A Tale Of Two Porsches

SCX surprised everyone back in 2007 when they first introduced the Audi R8 Pro Car. Here was a mass producer of slot cars bringing a car to market that was loaded with goodies: setscrew wheels and gearing, adjustable chassis, interchangeable motor pods, and lightweight racing body. What surprised me even more? Getting beat at my club by a race tuned SCX Audi R8. Then, last year SCX introduced the Pro Porsche 997. Is it really any better than the standard SCX Porsche 997? How does the Pro Porsche compare to Porsche 996/997 models from other slot manufacturers? Let’s find out!

Let’s start by looking at what comes in the box. The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Pro (50590) comes attractively packaged in a box that could double as a pit case in a pinch. Inside the box are the Porsche’s chassis, body, motor, extra motor pod for boxer type motors, an extra guide, some extra braid and screws, and an extra mechanical brake shoe. The body is decorated in a racing livery from the Carrera Supercup. Also included is a glossy covered booklet: Driving And Maintenance Guide. Interestingly, the guide is illustrated with photos of the Pro R8. Fortunately the Porsche’s chassis has adjustments identical to that of the Audi so the instructions do apply. The guide book lays out in simple terms how to assemble and adjust the Pro car. While more experienced slot racers might take car setup for granted, someone new to the hobby will find this to be a valuable resource. The booklet goes one step further and presents a few basic racing strategies. Again, this will be useful information to someone new to the hobby. If you’ve bought a Pro Car and haven’t read the manual (tucked under the foam rubber packaging) it really is worth a look.

Putting the car together is a snap. Only two screws hold the body onto the chassis. A closer look at the body screws shows that SCX has sweated the smallest details of this car. The smooth shank of the body screws allows the body to float without interference from the screw’s threads. SCX has also provided more a highly adjustable chassis for the Porsche Pro Car. The adjustments include front axle ride height, motor pod float front and rear, as well as the usual adjustments afforded by setscrew wheels and gears. SCX even includes a hex driver to help get the job done.

At the heart of this car is SCX’s potent RX4H motor. This powerplant has been tested to 26,000 RPMs! A far cry from the mild-mannered RX42B that came installed in the standard Porsche. Let’s pay the standard car some attention.

While at first glance the standard and Pro Porsches look quite similar, they are in fact two totally different cars. Where the Pro car sports a half pan interior, full front axle, and RX4H motor, the standard car has a full interior, front stub axles, and RX42B motor. I know that a lot of slot racers aren’t a big fan of stub axles since the performance advantage of independently rotating front wheels is normally lost by the play inherent with this type of design. SCX has made the effort to get it right.

There is minimal play on the front wheels of my test car, and both wheels spin freely. I suspect that the stub axle design is a result of SCX designers making room for the digital chip and lane changing mechanism. Another benefit of this design is that there’s lots of room for weight placement which is a boon to non-magnet racers. Other differences to note between the two cars are the Pro car being 2.4mm wider than the standard car, and the standard car uses 5 screws to hold the body on vs. the Pro car’s 2 screws. The Pro car is also 5g lighter than the standard car, tipping the scales at 75g vs 80g. While the standard car does not have an adjustable motor pod, it does have SCX’s excellent 4 post motor pod design which effectively decouples the drivetrain from the body/chassis. The standard car also features functioning headlights and tail lights.

As good as both of these SCX cars look, they are destined for a life on the track, not as shelf queens. The Pro car ships without a traction magnet whereas the standard car has a typical SCX adjustable bar mag. Out of the box the standard car pulled 85g yielding a 9.044s fastest lap around my 22m test track. A quick adjustment with a screwdriver boosted magnetic downforce to 293g and saw the lap time plummet to 7.278s. For the sake of comparison I tested a few other Porsche 996/997 models in my collection with magnets.

Here’s how they stacked up with traction magnets in place:
• 6.610s – Scalextric Flying Lizard Porsche 996 (comes stock with a hotter Sport Plus motor)
• 7.278s – SCX Porsche 997
• 7.503s – NINCO Porsche 997
• 8.343s – Scalextric Red Bull Porsche 996

When it came time to remove the traction magnets, I first tested each SCX car with stock tires, and then once again after fitting Slot.it S2s. The lap times for the Pro car dropped from 9.375s to 8.204s, and went from 11.657s to 8.871s for the standard car. With a bit of weight added I was able to get the Pro car down to 7.784s, and the standard car down to 8.274. I then fitted S2 tires to my comparison cars and recorded some hot laps with each of them.

