Carrera's new C6.R Corvette might slip under the radar of the average slotter unless you're a fan of the 'Vette but this is a car not to be missed. If I hadn't seen the real C6.R racing during last year's American LeMans Series race at Lime Rock Park I might not have been waiting for this car...
And if I hadn't also seen the prototype that was on display at the New York Toyshow I might not have been waiting with a small string of drool cascading from my lip. Seeing both the real car and the model made this car one of the top 5 cars to be purchased this year EVEN before I got the word via the internet grapevine that this car was not to be missed.
All too often reviewers (myself included) fall all over themselves to talk about how great a car is...well let me start by picking myself up off the ground and tell you that THIS CAR IS GREAT!
The Carrera 'Vette is 98 grams of race-ready slot car. If you're into magnets, great, it's got 2 in place both totaling enough downforce to lap my Artin American Thunder test track at a sub 3 second lap. The car's got the usual sliding magnet in the center toward the front at the second mag on the rear.
The tires do lack as much stick 'em as I like and for that we slip on a set of Ortmann's for Slot It 20x11's. Now we're really cookin'. The car leaps around the track now that it can take advantage of all the E200 has to offer.
On the center lane of my wood track the car clearly the smoothest Carrera I've driven to date. Either with the Ortmann's or totally stock if there's something, ANYTHING wrong with the wheels/tires/motor that might give a hint of being wobbly or out of round even I can't find it.
The same story is told on the ENYR, the car will turn 5.45's all day long (with Ortmann's). And it even dipped down into RAA '06 contender status with an impressive 5.35 lap! I kid you not, this car moves out.
Inside we find nothing that's surprising. Lots of wires (some have to be pushed aside so the front axle can rotate smoothly) and the plastic gears that most RTR company's use. I'd love to see Carrera go out on a limb and get some nice brass gears, but then maybe the car wouldn't be as silent as it is out of the box, eh?
The interior features a half pan design. Many of Carrera's cars have this and I think it's the way to go. I don't go in for details that can't be seen easily. Especially since a full interior adds weight that's a performance killer. Kudos to whoever made the decision to not go with the current trend of the heavy, unneeded interior details. And hey, I bet it keeps the cost down as well.
The lights on this car are bright but the holes for the front lights don't allow the best projection of that light, I'd like to shave out the plastic just a bit to allow those lights to show the way.
The contours of this car are wonderful. To my untrained eye they look enough like the real car to satisfy me. The paint near the rear NACA vents is a bit thin but you really need to be looking for it (so I guess I'm picking a nit that most won't either car or see in their car maybe). The paint overall is really nicely done. Yellow can be hard to do and with Carrera's recently released 512BBLM they didn't apply as much base yellow as I'd like, but on this car it's opaque and beautiful.
Thanks to Gene from Slot Car Place for the car for this review!
Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News
