Carrera Slot Cars One For The Fast Lane

By Steve FELDMAN

One of the best part of the New York Toy Fair is just freestyling, just walking around the show floor and see what you find.  Every year there are slot car manufactures, but for some reason this year I stopped and took a look at the Carrera booth.  They had a nice display out front with a digital set and cars running pre-programed course.

For those of you new to slot car racing and collecting slot cars, it is a big hobby, but not that easy to find any news information and reviews on, it is mostly bulletin boards and message boards.  I found this most dihartening.  The worst was when the news came from the same web sites that were selling the same products (yes that is a little conflict).

Now back to Carrera, while looking over the awesome amount of detail in the 1:32 and 1:24 scale cars standing out on the walls were some sets aimed at younger audiences, and they were specialty sets that collectors could go after.  They have sets for comic book fans with The Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, and The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Or Pop Culture with a Mario Kart 7 and Disney Cars sets.  These sets all come with different tack layouts and are in the Carrera Go series.  The Go series is slightly larger than HO Scale. 

These sets are designed to look good while you race them and many of these sets have loops, and the TMNT even had a double loop in it.  Each set comes with track two controllers and two race cars.  The race cars are big enough to run on the Carrera Evolution track.

Carrera has sevral different lines they are Digital 124, Evolution, Digital 132, Go!!! And Digital 143.  There are two different types of slot cars you have the analog and you have digital sets.  As you can tell Carrera is one of the manufacturers leading the way in the Digital racing scene.  The difference between to two sets is that in analog each car has a specific track and they stay in that track for the entire race, where in digital racing you have two lanes and most tracks can run 4 – 6 cars on the track and with areas for lane changing picking your time to pass becomes important.

The cars also come in both analog and digital form and can run on either track with small modifications.  An analog car needs a digital chip installed to run on a digital track, while a digital car can run on an analog track with some modifications at set up, but it must stay in its lane.

For collectors the biggest area of interest is in cars.  There are all different types form made up like the Spider-Man cars to actual race cars like the Ferrari Series.  These cars look good enough just sitting on your shelf, but most will race these care and if they build a track in their house they usually have areas in the scenery where they can store/garage their cars. 

Just quickly looking Let’s take a brief look at some of the different cars Carrera has for the different sizes. 

Digital 124, these cars a built to a 1:24 scale.  This year there will be a total of 27 cars in this series __ are currently on the market with 11 being new and 7 that are still undercover and yet to be released.  Some of the cars are the 1937 Avus Auto Union Typ X #33, 1970 Porsche 917K Salzburg #23, and the 2009 Ferrari 599XX “as seen at the Geneva Motorshow”.

There are two sets in this series the Race De Luxe and the Ultimate Race sets, both have a track scale of 1:24, need an area of 11.75x6.20 feet and has a track length of 26.2 feet and come with two cars (each set has different cars).

Evolution, has cars built to a scale of 1:32.  In 2013 there will be 49 cars of which 14 are new and 11 have not had their designs released yet.  Some of the car include a 1932 Ford Hot Rod “Fire Engine”, 1970 Dodge Charger Daytona #55, and the Citroen DS3 WRC Sebastian Loeb Red Bull to name a few. Or you can go with one of the many Disney/Pixar Cars Characters like Max Schnell, Francesco Bernoulli, & Lightning McQueen.

There are six sets in the Evolution series, three are new for 2013.  All are track scale 1:24 and each comes with two cars scaled to 1:32.  Celebracers, Rolling Thunder each have a length of 17.4 feet and needs an area of 7.12x4.56 feet when assembled.  Fast Classics has a length of 20.7 feet and dimensions of 6.73x5.81 feet.  The Winged Warriors set has a track length of 24.3 feet and dimensions of 9.58x5.54 feet.  Grand Prix Masters is 14.8 feet long and sets up in an area of 6.656x2.62 feet.  The beginner set in this series is the Racing Legends it is an oval that runs 13.1 feet long and needs only 6.00x2.62 feet to set up. 

