AmericanMuscle Car Show-video coverage

Video coverage from AmericanMuscle.com showing their recent car show, some great video here for your Sunday viewing pleasure.

Check out their blog posts about this event!

American Muscle Mustang custom tuned

A video from American Muscle Mustang showing their tuning upgrades for the new 5.0 Mustang.

Pioneer Mustang review

From Harry of Home Racing World:
When we look at new releases in our hobby, not all of them have the following these models have. Especially when we are talking about a brand new company. Since the first peek at these cars, many enthusiasts have scrambled to have their own and for good reasons. These Pioneer Mustangs have great looks along with the performance we expected. Finally the ready to run versions arrived on my doorstep and we could get a closer look at these historic racers.

First, let us take a look of the 4 models up close. 2 of these models are the all new Notchback Trans-Am versions while the other 2 are new race livery adorned Fastbacks. What is interesting to me is how Pioneer has classified these models. They are not hiding the fact that the 2 Fastbacks are fictional liveries. Therefore the box art for these models are slightly different. I like this idea. They are honest about these models so those who strictly want prototype race cars know up front.

You see the Notchbacks have the Pioneer Trans-Am logo and the Fastbacks say Pioneer Club Sport. For those that care, I think the box art is quite well done. The bases with the road cone and stripe on them also make for an eye pleasing display. Remember, there are collectors out there who just enjoy looking at them. I can see this box on the desk of a Pony car enthusiast somewhere regardless if they are into our hobby or not.

Read the complete review at this link.

New Pioneer Mustang pix!!!!!!!

Photos of the new Pioneer Mustang provided by Jules of Pioneer.

Pioneer Bullitt

Due in June...from Pioneer Slot Cars.

Latest News - BULLITT's Back!

It all begins with the click of a seat belt. What follows is the greatest car chase ever filmed - a thrill-a-second cat & mouse pursuit through the streets of San Francisco and out onto the open highway.

It's been over 40 years since STEVE MCQUEEN staked his claim as a movie icon playing the role of Lt. Frank Bullitt. At the same time the Highland Green Mustang GT390 would be forever guaranteed the title of 'The Greatest Chase Car In Cinema History.'

Now, you can recapture the thrills & spills excitement as never before with the very first slot car model of the '68 Mustang that McQueen drove in the movie. Race tuned for fun and on-track action, you can try to capture the essence of what made STEVE MCQUEEN the undisputed 'King of Cool.'

Advance Notice
The assassins car is on it’s way, complete with two ‘baddy’ figures. Available Q3 2009

Franklin Mint diecast Mustang-review

A review of the new Franklin Mint 1/24 Mustang is at this link.
For a retail price of around $100.00 this car should be on the high end of fit and finish...is it? Read Frank's review and find out.

AUTOArt 1/32 Mustangs-review

AUTOArt is making it easy these days to write about their cars...apparently nothing stays the same from release to release so there's plenty to write about.

I've spent a lot of time recently extolling the virtues of the wonderful paint jobs on the recent cars from AUTOArt, these cars are no different. Nice thick, deep white paint and a sort of dark mustard yellow/orange on the other.

Stub axles, that's right stub axles on the front of the Mustangs...but wait, these are no ordinary stub axles. They're metal! Yes AUTOArt has given us the first (at least I think it is) metal stub axles in an RTR slot car. They spin very, very smoothly and, well if you're going to buy a car with stub axles you'd want them to be this nicely done.

The wheels on these cars do have quite a bit of flash around the edges where the halves of the wheels come together (under the tires). Out of the box the tires aren't quite seated on the tires. And it is possible to get the tires aligned but to get everything smoothed out nicely requires at least trimming the flash from underneath each of the car's tires.