Here’s how the SCX cars stack up in non-magnet trim against the competition using an S2 control tire:
• 7.278s – SCX Pro Porsche 997
• 8.274s – Standard SCX Porsche 997
• 8.548s – Scalextric Red Bull Porsche 996
• 8.959s – Scalextric Flying Lizard Porsche 996
• 9.328s – NINCO Porsche 997

Clearly SCX has raised the performance stakes with these Porsches. While hobbyists will pay a premium for the performance of the Pro car, the standard SCX Porsche is an excellent value for the money. It can be made into a competitive race with only a bit of ballast and a better set of tires. For someone looking to make the step to a better performing car, the Pro car is an excellent choice. The range of setup options will be beneficial to someone just starting to learn about slot car tuning, and will give the seasoned racer an excellent platform to build on.

Van LaPointe

Carrera Mustang-Fire Chief "livery"

It's 3am at the Bay Street Chief is sitting in the parking lot at Red's Java House when the call comes in..."Station Five...125 Mission Street...structure fire" the Chief jumps into his car and tears out of the lot, lights and the 5 litre Ford motor screaming...
Coming or going you can see him coming from a mile away, the bright, fire red 'Stang is always the first on the scene....

Carrera is really getting the most from the 2005 Mustang's they've made. The Grand Am car and CHiP's car was only the beginning. The latest release, the Fire Chief's Mustang, is another car that at first glance might not be an immediate "must have" but, just like the California Highway Patrol car, is one that every kid will be begging for.
Around the Carrera track, the car did a respectable 2.8 seconds. The 94 gram car has a pair of red lights on top that flash very brightly as soon as the car begins to roll. The headlights and tail lights are very bright, as are the red lights on top.
The printing on the car is very good. The paint is solid and free of blemishes. The car lacks an interior and has solid black glass just as the CHP does. Both the Fire Chief car and the CHP car both feel more stable than the Grand Am car and have a less top heavy feel in the corners.
It will be interesting to see what Carrera decides to do next with this body. Another Cop car? Maybe a current Grand Am racer?

HO Champ cars anyone? Mike's latest review

Racemasters/TOMY's latest cars are reviewed here by Mike.

NYPD slot car-HO review

A review from Mike of the Racemaster NYPD HO slot car is at this link!

AutoArt Porsche Carrera GT-review

A link to the latest review, the AutoArt Porsche Carrera GT.

Long Beach GP set-HO review

MikeG has done a review of the new AFX Champ Car HO set....check it out at this link.

AUTOArt Porsche Carrera GT-review

It's bright red, it's low, and guess what...it's a great model! But there is more to say about the new AUTOArt Carrera GT. Each new model Aa has released has seen changes, this release is no exception.
First some of the body details worth noting. Deep, rich red paint that's flawless. Nicely done tail lights and rear body valence (the valence is a separate piece I found out when I took the car apart).
The question came up on a message board if this car has ever been raced, I asked Porsche Motorsport USA, and the answer was a definate "NO". Porsche has used various parts on this car in competition but this car itself hasn't seen track time in a race...according to Porsche.
The signature feature of the real Carrera GT is the vents over the engine. Aa has given slotters an excellent model here, a very crisply printed vent over the model of the motor.
The motor on this car is an unmarked Mabuchi S-can motor (like they usually use but without any of the identifying stripes that most motors carry). There are only 3 noise suppressors on this car. I note this because every recent release has had at least 5 (yes 5!) suppressors in place. Inside we also see (though maybe not shown in the photo) that 3 of the clips that hold the axles/bearings down are missing. It's not a problem since the clips are what I would consider not essential to the operation of the car, but it's noteworthy because they're missing on only 3 of the wheels.
So the wheels...wow! I love the detail that Aa has done with these models. Every car they've done has had what I consider to be industry leading detail on the wheels. The brakes are also "cross drilled" with holes and the discs themselves are painted and really add depth to the slot car that's not seen in other companies.
Under the car we see that Aa has used the wireless system to get the power to the track. I'm frankly not a huge fan of this design. The tabs put pressure on the guide (which has a rather stiff self-centering spring on this car BTW) and that pressure is a bit strong and can be uneven if they get bent a bit. Also on this car are the older style guides that don't have the eyelets that all recent Aa releases have had. I'm not sure why this car has the older type of guide design, but let's hope that Aa will continue with the newer guide with the eyelets in the future. The newer design means good, constant contact between the guide and motor... a good thing IMO.

On the track:
Well there was a bit more gear noise than I would have liked on this car. But after a number of laps I put a different Aa car on the track to test for noise and they sounded pretty much the same. It seems the Porsche Cup Car that I recently reviewed was an exceptionally quiet car. I tried a number of laps with the Cup Car to compare and sure enough, it's very quiet. So by comparison the Carrera GT is still much quieter than most cars...especially (cough)Ninco(cough)Fly(cough).