Digital 132 series cars are built to 1:32 scale and can run on the larger 1:24 track.  Some of the cars in this series include the 2006 Dodge Charger Police Car, a 2011 Porsche GT3 RSR Manthey Racing 24 Hour Nurburgring #18, and the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3 “Black Falcon #3” Dubai 24 Hours.  Also included are the Disney Pixar Cars that are listed in the Evolution set.

As far as tracks go, they have a total of 7 sets, 3 f which are new, and built to the 1:24 scale track.  The three new sets are the Power Racing set is 29.5 feet long and requires an area of 11.48x5.87.  Time Race Set os 26.9 feet long and needs an area of 9.84x5.91, the last new set is the Road Hammers that runs 21.3 feet long and requires an area of 7.87x5.25 feet.  Some of the sets that are still available are the GT Power that is 22.6 feet long and needs a set up area of 9.22x5.54 feet, the Long Race which has the same length and dimensions as the Power Racing Set, The Racing Predators set at 17.7 feet longa nd an area of 7.97x3.58 feet is the shortest set, and the last set is World F1 Champs at 22.6 feet long and 10.53x3.58 dimensions.

GO!!!  This set will be the most popular with younger racer & collectors, it is geared to them with a smaller size and more themed sets like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ultimate Spider-Man, and of course the Disney/Pixar Cars.  As far as the cars go there are 38 cars in the catalog with 16 new cars and five of them have not been revealed as of yet.  Some of the basic race cars included dune buggies, a pair of 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia GT2s 1 RISI Competizione #62, and one Hankook Team Farnbacher #123.  For the younger racer there are the TMNT Shredder Racer & Turtle Trike, the Ultimate Spider-Man Goblin Getaway & Spider Speed Shifter, 6 cars form Mario Wii and Mario Kart.  Plus 9 more cars from Disney/Pixar Cars including a Silver Lightning McQueen, and a Mater Hook.

GO!!! Even has 10 sets including 4 for the young fan, and most of these sets have either have loops or banked curves.  The tracks and cars are both built to a scale of 1:43 ratio.  Ultimate Spider-Man Spider Race has 18.4 feet of track and needs an area 6.40x2.46 feet.  The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) Ninja Loop it needs an area of 4.59x3.38 feet to set up the track runs for 20 feet and has a double loop.  Disney/Pixar Cars Silver Speeders set has a really high & steep bank a length of 13.8 feet and needs 607x1.48 feet of set up area.  The Nintendo Mario Kart 7 has both a loop and a bank in the 20.3 feet of racing  track from start to finish and needs an area of 7.68x2.23 feet to set up in. 

Carrera also makes GO!!! sets designed for a more realistic race and they are, The Empire Challenge race set needs and area of 4.95x2.69 to set up in  and runs a total of 11.8 feet.  The Power Grip set also has a track length of 11.8 feet but needs only 4.66x2.30 feet of room to set up in.  GT Fever runs a distance of 23.6 feet and needs an area of 8.76x2.62 feet.  World Champions & the Ferrari F1 Masters sets are both complex sets with the same layout, and each have a bank and a loop inside the 17.7 foot length track, setting up in an area only 6.30x1.97 feet.  The last set in this series in the larger Formula Competition, it runs 20.7 feet long and requires 5.74x4.00 feet of room for setup.

Digital 143 is the last series that Carrera builds, and as the name suggests the tracks are digital and both the tracks and cars are built to a 1:43 scale.  The series is rather small and has only 13 cars, 4 new ones for 2013 and one that has an unveiled paint job.  Some of the cars include a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, a Ford Crown Vic Police Interceptor, and the Porsche GT3 Hairbo Racing car.  As for the sets there is the DTM Power Race with a 24.0 foot track and when assembled it needs an area of 7.87x4.04 feet.  The Champions Cockpit set is 18.4 feet long and needs an area of 6.40x2.46 feet when built.  Lastly there is the High Speed Chase that runs 20.4 feet long and builds in an area of 6.99x3.02 feet. 

Carrera also has a wide range of accessories to go along with your new race track.  They have lap counters, pit area, wireless controllers, and decorations.  Not all accessories will work with all sets, some are digital some are analog.  Slot car racing is an area usually overlooked by us here at Sportsology and Comix Corner but there are definitely an area worth looking onto for both collecting and racing and Carrera is one of the top manufacturers in this sport.