New Carrera Hot Rods

Some pix of two new Carrera Hot Rods.

New Carrera Hot Rods

Some pix of two new Carrera Hot Rods.

Carrera 1/32 Hot Rods review

How do you get the attention of slotters that see hundreds of slot cars come out every year? You carve out a niche for yourself. Carrera started going for the US muscle car niche a while ago, they were so popular that other companies may follow suit in that era. But Carrera are forging ahead with new cars that are surely focussed squarely at the US market...these hot rods follow in the tracks laid by the vintage muscle cars.

The hot rods aren't classic hot rods, they're more aimed at the bling generation rather than the baby boomers. More Boyd Coddington hot rod, less classic hot rod.

The wheels are striking, like them or not these wheels dominate the overall appearance of the cars. The wheels are large, very large. In fact, the yellow car's rear tires are about 27mm's high and the black/red car's rears are about 24mm high. And I know that many boomer slotters (and there are a lot of you aren't there?) may not like the bling feel of these rods. Carrera have made both classic and tuner versions of their muscle cars and hopefully we might see some releases that would follow the oldschool style... Moon Disc's and narrow tires with white walls maybe?


The yellow car's wheels are larger than the black/red car's wheels, this may give the yellow car a faster feel since there's got to be a difference in the final gear ratio because of that. During testing with both cars the consensus was that the yellow car had a better feel. It felt as though it was faster and more stuck down...even on wood track.

Despite the scene stealing wheels the body details on both the cars is quite conservative. Only a few printing details on the bodies, and both cars have no issues with the 2 printed stickers on the red/black car or the 3 on the yellow car. Overall the finish is well done and compliments the body lines but I do feel the paint on the back of the yellow car is a bit thin.

Inside the cars is a tightly packed bunch of wires. Even if you'd like to put weight in these cars you'd have a hard time finding room to do it...not that you'll need it given the weight of the cars.

One very cool detail that I really hope Carrera carries forward on new releases is the drop away motor pod. With one screw you can drop the rear end way from the body and lube to your heart's content all without removing the body entirely! BTW, this feature is in the early running for "cool new feature of the year"....

So if you're going to make a slot car with no hood you'd darn well better make a nice model, Carrera did. From the cylinder heads up (the bottom of the motor sits on diamond plate) the motor is a well done model.

I'd like to talk about the lights on the cars but both cars lost the front lights within a few minutes on both cars.

On plastic the dual magnets really held the cars tightly to the track and really gave a tremendous stop-on-a-dime braking feel. Both cars felt stable even with the yellow car weighing in at a stout 98 grams! The stability is probably helped by those massive tires which stick out to a full 2.5 inches wide (the red and black car has a 1/16" narrower track).

What's the verdict? Well, are you into the classic rod look or do those massive wheels do it for you? There's nothing here that will surprise the regular Carrera customer in a negative way (setting the headlights aside...yours may work just fine). They aren't race cars but they sure beg to be raced, now someone will have to start making some 1/32 city scenery for all these tuner slot cars that are being released. The cars run well on both plastic and wood and run together there's great racing ahead of you if you buy them together.

Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News

Carrera's 1/24 Hot Rods-a review

Carrera 1/24 hot rods surprised me with their great handling and
driving fun. Dave's wood track is 22 feet around, with a seven foot
straight connected by a hairpin, a four foot straight, an ess, and a
sweeper. Drive a Slot.It through there, and a lap is over in two
seconds; it reminds me of racing with magnets, even though the track is
nonmagnetic. We had dropped the voltage to 11 with a string of diodes
in one of the main power leads. You would think a 1/24 car would
overpower this track, but no! The new rods are perfectly suited to it.
If the 18v motor turns some 20k on 18v, it turns 12k on 11, and 15k on 13.6v. We ran on both voltages, and everything was fine. Lights were good, power was good, drifting, braking, sliding, and CONTROL. The cars balanced power with traction and weight in a way I would call PERFECT. It reminded me of the very first slot cars I ran, long ago:
Strombeckers on a 13' figure eight. Those cars were underpowered, with an 8.5k, 16 g-cm motor (no misprint!), but they felt great to drive. Same with the Carrera. You really don't need all that much power for a great driving experience. Ask the guys who run NC1's! The mass of the Carrera cars makes them feel more like real cars in their response to driving input.

I stayed later than I had planned, the cars were so cool to drive. On the way home, I was thinking of low powered, heavy 1/24 cars I could build with vintage bodies, big tires, smooth motors, great gears . . .

Robert Livingston, Technical Editor Slot Car News
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A night of racing the new Carrera 1/24 Hot Rods has made me realize that I've been missing out on this larger scale. And missing out on some great releases from Carrera. The new hot rods match up well together and have a great level of detail and presence on the track. The paint schemes on the cars is striking:


Both cars have very, very well done flames down the sides. And both cars have the same large modern design of wheels.

The motor detail is worth the price of admission alone:


An agreesively sloped grille on the '34 hot rod and a roofline that's strikingly like the Prowler:

And a wide fat chrome grille on the '41 hot rod:


As for performance Rob hit the nail on the head. These cars are absolutely fantastic to run together. They're smooth, and responsive and have excellent "feel" when you drive them.

They both have large swing arm guide holders and the usual reversing switch which looks amazingly tiny on these large cars.

We pulled the swing arm away to reveal the brass bearings underneath.

There are some nice details like the speakers across the back shelf of the '41.

The custom interior...

...the dash instruments on the '34...

...and the front suspension on the '34...


Both cars have plenty of room to pass on the Carrera track.

The '41 Hot Rod


On track test

The '41 felt heavy and slower than the '34 did. In fact the '41 fastest lap was a hard to turn 2.3 seconds with the average being 2.5 seconds. By contrast the blue '34 roadster turned a nimble 2.2 seconds fastest lap with a very easily paced 2.3 average lap. The roadster felt much lighter and cornered much more predictably than did it's portly counterpart. It was much easier to hang the tail out on the '34 as well. No such tail-out foolishness for the other 'rod. I guess that all the weight that made the '41 hot rod more driveable on the wood track was now working against it with magnets in play.

Even using the stock 13.8 volt power supply that came with the test track I have (the Fast & Furious set 17' lap length) the cars could easily get into deslotting trouble. I'm thinking that if you're going with magnet racing you may want to add a magnet (or at least one that's stronger than stock) to the '41 hot rod or at least adjust the magnet height.

And I shot one (of the many) deslots that happened during the 99 lap testing session.

To wrap this up...they're a great pair of cars to buy/race together. They are solidly made, well detailed and painted. What else can I say...take them out for a cruise around town.

Thanks to Carrera USA for the cars to review!
DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News