I did 100 laps with the blazing red Carrera GT and got a hard-fought fastest lap of 2.7 seconds. A few ticks slower than the Cup Car, but faster than most cars on my track. The brakes were slightly different on this car, I'm not sure what the deal is with Aa's motors anymore because of the lack of any stripe or other identifying marks on this motor. That's not to say it's a bad motor by any means it's just confusing what with each release you see a different motor inside and no specs given for it's RPM rating on the packaging.

The performance of the car was about what you'd expect for these recent releases. It's still a fairly light-braking car, but that's ok with me for magnet racing. It's pretty easy to get the tail out on the car around the corners but it's pretty predictable and you feel like you can push the car pretty far.
I must say exotics as the subject of slot cars is growing on me a bit...but just a bit. As a collector piece Aa cars car stand with the best diecasts. As slot cars they're solid performers, this car is no exception to that. The Porsche Carrera GT from AUTOArt is a good slot car that a Porsche collector should look into getting.

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News

Diecast review-Schuco

A review of some Schuco diecasts written by Frank can be found at this link.

Franklin Mint diecast Mustang-review

A review of the new Franklin Mint 1/24 Mustang is at this link.
For a retail price of around $100.00 this car should be on the high end of fit and finish...is it? Read Frank's review and find out.

AutoArt Porsche 911(997) Cup car-review

Read the full review of the new AutoArt Porsche Cup Car at this link...

Diecast review-Jada Mustang and Camaro Concept car

A review of the Jada Toys Concept Camaro and Ford Mustang in 1/32. Check out the reviews, they're really nice looking cars.

Carrera Corvette C6.R-review

Carrera has recently released a new livery of the Corvette C6.R. Recent releases of the iconic Corvette have been pretty much the yellow American LeMans series car, this time Carrera has chosen to release a LeMans Series livery from 2006.
Photo used with permission of the LeMans Series, no reuse.

Carrera has really done a good job reproducing the car's complicated livery design.


The running gear on this car as well as the chassis design remain the same from the first releases of the Corvette. The same pair of magnets are in place under the car.
As we look inside however we find the new E500 motor... a "new" motor which still hasn't been confirmed by Carrera. By that I mean it doesn't appear anywhere on the website nor has it been addressed on any message board as being a new motor. Recently Slot Car News has tested the motor and found it to be identical in rpm to the "old" E200.
On the track the car is very fast. With a 50 lap testing run I got a lap time of 2.4 seconds around my Carrera testing track. Which is a time that surpasses a Scalextric Trans Am Jaguar that I've used as a benchmark (with a 2.6 fastest lap time).

The car feels very nailed down with the magnets in the stock positions and the stock tires in place. It's very easy to push the 'Vette very fast, very quickly. It doesn't take long at all, maybe 5 laps, to get the hang of the handling of the car. Basically there aren't any negative surprises when you push the car. It feels quite balanced and easy to drive... recommended for the hobbyist as well as the newbie...

DaveK

New Carrera Petty 'cars

The King has returned! The new Richard Petty edition cars (the Ford Torino model #27187 and the Plymouth Superbird model #27186) are here finally. These are certainly the most obvious liveries that simply had to be released when these bodies where first shown. And I don't know if it was intentional but the driver does bear more than a passing resemblance to Richard himself.

So now a good long look at them...
To say the paint on these cars is good is an understatement. They're done very, very well, and the few sponsor logos on the car are perfect as well.



Just in case you were thinking that the only new thing here was the paint job you'd be wrong. The chassis under the car is the same that has been used for previous releases of the Superbird and Torino. The body is quite a tight fit on top of the chassis.
Inside we see what does appear to be a new motor. The E500 has been tested by Rob Livingston of Slot Car News and was found to be identical in the RPM to the E200.
On track these cars steady and solid performing slot cars. With 100 laps of testing on my Carrera track, they got a fastest time of around 3.0 seconds. They tended to slide out if you corner too fast and I must admit to having unintentionally done a 1/32 version of one of Petty's more spectacular accidents. I flipped the car and due to the ultra-smooth paint the car slide down the entire length of the straight....DOH!!!!!!
I know that some slotters have made their own Petty cars using various aftermarket decals but now Carrera has finally released the car that will define these bodies.

These cars are important for another reason as well. They are excellent cross over slot cars that might find their way into the collections of non slot car collectors...let's hope they attract more attention to our hobby!