Tuesday, July 31, 2007

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!

Spy case or soap opera...the McLaren case dragging along



New Ninco Ascari set


Thanks to MRC/Ninco for the news!

Hummer

Hummer
Hummer, originally uploaded by mikes_pics.

A hummer made of aluminium, so bright!!!! I think that a lot of mud and dust is better for a hummer :)

Anyway, a great photo.

Car & smoke

Car & smoke
car & smoke, originally uploaded by tassie303.

A photoshop work to make a stationary car looks mobile. This objetive is achieved and the result is a really pretty photo.

Detail of tuned car

Detail of tuned car
PICT7306, originally uploaded by Bagel!.

This photo shows a detail of a tuned car. You must use your imagination (or go to flickr), in order to see the entire work. But maybe it's better to imagine.

Fire in a classic car

Fire in a classic car
dsc_9473, originally uploaded by Holger Baschleben.

A painted job like this makes you the more cool man in the tuning car meeting.
Some fire painted in and old fashioned car is a attraction.

Maserati GranTurismo

Maserati GranTurismo
Maserati GranTurismo, originally uploaded by jarapet.

Do you remember the Cars movie? Well, this photo is perfect to see where a car has the eyes and where has the mouth. And this maserati fits perfectly as a bad boy.
And with the position of the headlights, you can see how this car is really angry.
What a great job from the trident brand

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG
Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, originally uploaded by jarapet.

That frontal makes this Mercedes look like more agressive and I really like it. A good german engine with a almost perfect design is perfect to make you spend a lot of money :)

Monday, July 30, 2007

Diecast Mustang review


Frank has been busy again, another diecast review to show. This time a 1967 Mustang from Motor Mint!

Check out the Motor Mint site at this link...

More Ninco News for September!

10312-Trackmap Plus Software-$13.98 MSRP
40207-N-Digital Double Lane Change Track Piece-$54.98 MSRP

Wiesmann GT

Wiesmann GT
Wiesmann GT, originally uploaded by Кafka.

My friend, the wallpaper of the week. Another great work form Kafka (username in flickr) :)

Burning

Burning
Total25024r, originally uploaded by Langé.

A car in a race, burning literally its engine :)

Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Porsche 911 GT3 RS
Porsche 911 GT3 RS, originally uploaded by Кafka.

A porsche needs no some tuning touches to show like a beast. This view of this Porsche 911 is all you can see of it, because in a road, it always is ahead.

is this the ultimate driving machine......???

A classic car and red... always a good combination. A 1936 Chevy Pick-up Truck is the proof

Maserati 3200GT

Maserati 3200GT
DSC04841.jpg, originally uploaded by autodetailer.

This rear view of a good car design. Another touches with photoshop and you got a perfect shoot of a top-level car.
MacDude

Nissan 350Z photoshoot

Nissan 350Z photoshoot
Nissan 350Z photoshoot, originally uploaded by Daz85.

A really good shoot is better that a really good photoshop. Look at the reflection of this great Nissan 350z in the floor, and the sky color.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Carrera E200 "E500" Motor Tested

Here is a brand new Carrera E200 motor, factory fresh, as shipped to Wings'n'Wheels Hobbies in Clinton, CT, USA. But, it is clearly printed "E500" on the motor. Is this a new type of motor?

A quick test at 12.00 volts on the tachometer block shows an average of 19,320 RPM, after a 5 minute run up to operating temperature. The tach shines a red light on the spinning black disc, and is actually seeing, and counting, how many times a small piece of reflective tape passes through the light beam.

Since many E200's have been measured at 18k to 21k RPM on test, it looks like this is a run of the mill E200, in spite of the "E500" printed on the case. Must be a factory mis-print, not a new type of motor.

The Silver Bullet

The Silver Bullet
The Silver Bullet, originally uploaded by Gambofoto.

Impala - The Don

Impala - The Don
Impala, originally uploaded by PSP Theme.

Denim Blue Audi TT Mk-I

Denim Blue Audi TT Mk-I
Denim Blue Audi TT Mk-I, originally uploaded by hermanau.

Ferrari 512 BBi

Ferrari 512 BBi
Ferrari 512 BBi, originally uploaded by Кafka.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

SCX Nascar review...Harvick Pennzoil

When there is a new release of a new livery of a slot car, you might wonder to yourself, "well is it really worth it to buy this one too?" Well in the case of the new Kevin Harvick Pennzoil Nascar you maybe want to check out this car at your local hobby shop.

This livery of the car is strikingly done by SCX. Yellow is always a color that raises a red flag with some slotters...it's tough to get that color opaque, well SCX have given us a nice thick coat of yellow paint over a yellow body... no issues here, it's a nice solid yellow.


The tail detail on this body is just as nicely done as the previous models. There are a few spots in the paint on this car, but it's more evident frankly in this photo than when you look at the car with your eye.
One issue with this car is that the wheels still stick outside the body a bit more than they should. It would be great to see SCX make a bit of an adjustment to the axle length here.
I wasn't expecting a change on the chassis treatment but here you have it. A nice flat black look to the chassis! I'm not sure if the material is different than the previous Nascars (and other recent SCX releases for that matter). But the flat black appearance of the chassis I think has a more pleasing look than a glossy paint job. After all real cars have dirty undersides that are seldom shiney.
So is the difference in this car only cosmetic? An emphatic NO! There is more motor pod movement than ANY previous SCX car I've seen...with only the exception of the Pro Audi! The pod has plenty of movement right out of the box. A nice rocking motion allows the pod to move easily. This is a very nice suprise indeed!

I did notice that the chassis fits quite tightly inside the body, it would be good to cut or sand around the edges of the chassis to make free up the stress on the body.
Here we see the RX-42B motor which will rev up to about 20k rpm according to the Slot Car News motor list.

How does this car perform? All testing was done on the my Carrera test track (photo inset here for reference).

I did 50 laps with the car in stock form. I didn't do anything other than put a drop of oil on the bushings at the corners and a drop on each end of the motor.

I got a fastest lap time of 3.0 with about 3.1 being the average.

Then I gave the magnet holder 2 full turns out to drop the magnet down lower to the track. I sanded the stock tires to make sure they had some scuffed rubber to use.

I now had a fastest lap time of 2.6 seconds! Which for reference is what the Scalextric Trans Am Jaguar will do with the stock magnet and Sloter tires in place. The Harvick car is certainly no slouch around the track!

A recommended buy...

Thanks to Distributoys for the car for review!

DaveK
Publisher, Slot Car News