Wednesday, October 31, 2007

AutoArt Ford GT-review

The AutoArt Ford GT's s details are finely reproduced in this 1/32 slot car. The red paint on the car is deep and opaque and the white stripes cover that red base coat well.I saw a real Ford GT at a recent car show I was struck by how well AutoArt has modelled this body. The newer Ford GT is much more square than the old Ford GT40. The wheels are molded nicely but the seams where the halves of the wheels come together has a bit of flash that would be good to sand a bit. But, having said that on the plastic test track the didn't seem to suffer from really much wheel wobble.


The chassis on the car is similar to most of the AutoArt releases with the tab system utilized to get the power from the track to the 26k rated rpm motor. The sidewinder motor sits securely in the chassis and has the usual AutoArt wire loom around it for the lights.

On this car the clips for the axles/bearings were missing. These clips are sort of extra security, if you will, to hold down the bearings but not really needed since the axles are very tightly held in place. The chassis is held in place by two screws at the rear only, the front edge of the chassis is held in place under a small lip which is just under the chin of the car. The arrangement works well and I could see if you wanted to get some chassis rattle you could easily sand the area where the chassis fits into the front of the body and then loosen the screws a bit to get some slight movement.

The 12 tooth pinion and 38 tooth crown gears on this car mesh quite well and are extremely quiet when you're circulating round the track. However the gears could be a little tall for this motor, because they don't seem to provide much braking.

The 94 gram GT raced around my Carrera test track at a speedy 2.5 seconds. The double magnets (one behind the motor and one behind the guide) do still allow a lot of tail-out racing action. The magnets aren't adjustable on this car but still they do provide more than adequate downforce.
It's a supercar not a racer but this AutoArt Ford GT is priced well if you're in the market for a solid magnet racer for yourself or that little racer in your family.

A huge thanks to Lisa at Global Gateway/AutoArt for sending the car for review. It's been a pleasure!

Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News

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