest wasn't all over getting the change to drive one of his favorite movie cars in his very young life but I think Francesco just being new and different was enough to get his attention. Still though, lightning looks every bit of good as he always has. Lightning looks like the much studier car, with nothing to potentially break off aside from the large rear spoiler and that lack of detail I can respect on a car designed for small anxious hands.











Francesco has quite a bit more physical detail to admire, with the F1-looking wings all over his body, the large intake directly over his head and even tiny little stalk mounted side view mirrors. As small as they are (below) they feel good and rugged and they lasted just fine through my playing with it and my kids both playing with it.







The car even has textured suspension details and molded simulated brake ducts by the front wheels. Mind you they are not 'sharp' details... but the are meant to look 'cartoonish' so the effect it well accomplished. He even has small exhaust pipes off the top part of his engine cover.







The giant rear wing both looks and feels very sturdy and that's a great thing for small eager hands. During testing the car took some really hard hits and thankfully nothing broke. That's an accomplishment I haven't been able to give to most F1-style cars so Carrera did a great job making it sturdy.



This is something that gave me a good laugh. Check out the tire lettering! What's funny is that 'Rotelli' is actually the name of Italian restaurants with four locations here in my state of Ohio that serves pizza and pasta.



I wanted to show this image for a couple of reasons. Ignore the braids as this was after my sons had played with the cars for a little while. Notice the apparent solid front axle. That's actually not the case as I was surprised to see both front wheels turn independently. Lightning McQueen, in contrast, does not share the same independent front wheels in his design. Also notice the sturdy front wing but not just because its good and sturdy. If you look closely the wing actually hides a screw and to get to that screw the front wing has to come off. This is the type of thing that makes me nervous though as try as I might I could not figure out how the wong comes off and because I hadn't had the cars for more than a few days I didn't want to risk breaking it so soon. I pulled and applied pressure from different angles and the wing never budged. I also allowed my boys to race them for a few hours and even that didn't find a way to knock that front wing loose.



Turning our attention to the star of CARS 2, Lightning sports a new paint job from the original film. What used to be a lightning bolt now turns to flames at the rear of the 'doors' (what doors, its a stock car right?), his sponsor stickers are different and gone are the chrome signature lightning bolts on the front fenders that went along with Lightning's famous catch phrase "Ka-chow!!"



Styling wise his body remains the same, although scaled down to 1/32 of course yet there are obvious differences like the previous stock car of yesterday and now modern again wing has been replaced by more of a 'car of tomorrow' style freestanding spoiler.



Just as with Francesco this wing is very study and took all the abuse my kids and I could dish out. Fuel filling locations are now on both sides of his body and notice the more 'road racing' friendly diffusers under his back bumper.



Lightning also ditched his red stock-car wheels from the first movie and replaced them with more of a gun-metal colored single nut rim. You can really tell the new Lightning isn't just turning left anymore!!



So... how are they on the track? Test number one, do the cars work out of the box and I can happily say both worked perfectly and converted out of digital mode to analog mode flawlessly. I first took the cars for a spin, starting with the newcomer Francesco and I was more that pleased with the speed and magnetic traction he has. Brakes felt great, acceleration was good and in no time he was running fast enough that you almost forget that you're playing with a car based on an animation. I then switched to Lightning and I did notice that his braking was considerably less effective but what was odd was that it wasn't 'consistently' less effective. What I mean is that I could make a lap and at the end of my main straight he might brake really well one lap and the next lap speed in to the same turn with greatly reduced braking. At first I thought it was my imagination but it clearly was not.





Wondering if it had anything to do with the digital electronics I decided to take poor Lightning apart just to check. His screws were thankfully easier to get to than the one under Francesco's nose so in seconds I had the body off to gain access to the wiring.



First thing I noticed was three pairs of wires with plug ends not plugged in to a single thing. I'm assuming the chips are the same for all digital cars and if one comes without lights the wiring simply doesn't connect to anything. When you bypass the chip, by unplugging the guide wire plug from the circuit board and connecting it instead right to the motors plug end you end up with now five unused wires inside of the car. Buttoned back up I ran some more laps with Lightning and oddly the braking seemed more consistent. Still not as strong as the Francesco car brakes but considering the difference in wheel sizes alone it makes sense that Lighting's much larger wheel and tire combination would mean softer stopping. Regardless I soon got in to a zone running him and had no trouble getting more consistent quick laps.



However... it was the thoughts of my children that interested me more than my own. Keeping in mind that my oldest son runs with me on occasion, and has a few cars of his own I knew he would enjoy them yet my younger one has never really shown that much interest... until seeing these cars. Both boys had a great first heat with my youngest son taking Francesco to start and my oldest piloted Lightning. Much like I found though my oldest seemed to find it difficult to keep Lightning at the pace of Francesco and often over drove the car in to the turns. I attempted to coach him through adjusting his driving style but he's 11 so he did it his was and put McQueen on his roof a few times before I asked them to trade cars.



Much as I suspected it didn't take very long before my youngest was asking to have Francesco back! Once he tried to make Lightning go as fast as he was able to make the other car go even he picked on how different the two cars felt. The great news though is that no matter which car they had they both kept smiles on their faces most of the time, tossing in moments of histerical laughter when one would cause the other one to crash and in the big scheme of things its the smiles on the kids faces that matters most with these cars. Not that you or I can't enjoy them but lets face it... they were made for the kids!

 

So what are our final thoughts on the new 1/32 scale CARS 2 movie cars from Carrera? I said 'our' because I asked my kids what their favorite things about them were and the number one thing both of them said first was "they're the same size as your cars dad". While I wasn't so concerned about their 'scale' my kids both agreed it was their larger 'scale' that makes them cool. Yes both of them liked running Francesco Bernoulli better, and almost fought over which one of them should get to drive him yet their was no denying that they liked playing with both of them. Lightning is the favorite in the looks category for my youngest I think partially because he's most 'familiar' but my oldest son said he likes Francesco because he's different. The true plus here is that Carrera has given them (us) fun, durable cars that can run with some of Dad's stuff and they have options that speak to them on a level that's closer to their interests. I have to admit that I think they're pretty cool too and I gave Lightning another hundred laps or so after putting my kids to bed. These are the perfect description of 'toy slot cars' and they should appeal to all ages!





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Shawn Smith - SJSlots
Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com

Special Thanks to Carrera USA for sending the CARS movie cars for review!

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