I flipped the white "05" over and much to my shock found a front motored car. A slot car with not one bar magnet but 2, one on each side of the crown gear. So, screw driver in hand, I opened up the car, hoping to find a black stripe motor inside...nope. These cars have the red stripe motor, which if you remember, is the motor with light braking characteristics.
So onto the Carrera layout the "Bay Bridge" (photo inset). I ran the Mustang for 100 laps on the track with an average lap time of about 3.0 seconds, and a best time of 2.8 seconds. I decided to see what recent AutoArt releases would do when compared to this car. The Bugatti Veyron did a 3.3 lap, the Porsche Carrera 911 (996) and the 911 (997) Carrera S both did around 3.2 fastest lap. Even with much better weaker brakes the Mustang felt faster than did most of the cars and lap times backed this up.
The AutoArt Mustang in the foreground, the Carrera behind
So compared with the Carrera Mustang for magnetic application:

1. Overall the AutoArt car is maybe a bit better detailed (notably the front grille detail is better I think) but not as good braking as the Carrera. A tie on these points.

2. Both are reasonably priced. A tie again.

3. I'd think that the Carrera car would be a bit better for non-magnet racing due to the mid-body mounted magnet. Advantage Carrera (but at this early stage I'll admit this guess might be completely incorrect...testing will be done on this car for its non-mag possibilities).

4. The AutoArt comes with extra guides, the Carrera with extra brushes only...a tie I guess.

5. I've tried for some time now to get the Carrera car to work well in a non-mag setting (with its inline rear motor), the AutoArt is front motored...hmmmmm...advantage Carrera (for no mag slotters out there).

I restored the Carrera to its stock rear axle/wheels/gears and gave it a good run on the plastitrack...

6. Fastest lap time for the Carrera of 3.2 seconds with both stock magnets (which were never removed for non mag racing). The Carrera car does NOT accelerate as quickly nor does it sound as smooth and is not as quiet as the AutoArt...advantage AutoArt, a big advantage for the magnet racers out there!

7. The AutoArt's guide lead is longer. The track of the rear wheels on the AutoArt is 58mm, the Carrera's is 56.5, not much difference, but it's certainly wider when you put the cars side-by-side. Advantage AutoArt.

8. Another point and it's something hard to put measurements on, at least for me, is the Carrera has always felt a bit too high down the center line of the car. The AutoArt is noticeably flatter down the center, the overall effect is a lower and wider feel to the AutoArt...advantage AutoArt.

So..... in this very informal and completely unscientific match up...the AutoArt's are the winner(s).

Thanks to AutoArt/Global Gateway for these cars for review!
DaveK
Slot Car News

AUTOArt 1/24 Mustangs-review

AUTOArt recently released a trio of Mustang's, and in a break from their usual releases 2 of these are racers. The pair are liveried-up as the FR 500C Cammer 5.0 liter Grand Am Mustang's that ran in 2005.

The GrandAm cars lack the rear wing that the street car has. There's not much in the way of printing, obviously, on the street car except a small "GT" logo. The paint on the street car, just like the race cars, is superb.

All the Mustangs have nice chrome headlight bezels, it does take a bit of inspection to see but it's one of those things that really add to the experience of looking over these models.

Inside the cars we see the usual large can-drive motor held down tighly by a strap. The body is held on by 3 screws, 2 in back and one in the front. The wire loom for the lights is held in place on both sides of the interior and the circuit board is held down by small screws on the underside of the rear deck. And let me tell you, taking the interior out and putting the wires back in place isn't an easy task. Removing the wires isn't tough but getting them back "just so" takes patience. One the subject of the lights, they're as bright as you've come to expect from AUTOArt. The fronts seem to be a bit brighter than the rear lights. This maybe just the angle I viewed the rear lights from while the car was racing though.

The tampo printing isn't limited to the exterior of the car, on the window net there's a small Ford Racing logo, a nice detail that unless you're looking for it, you might miss it.

Further inspection of the interior shows lots of small wires painted on the floor and the driver has logos on his firesuit...very cool. And it's excellent to see the lack of the "Lady in pink" in the two race cars...she does make an appearance in the maroon street car.

The wheels don't have the center rib that most modern slot cars do. And there is a bit of flash on the wheels but that doesn't seem to affect the tires and performance. There is a bit more wobble to the wheels than I'd like to see but with some tire trueing much of that might clear up.

On the track, the wood track, the car handles well and accelerates quickly despite not having the benefit of magnets to hold it to the track. The tires do stick well enough to quickly get yourself into trouble because of the rather light braking effect of the motor...yes they don't have much in the way of brakes.

