13th-Jan-25, 03:48 PM
It has been a very long time since any manufacturer has produced a current NASCAR and 2010/11 was the last time they appeared in Scalextric and SCX catalogues. Carrera has thus delighted all NASCAR fans with four of the current Chevrolet Camaros.
Now I know I am very much in the minority here but I love NASCAR so these were an absolute must buy.
As usual they are a hefty bit of kit with the standard Carrera hallmark of a reverse polarity switch for running the other way round the track. However, there appears to be something like a digital chip fitted at the front end. They are definitely both analogue cars which work just fine on my track and, as with the full size car, there are no lights fitted so what is this stuff? Anybody know?
So far so good but.......
I am pleased to report not a single quality control issue with them, just wish other manufacturers could approach their build standards but inevitably we come to a major downside - the wheels and tyres. First off they have put Carrera labelling on the tyres, talk about spoiling the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar! Having no doubt spent a small fortune on a NASCAR licence surely they could have forked out a smidgen more for a Goodyear one?
On the track, as expected, there was virtually no grip and they slithered their way round my 50ft lap in slightly under ten seconds. A box standard Scalextric car can usually manage under seven seconds so this was particularly bad. Now there is very little you can do to improve things with Carrera tyres as any application of oil usually results in them turning to complete mush in a very short space of time so I would normally replace them with Paul Gage urethanes. This is where things get really bad though, they have non standard size wheels with a different diameter shoulder on each side so there is currently no direct replacement available.
Until Paul comes up with some suitable tyres I am afraid these lovely cars will therefore stay as shelf queens for the present but if you have plastic track I am sure they will perform perfectly well, magnets can hide a multitude of sins!
Now I know I am very much in the minority here but I love NASCAR so these were an absolute must buy.
As these are Carrera cars I knew roughly what to expect - excellent quality, heavy, solidly built cars that are not the world's greatest performers on track and so it proved.
The four Hendrick Motorsport cars have been released and I bought the Chase Elliot #9 and Kyle Larson #5 versions. Alex Bowman's #48 and William Byron's #24 cars are also available.
Bodyshells
These are well up to Carrera’s usual standards, beautifully finished with no blemishes whatsoever. NASCAR sponsors change from race to race so it is virtually impossible to check full authenticity of these liveries but they look near perfect to my eye with all the major sponsors covered. I suspect they are based on early season races as they don't have the little chequered flag decals indicating race wins. Later season cars would have one on Chase Elliott's car and several on Kyle Larson's.
Chassis
Things started to get a little weird when I opened the cars though.
As usual they are a hefty bit of kit with the standard Carrera hallmark of a reverse polarity switch for running the other way round the track. However, there appears to be something like a digital chip fitted at the front end. They are definitely both analogue cars which work just fine on my track and, as with the full size car, there are no lights fitted so what is this stuff? Anybody know?
So far so good but.......
I am pleased to report not a single quality control issue with them, just wish other manufacturers could approach their build standards but inevitably we come to a major downside - the wheels and tyres. First off they have put Carrera labelling on the tyres, talk about spoiling the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar! Having no doubt spent a small fortune on a NASCAR licence surely they could have forked out a smidgen more for a Goodyear one?
On the track, as expected, there was virtually no grip and they slithered their way round my 50ft lap in slightly under ten seconds. A box standard Scalextric car can usually manage under seven seconds so this was particularly bad. Now there is very little you can do to improve things with Carrera tyres as any application of oil usually results in them turning to complete mush in a very short space of time so I would normally replace them with Paul Gage urethanes. This is where things get really bad though, they have non standard size wheels with a different diameter shoulder on each side so there is currently no direct replacement available.
Until Paul comes up with some suitable tyres I am afraid these lovely cars will therefore stay as shelf queens for the present but if you have plastic track I am sure they will perform perfectly well, magnets can hide a multitude of sins!
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