AUTOArt is making it easy these days to write about their cars...apparently nothing stays the same from release to release so there's plenty to write about.
I've spent a lot of time recently extolling the virtues of the wonderful paint jobs on the recent cars from AUTOArt, these cars are no different. Nice thick, deep white paint and a sort of dark mustard yellow/orange on the other.
Stub axles, that's right stub axles on the front of the Mustangs...but wait, these are no ordinary stub axles. They're metal! Yes AUTOArt has given us the first (at least I think it is) metal stub axles in an RTR slot car. They spin very, very smoothly and, well if you're going to buy a car with stub axles you'd want them to be this nicely done.
The wheels on these cars do have quite a bit of flash around the edges where the halves of the wheels come together (under the tires). Out of the box the tires aren't quite seated on the tires. And it is possible to get the tires aligned but to get everything smoothed out nicely requires at least trimming the flash from underneath each of the car's tires.
I flipped the white "05" over and much to my shock found a front motored car. A slot car with not one bar magnet but 2, one on each side of the crown gear. So, screw driver in hand, I opened up the car, hoping to find a black stripe motor inside...nope. These cars have the red stripe motor, which if you remember, is the motor with light braking characteristics.
So onto the Carrera layout the "Bay Bridge" (photo inset). I ran the Mustang for 100 laps on the track with an average lap time of about 3.0 seconds, and a best time of 2.8 seconds. I decided to see what recent AutoArt releases would do when compared to this car. The Bugatti Veyron did a 3.3 lap, the Porsche Carrera 911 (996) and the 911 (997) Carrera S both did around 3.2 fastest lap. Even with much better weaker brakes the Mustang felt faster than did most of the cars and lap times backed this up.
So compared with the Carrera Mustang for magnetic application:
1. Overall the AutoArt car is maybe a bit better detailed (notably the front grille detail is better I think) but not as good braking as the Carrera. A tie on these points.
2. Both are reasonably priced. A tie again.
3. I'd think that the Carrera car would be a bit better for non-magnet racing due to the mid-body mounted magnet. Advantage Carrera (but at this early stage I'll admit this guess might be completely incorrect...testing will be done on this car for its non-mag possibilities).
4. The AutoArt comes with extra guides, the Carrera with extra brushes only...a tie I guess.
5. I've tried for some time now to get the Carrera car to work well in a non-mag setting (with its inline rear motor), the AutoArt is front motored...hmmmmm...advantage Carrera (for no mag slotters out there).
I restored the Carrera to its stock rear axle/wheels/gears and gave it a good run on the plastitrack...
6. Fastest lap time for the Carrera of 3.2 seconds with both stock magnets (which were never removed for non mag racing). The Carrera car does NOT accelerate as quickly nor does it sound as smooth and is not as quiet as the AutoArt...advantage AutoArt, a big advantage for the magnet racers out there!
7. The AutoArt's guide lead is longer. The track of the rear wheels on the AutoArt is 58mm, the Carrera's is 56.5, not much difference, but it's certainly wider when you put the cars side-by-side. Advantage AutoArt.
8. Another point and it's something hard to put measurements on, at least for me, is the Carrera has always felt a bit too high down the center line of the car. The AutoArt is noticeably flatter down the center, the overall effect is a lower and wider feel to the AutoArt...advantage AutoArt.
So..... in this very informal and completely unscientific match up...the AutoArt's are the winner(s).
Thanks to AutoArt/Global Gateway for these cars for review!
DaveK
Slot Car News