I did try to test this car on the Bay Bridge Carrera plastitrack, but because of the corkscrew at each end of the straights on my track the front of the car would lift off the track...so no tests so far on my own plastic track.

One thing that does continue to impress me is that the AUTOArt cars run well out of the box without having to do any real modifications. The gears on these and every other recent release for AUTOArt are smooth and mesh perfectly. The tires don't rub on the bodies and there's just nothing to keep either the casual racer or the hardcore slotter from buying these cars. The finish on these cars is perfect, and worthy of special note because so many car's have a finish that's not as good even though the cars cost twice the price. While I don't know for a fact that AUTOArt has made the recent changes due to suggestions from slotters, I do feel they continue to improve their products with each new release.


slot car

CHiP's gonna get 'cha! Fun & Games....

You cannot race these cars at Le Mans, or on the high banks of Daytona,
but Carrera’s new California Highway Patrol Mustang, and Nissan 350Z
Fast ‘n’ Furious Tuner are perfect opponents in a high speed police
chase.
The Tuner has ignored the CHP’s command to pull over, for
reasons known only to its driver, a thuggish looking guy with a dingy,
sleeveless T-shirt. The Tuner must escape at high speed, the Freeway
represented by what ever slot car track you have. If the Tuner
completes ten laps, the police Mustang breaks off the chase and the
Tuner wins. If the cops stop the Tuner, using ANY method, the forces
of law and order win. The police car can use any method to stop the
pursuit, including a nerf, a bash, or a de-slot which runs the Tuner
off the road. A wreck is acceptable. Remember, the CHP is serious
about its responsibility to end the dangerous chase as quickly as
possible, sacrificing itself, if necessary, to protect the public! And
the thug in the Tuner may just hit the police car, its occupants
completely anonymous behind dark glass. The Carrera CHP Mustang, and the Nissan Tuner are not “real” race cars. But both have Carrera solidity, and husky E200 motors, so these cars can really move out.

The red and blue lights on the Mustang flash in
alternation, lending a burst of 1/32 adrenalin to the activity. The
tires may not be entirely safe at speeds over 150 MPH, so be careful!

Robert Livingston,
Technical Editor, Slot Car News
--------


The CHP Mustang has no interior as you can see. That allows the electronics for the lights to get to the roof and not have the Mustang's pan interior block the way. Also it makes the CHP car 4 grams lighter than the race trimmed Mustang!


Sadly the photo I took doesn't do the effect of the lights justice. When you're actually driving the car around the lights really look great.

Dave Kennedy
Publisher, Slot Car News

Carrera Pony's up a new Mustang...

Model #27134 is the latest Carrera Mustang....built to replicate the very successful real Mustang FR500C 5.0 Liter "Cammer" which on it's maiden run won the opening race of the 2005 Grand-Am Cup season at Daytona International Speedway.

The Mustang is a great companion to run with the recently released C6.R, although the pony is a bit slower than the bowtie in this case. And in real life the Corvette in a GT1 car and this Mustang is a GS car, and both race in different series...but that really doesn't matter much. They look good together so why not race them?

The body of the Mustang is well molded and nicely detailed inside and out. The stripes down the center of the body are crisp and the blue paint used is opaque. On the nose there is a bit of over spray but I don't expect that other examples of this car will have this since Carrera's paint application is usually quite good.

The xeon lights are very bright and if you're looking to do some night racin' these lights will show the way around the track.

The wheels on my test car weren't quite as smooth as I'd like. And after a bit of sanding the car smoothed out a bit, but still there was a bit of wobble on the East New York test wood track. As I suspected on the plastic track the car is very, very fast and smooth. No hint of the wobble that is exaggerated by the run on the wood track. Granted my new Carrera test track, the Fast & Furious set "only" comes with slightly more than 17' of track, but you can tell this car has potential both for plastic track guys and those of us with wood dust still floating in the air from track construction. One thing I did notice is that the guide on the Mustang tends to wobble but the recently released C6.R Corvette guide doesn't have this problem.

So a brief look inside and there's not much surprising in here. One thing that I did adjust was the wires for the lights were pulled tightly against the rear axle, and even with the few laps I'd done before opening the car up there was a bit of wear on the wires insulation. Not much to be sure, but it was there. The car has a half-pan interior, fantastic! Keep 'em coming, I just don't see the need for a full interior that makes company's either move the motor to the front, or worse yet..behind the rear axle!

