Pink Kar Auto Union C-Type - Kurt Moser - Home Racing World & Slot Car Garage

08/19/2012

Looking Back:

Pink Kar Auto Union C-Type: Hans Stuck ‘Hillclimb’

By Kurt “El Secundo” Moser

So much has changed in the last ten years in this hobby, but one thing remains the same: there will always be a new guy saying, “Hey, how about these old cars? Are they any good?”

When many of us got back into the hobby (let’s call it ten years ago), Pink Kar was going strong (well, maybe kind of weak) with an interesting line-up of cars – many of them straight from the old molds of Scalextric. Though these cars had their roots in a bygone era (Pink Kar started building these in 1993) some of them continue to catch our interest to this day. Sure, the detail doesn’t measure up to today’s standards. Or the chassis. Or the tires. Or the motor. But the cars still fascinate, and deserve another look a decade later.

Today’s ‘Then and Now’ feature is the Auto Union C-Type from Pink Kar. This particular model was Hans Stuck’s pre-war hillclimb racer, and the first thing to grab your eyes is the set of four rear wheels at the rear. That’s right, four. This is apparently how they made wide rear tires back in the 1930’s. Wide tires didn’t exist, hence the use of ‘dually technology’ for high-tech racing. Two sets of side-by-side wheels were used to propel this 16-cylinder monster up hills, and propel they did.

The next thing to grab your eyes would have to be the details, like the chrome. Toy-like, for sure – a show-stopper for many new guys, but for more advanced enthusiasts, just a little something in need of improvement. A simple black wash can do wonders here. Mold lines are prevalent. Easy enough to take care of, if the goal is to improve the car’s appearance.

And the last thing to get most enthusiasts’ attention would be the performance, or the lack thereof. Sluggish off the line, slightly tippy handling, shallow guide flag, out-of-round tires, no brakes – a complete dud, right? Well, no, or at least, ‘it depends’. If you’re looking for a Slot.It or NSR, keep looking. But if you want to bring this car to life, you can with a little help from the little ‘slot car improvement’ elves who have sprouted up in this industry in the past decade.

The biggest concern anyone has with slot cars would have to be wheels and tires. If things ain’t round, they ain’t rolling, and thumpity-thump noises typically aren’t indicative of a smoothly rolling car. Getting this set of quad rear tires trued up can be a real trick. You’ll find that this motor has as much torque as a fish has thumbs, which is somewhere around zero. Any attempt to true these tires on sandpaper using the car’s motor power just leads to tires grinding quickly to a halt. Enter the elves.

The elves, in this case, are the makers of tire truers. While we’d all heard of Hudy tire truers used by the serious racers, they were made specifically for racing wheels held on by set screws – not for plastic wheels held on by spit and a prayer. Today, we have a few great choices like the Tire Razor or the Area 3 Tire Truer, both of which allow you to remove the entire rear wheel assembly, and let their motor (with all their heavy duty grunt) do the hard work that the anemic Auto Union’s motor can’t. This is the route that I took, but there are more elves out there – the tire elves.

Paul Gage tires and K&D tires provide a cure for tire problems born 10 years ago. Their blend of urethane/rubber/magic dust has a way of bringing cars to life, and many a dud has been transformed by these good and inexpensive tires. Certainly not the only tire makers out there, but both are willing to make custom tires to fit your particular need. Both offer a good balance of grip and slide, with the Paul Gage tires being a touch more grippy, with the K&Ds being a bit more slidey. If your car tends to tip, go for the K&Ds. If it slips, go for the Paul Gage tires. Tell them I sent you, and they will charge you 20 percent more for their tires. On second thought, don’t tell them I sent you.

In this case, the stock tire option was the way to go. Miraculously, the old stock tires, coupled with the excessively mediocre power from the little, square motor, give the car just the grip it needs on wood tracks. Nothing goes to waste when the rear wheels don’t spin, and this weak motor propels the Auto Union to a pretty fair top speed without a lot of drama. You may have to wait a bit while she winds up, but wind up she does, until the tiny driver yells “Jane, stop this crazy thing!” Joke’s on him, because if there’s one thing the Auto Union can’t do, it’s stop. Not at all. No-uh brake-o, comprendo? From top speed, you can slow down, if you really think it’s necessary – just find the nearest solid object, and hit it. Or, if this kind of deceleration doesn’t suit you, consider adding a tooth or two on the pinion gear. Talk to the gear-elves, as you have lots of choices.

If there’s one place where the car’s design lets it down, it’s at the Pink Kar’s primitive front wheel setup. The front wheels are held on by pins molded into the plastic axle detail, which also holds the guide in place. The unavoidable wobble can tilt the front end out of the slot, but considering how primitive this system is, the effect could be much worse. Heavy rear tire grip aggravates the problem, so K&D rear tires would be very helpful. Out-of-round front tires also aggravate the problem, but truing the fronts with the wheels mounted on those fragile pins could create problems. Instead, put the front tires on the rear axle, and use an Area 3 or Tire Razor to take them down a bit. This simply wasn’t an option ten years ago, and many guys just let them be, and wrote the car off as a big lump of dooky. With more modern options, though, this car can be pretty decent, or at least less of a lump of dooky.

Checking out the inside of the car, complexity and innovation don’t exactly jump out at you, and really, there’s no need for complexity. Often, complexity arises as a means to manage the ever-increasing power of the typical modern slot car motor. With the tortoise and the hare as benchmarks for the Pink Kar motor, this powerhouse ranks somewhere around ‘tortoise heavily sedated, and glued in place’. Ultimately, though, the Auto Union scores well with a good balance between its handling and its motor. The motor doesn’t smoke the tires, and the handling isn’t so sticky that the back end won’t break loose. This contributes to a decent ‘fun factor’. Exciting? Maybe not enough grunt for that, but it’s still an interesting challenge to hustle this 58 gram weakling around the track.

Two surprises from this rolling anachronism: brass bushings, and smooth gear mesh. A non-proprietary guide flag means you can choose a deeper guide, a good option for a car that can tip out of the slot. The front axle assembly mounts firmly inside the chassis, and could be adjusted upward to drop the Auto Union’s nose a bit. It is also mounted on a longitudinal pivot, so some clever use of sandpaper could give you a bit of rocking action at the front to keep your guide vertical in the slot. The motor mounts in a cradle that snaps into the chassis, and if necessary, could also be adjusted slightly up or down to get a smoother mesh. This car has been in the collection for eight years, and these great features escaped notice all that time.

Maybe this cheap little car isn’t so cheap after all. While the implementation may not be particularly sophisticated, its good design shines. All the tools are in place to turn this into a smooth and semi-quick vintage runner, and with the use of the modern tools available, and a better selection of parts, this old dog can learn a few worthwhile tricks. Anachronism it may be, but well worth a second look for lower speed thrills.

- Kurt