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!