The driver in the car is nicely done with some excellent detail on the helmet. And you can't tell from this shot but there's a fire extinguisher in there as well.

The brakes on the car are great, the motor is more than ample for a short track and is good enough for a track over 50' even. The 100 gram car turned a fastest lap a 5.598 on the wood track with Ortmann tires and laps around 7 seconds with the stock tires. By comparison the Corvette C6.R turned laps around 7 seconds stock and 5.3 seconds with 20x11 Ortmann tires for Slot It wheels on the East New York track.

Overall this car is one that I'd absolutely suggest that people buy. There's a great model to run against it that Carrera already makes, and it's a strong runner that should be able to take the use/abuse of any "minor drivers" in your house. And the Cammer Mustang seems to have excellent potential to be a real racer. There is plenty of room inside the body for mods and in the wheel wells to put some fatter tires without having to do any cutting. The car has excellent detail and is a good car whether you like your slot cars with or without help from magnets.

Thanks to Carrera USA for the car.

Dave K
Publisher, Slot Car News

Carrera Muscle Car Showdown

We received a batch of muscle cars from Carrera to test out. I decided to see how they stack up on plastic and wood tracks, so I enlisted the help of my buddy Reckless Racer to put these cars through their paces. First, we ran them on his 75' Sport track. Later, the cars were raced on a 135' Ogilvie wood track with copper braid. We were interested to see how the cars ran with and without magnatraction.
The fastest on Sport tracke was the Fast and Furious Mustang. This car lapped our Sport test track in 7.35s. This Mustang features a new chassis which is different from the yellow Mustang in this test. It would be a good challenger against a Scalextric Mustang or Camaro. It lapped the Ogilvie wood track in 10.4s, or fourth fastest. The Mustang also features working headlights and taillights. The headlights are of the blueish "xenon" LED variety. There's some spill through the bodywork of this car, but the lights are certainly bright enough to drive the car in the dark with.

The second fastest-car on Sport was this black Dodge Charger with pimpin' spinner wheels. I have to admit that this car kinda grew on me. The red stripe across the rear flank of the car is a nice touch. This Charger lapped the Sport test track in 7.43s and was second-fastest on the Ogilvie at 9.9s. The long wheelbase made for a controllable car on the wood track.

Third fastest on the Sport track was the old-school Dodge Charger street car. I love the look of the wheels on this car as they're not too shiny. The yellow Charger lapped our mag track in 7.63s and was a respectable third on the Ogilvie track, lapping it in 10.0s.



Fourth fastest car on the mag track was the Plymouth Superbird, lapping it at 7.65 seconds. On the Ogilvie, this car was slowest with a lap time of 10.5 s. The top-heavy nature of the Carrera muscle cars made them difficult to push too hard in the curves. The rear wing is easily detachable on this model so it's not likely to get damaged if the car is raced.

Fifth fastest on the Sport track, but quickest around the Ogilvie was this Shelby Mustang. It lapped the mag track in 7.82s, almost half a second slower than the Fast and Furious Mustang. On the wood track it was half a second clear of the field lapping at 9.4s.

Slowest on the Sport, and second slowest on the Ogilvie, the pimpin' Pontiac GTO brought up the rear. The Goat managed 8.08s on the mag track and 10.4s on the wood. The metallic red paint on this car was beautiful and really set off the chrome.

All of these cars were very smooth runners right out of the box. They're geared for better braking than previous Carrera muscle car releases, and are certainly stuck down enough for those who like to race magnet cars. The stock motor had enough grunt to really get these cars motoring down the long straights of our test tracks. It was a lot of fun trading paint with Reckless Racer in order to establish our test times. The longer wheelbase cars could be made to step out on the Sport track when pushed hard.

If you're more likely to run these cars on a wood track then these are not a bad choice. All of the cars featured a very smooth drivetrain with concentric wheels, and grippy enough stock tires. I'm sure that with a bit of lead placement the tippy nature of these cars can be tamed for non-magnet racers. While the cars are heavy and certainly drive that way, it's what you'd expect from these classic examples of American iron.