[richardtheforth]

Thanks Woodcote, a really balanced review of Carrera cars. I'm a bit of a fan and have been buying them for ages. They have/had the benefit of being some of the cheapest cars you could buy new 10-15 years ago when I started buying and collecting, it wasn't unusual to see them for £18-20 new when Scalextric cars were £22-25. They're still a bit cheaper than most mainstream makes.
What I really like though is that Carrera, like Revell, SCX, Pink Car, etc, have made some odd and unusual model choices that you just don't get from other manufacturers. For those of us who just like running laps on a home track where fastest isn't necessarily best, they certainly help make the field a bit more varied and interesting for those of us that are interested in a broader range of cars than the usual GT3, F1 or whatever. Having said that, I've got fastest lap times for 120 of my cars and there are 6 Carrera cars in the top 20 so on Scalextric track they're not that bad!