slotcarillustrated

JAGUAR C-TYPE L.M. WINNER 1953/1955

2009-03-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

JAGUAR C-TYPE L.M. WINNER 1953 T.ROLT / D.HAMILTION #18
(RACING GREEN0

Model Number : 13571
Category : Slot racing
Scale : 1:32 Slot racing
Make : JAGUAR
Weight in kg : 0.5 kg
Availability : Available within USA & Canada

This 1:32 scale slot car is a replica of the race car driven by Hawthorne & Bueb #6 at the world’s most prestigious endurance racing event in 1955.

This 1:32 scale slot car is a replica of the race car driven by Hawthorne & Bueb #18 at the world’s most prestigious endurance racing event in 1953.

The first track test was on a small Carrera track. The braids needed a downward tweak to make good contact with the rails, but that's not unusual for any car The Jag’s are quiet and smooth and feels easy to drive. Acceleration is quite gentle, and the strong magnet gives it good traction. They are fast, but you need a long straight to find out! Braking is fairly good, though it's mainly the magnet that slows the car down. The Jag’s magnet is relatively narrow so high speed cornering can cause the car to drift( understatement), moving the magnet away from the track rails, causing the car to (let’s say always for me ) spin and roll over.

The slot car itself looks so good, it would be a shame to race it. Tires, wheels, and vehicle stance are a great place to start.

The new Jaguar D-Type slot car comes with rear wheel drive, magnetic traction, and working headlights.

The body is clean and sharp with no molding flaws or lines. Every panel line and detail is crisply defined, and the lights, windscreens etc fit perfectly. The bonnet houses the engine,which appears to be held down with chrome latches. It's nicely done and very effective - I almost expected it to open to reveal the engine underneath!

Revell Monogram 1964 Ferrari 275 P Kit

2009-03-12T09:18:00.000-07:00

In 1964, the Ferrari entry at Sebring included their new 275 P and 330 P prototypes. After 12 hours, a 275 P Ferrari emerged the victor, defeating even its bigger brother the 330 P. To prove that the win by the smaller car was no fluke, the Ferrari 275 P, repeated its performance at Le Mans, setting a new record average speed of 121.5 mph for the distance just short of 3,000 miles in 24 hours. This illustrates vividly what Ferrari has known for years, that racing improves the breed. Through racing and winning, Ferrari has the most highly regarded name in the field of high performance cars, today.

1964 FERRARI 275 P #22
KIT: 27 piece slot car assembly kit
CHASSIS: Sebring adjustable
MAGNET: 2 fixed locations behind guide & at rear
GUIDE: Standard with copper braid
BEARINGS: Nylon
MOTOR: Boxer style 18,000 rpm
MOTOR CONFIGURATION: Inline

Rating out of five stars
Ease of assembly
Quality of moldings
Look of finished product
Ease of instructions
Drivability

Monogram #4892 Special Edition '63 Ford Galaxie 500 #28 Fred Lorenzen

2009-03-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

Fred Lorenzen’s cup career spanned 12 years with 26 wins, 84 top tens and 32 poles, this was achieved with only 158 races run. From 1961 until 1967 Lorenzen drove the famous white and blue #28 Ford for the Holman and Moody team. Fred was the first driver to earn over $100,000 in a single season. He was named one of the cup series 50 greatest drivers in 1998 and inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in America in 2001.

Monogram’s 1/32 scale slot car of the Fred Lorenzen’s 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 #28 cup car captures the appearance of the car marvelously with with what you could call an early attempt at anaggressive line and contour right there to see. But performance-wise these cars have not enjoyed a reputation to match their looks. Still, there is hidden potential, and a couple of simple tricks will go a long way toward giving them the performance they should have.

In stock form the rear tires don’t deliver the grip they should. Switching to aftermarket tires is worth several tenths of a second per lap, depending on the configuration of your track. However, the stock tires, with a little work, may be an even better choice. Their problem, as they come from the factory, is that their tread surface is seriously concave. This means that only the inner and outer edges of the tire are touching the track. Since traction on a dry surface is a direct function of the area of rubber in contact with the road surface (the “contact patch”, as it’s known) most of the potential traction of those tires is being lost.

2009-02-15T15:57:00.000-08:00

SCX Pro Citroen Xsara, Sordo No 11.is a stunning car. presented in a cigar style kit case. SCX throws in some extras to like an extra braid, Screws and M2 Allen key for all the M2 adjustable grub screws, Spare Guide and Crown Gear.

The Tampo Printing is crisp, clear and easily read . The driver and co-driver have rich detail

The Car Body is most certainly lightweight much thinner than any of my other slotcars

The Xsara Pro handles superbly on the slippery curves, aided no doubt by the simple but very clever idea of having 'taller' gearing on the front axle than on the rear. The front wheels rotate faster with the aim of pulling the car through the turns, mimicking the way power can be delivered on a real-life 4x4 rally car. It accelerates and brakes superbly and it sounds and 'feels' very smooth as you'd expect with it having calibrated wheel-rims, axles and crown-wheels.

