Sunday June 25, 2006

New Carrera

Fast & Furious Mustangs!

There is literally a slot car for just about everyone in our hobby. From highly detailed classic Porches and Ferraris to modern NASCAR, you have a huge variety of models to choose from. Carrera is certainly adding to the selection with a good many releases aimed directly at the younger enthusiasts. From Marvel comics with the X-Men and Spider-Man along with a new James Bond line, now also comes the Fast & The Furious series.

This new series is based on the recent movie Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift. Most of you are familiar with this movie even if you have not seen it. The original movie was a huge success and soon toy companies joined in on the craze. The 2 additions I was interested in was the 1967 Mustang that is in this latest film. It seems that there is always some "old school" car in these types of movies and this time they went with the Mustang. Carrera decided to bring it to us in 2 different scales so let us take a closer look.

First of all I have to comment on the packaging. I think Carrera did a great job on the presentations with these cars and it should catch the eyes of Fast & Furious fans while they stroll through their favorite hobby store either in person or on the net.

After opening them up I began to take a look at how well Carrera has reproduced this car. Fine scale enthusiasts will of course see issues here and there, but although these cars are directed to the younger crowd, both of them are pretty nicely done as I compared them to prototype photos. Again, they are not perfect by any means and perhaps on the 1/43 model will some enthusiasts fine more issues. For my eyes though, and other racers here who have given me feedback, they feel the models are close enough and depict this classic well. As in every case, only you can decide if they have done a good enough job.

I was impressed with the paint and overall finish on both models. The green metal flake really stands out and it is sealed nicely with clean, dirt free clear coat. Perhaps I am showing my age here, but it certainly reminds me of another famous Pony Car of years past. I wonder if Frank Bullitt would approve? In any case, overall the looks of this model will likely please most veteran enthusiasts or newcomers who happen to choose it.

The interior in the 1/32nd scale offering is a half-tray type with driver figure but it is the glass that sets the scene. It is a green tinted glass that gives the model the looks it has. The 1/43rd scale offering is a blacked out window with no interior, but still looks good enough at this size. I think Carrera deserves a fair amount of praise for what they are accomplishing in 1/43rd scale. They have made these cars better over the years with increased scale detail and of course model selections. 1/43rd scale is not just popular with younger enthusiasts and I think sooner or later someone will figure that out and start reproducing models that rival their larger counter-parts in the scale accuracy department. In any event, this little car looks nice enough for my eyes and my 9 year old son eagerly agreed.

The wheels and tires on both models will not impress fine scale enthusiasts, but they fit the role as they were intended to do. However, the effort made on the 1/43rd scale model is disappointing. The tires just seem to be a little on the large side for the wheel and this makes them sit unevenly on the wheel. The tires on the 1/32nd scale model were much better and the compound seemed a little harder than on prior models. Testing was about to begin so this would be where the tires would show their true colors.

Out of the box both models functioned as intended, although my fears about the 1/43rd car were soon justified. It did run, but it had a very noticeable hop to it. I have had many Carrera GO 1/43rd cars in the past, and none of them have ran this poorly. Most of them have been very smooth and required only slight sanding of the wheels and tires to get them right.

And on my model it appears that not only are they slightly too big, but the molding is uneven. I could easily see by the sidewalls of the tire that some areas were thicker than others causing a badly egg-shaped tire. A good amount of sanding will help this somewhat (it did) but I think Carrera really needs to look closely at this issue and produce a tire that is correctly proportioned.

I did enjoy the 1/32nd model and the addition of working head and tail lights really made a difference for me. This car still needs some tire sanding as it has low centers on the tires. After I sanded the tires, this car smoothed out a great deal. With both magnets in place this car is not that easy to "drift" but after awhile I could get a few decent slides out of it.

Looking underneath we see the new standard Carrera chassis in force. The 1/32nd scale model has the dual magnets in place along with a polarity switch for changing directions. The 1/43rd model has the standard half bar magnet in place and this really holds it to the track. Both cars use the new double snap in braids with the 1/32 car having the standard blade guide while and the 1/43rd car simply has a large pin.

The 1/32nd scale car has 4 screws that were easily removed. Be careful when you remove or install the body that you do not harm the lighted circuit boards as the tolerances are tight. Inside we see the Carrera motor equipped with a 9 tooth pinion that turns the 27 tooth crown gear. I was happy to see a very snug fit around the rear brass bushings and they did not require and adhesive.

The smaller pony car has 2 screws that mount the body and were also easily removed. The smaller sized motor has a 8 tooth pinion that drives a 32 tooth spur gear. Gear mesh is super smooth on my sample and this simple chassis seems to work well for this scale.

Both of these cars are nice additions to our already growing selection in both scales. No, they are not for everyone and to be honest they are intended to be. The future tomorrow of our hobby is of course based on our youth of today. Models such as this that catch the eye of younger racers just might have them enjoying this hobby for years to come.

How many of you can trace your origins in this hobby to models such as this? My early days of HO scale certainly follows close to these lines. My first cars were from the current media heroes of racing such as the "Team AFX" of Richard Petty, Jackie Stewart, and A.J. Foyt, just to name a few. Hollywood and toy makers have been working with each other for years and it seems to work at getting us young kids excited about slot cars.

With that said, I cannot help but feel both these models are worthy of a closer look by you. I enjoy some hot rod street racing from time and these new muscle cars will fit right in our GTO and Camaro 1/32nd scale collections. If you are a 1/43rd scale enthusiast I think this model is certainly a great candidate for your next purchase. It has some issues to it, but simple fixes can make it a nice performer.

- Harry

As always feel free to contact me about this article or just the hobby in general at harry@homeracingworld.com, or better yet drop into our Message Forum and share your thoughts with other enthusiasts!

Thanks go to Slot Car World For Providing Us With These Models!