It took a few minutes to set the car up for an initial run; basically setting the guide-arm end screw and reducing vertical float in the front axle. I left the body off for the first few shake-down runs to enable me to make adjustments more quickly. Once the car was driving nicely, I fitted the body and started to have fun.

Fitted Pro motor with true 4X4 power distribution thanks to its dual drive shaft, I never liked the belt drive that other 4x4 cars have too much slippage. It comes with full maintenance and instruction guide book, lots of words, but look pictures. The cars offer great track performance hugs the curves and traverses my uneven track with ease.

The Chassis features drop arm guide with double pivot

Frank

Regards.......

Autoworld Release 4

2009-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

Autoworld Release 4
Flamethrower Chassis
Red Ford GT

Autoworld/Round 2 has released their new X-Traction cars. Release 4 is the new Flamethrower chassis. The flamethrower chassis is a slot car chassis that has a small light under the front of the car that creates the appearance of headlights when the car is driven.
There are 6 different bodies, each with two colors, in this release, and I have one of the prettiest available in this review, the Ford GT, in a great looking Red.

The body is a good match to the original car. The car is modeled after the famed 1960's Ford Gt40s.
This is one of the most beautiful cars ever made and the Autoworld version conveys that very nicely. The car's stance is very good and although it doesn't have every last detail of the real car still looks very good.
Overall, this is a very good body, the center of gravity is very low, which helps with the handling of the car. Its overall shape is a good match to the real car, and especially in this red color really looks great.

The chassis is basically an X-Traction chassis, but modifications have been made to account for the lights being wired into the front. The X-traction chassis is a modern reproduction of the AFX magnatraction chassis that was first introduced in 1974 or 1975 and was the last dominate pancake motor chassis in HO scale slot cars. Now this is not a magnet chassis in the modern sense, but it does use the motor magnets to assist in holding the car down to the track. This is an improvement over the thunderjet chassis which does not use magnets to hold the cars on the track, but it doesn't compare to today's modern cars. What does that mean for this car, it means you must slow down to go through a corner. Much like the thunderjet, it also allows the car's rear end to slide out like a real car's might do when it fishtails or power slides. This adds a great element of realism once you have learned to master that driving technique.
This chassis has always been a good chassis. It runs very smoothly at all speeds and is even faster down a straight-away than the original AFX. The pickup shoes are wide and create a very good contact patch with the rails thus transferring electricity very effectively. The tires are very good for stock tires, they are fairly sticky and allow for great racing right out of the box.
Now I'm not sold on all of the changes they have made. The most obvious is that the springs are gone and have been replaced with the narrow copper tabs. These tabs allow for the lights to be soldered tot he electrical system and also provide the tension against the pick-up shoes. The tabs make it hard to adjust the tension on the shoes and can create some that are soft and can come off the rail, causing loss of power, and others that are too hard and can cause hopping of the front end, especially over joints in the track. Secondly, they have made a place for a traction magnet to go near the right rear wheel. While this will allow them to make a pretty interesting chassis down the road, it does cause the rear wheels to be slightly wider than normal on some of the models I've seen. This shouldn't cause a problem while running the cars but does cause a slight appearance problem while they are being displayed.

There are only two problems with this car. The first has been a problem with lighted cars for over 30 years, and does not effect the performance of the cars. The light gets its power from the track the same as the motor does, therefore unless you are going full speed the lights are never fully lit, and are therefore never shining as brightly as they can. As you drive this car or any car with lights, it is bright enough to see the car when the room is darkened, but not bright enough to light the track ahead of the car.
The second problem is a little more severe. As you can see from the picture the body doesn't sit correctly on the chassis. The body ends up with the drivers side rear not having enough tire showing. This is not the only time I have seen this on the flamethrower versions of these cars so they must have an off center die somewhere in manufacturing. Hopefully they can find it and replace the molds.

In Summary Autoworld has done a good job representing one of the best sports cars ever manufactured. Is the car perfect, no but it looks really good.
The chassis is nice and smooth and allows for a lot of fun on both tight twisty tracks and long fast tracks. The headlights aren't perfect, but they are as good as any HO scale car ever has been. And they add that little bit of realism to the car as it is driven without too much of a sacrifice to the overall function of the chassis. And don't forget it lets the kids race those day/night races with the basement lights turned off, and simulate those long sports car races like Daytona and LeMans.
Autoworld makes this model in both Red and Blue, and I can't wait to add them both to my collection of cars.

Thanks to Autoworld Slot Cars for the car to review.

MikeG

Long Beach Grand Prix

2008-09-29T16:09:00.000-07:00

What a great Set....

Read the review here....

test

2008-03-16T08:11:00.001-07:00

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