Review of 1/32 Carrera 1956 T-bird and 2001 Scalextric NASCAR Taurus

Carrera 1/32 1956 Ford T-bird

Interested in reading the 1/32 Scalextric 2001 Taurus NASCAR review instead? Go there now.

Features for Item #25443:

Detailed Body and Interior with Nice Fit and Finish
Adjustable Neodymium Traction Magnet
Front Mounted Mabuchi S Motor [photo]
White-Wall Tires (common Carrera type)
Switch on Chassis to Reverse Polarity

Overall Rating:

5 out of 5 tires - SCG Best Buy!!! :)

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Carrera 1/32 1956 Ford T-bird

First there was the 1967 Corvette and 1965 Mustang, now we have the brand new 1956 Ford Thunderbird and the 1966 Pontiac GTO. The '56 Ford T-bird was never done as a 1/32 scale slot car before.

Test Drive Observations:

Carrera done it again for 2001 - more street and muscle cars for 1/32 slot car racing at home. I knew it would happen and we wish to thank Carrera for their efforts. This is the awesome and fun 1956 Ford Thunderbird Hardtop with Port Hole done up in light yellow and has a white top. We have to thank Carrera again for making us some street cars as slot cars in 1/32 scale. There was little around and these surely help fill the gap.

Taking a look at the body, the proportions look to be close to the real car. The body is well detailed with nice markings and shiny chrome bumpers. There is also a continental kit on the rear bumper. The interiior is not a flat panel, it is a full interior this time around. We get a nicely detailed dash for a slot car which portrays the T-bird dash very well. The driver is a nice guy with sunglasses :)

For this chassis, Carrera has mounted the motor up front and has a driveshaft to the rear wheels which makes it realistic plus allows for the full depth interior. If you find some 1/32 people, you can probably plop a passenger in there. I think Carrera should release this with the top down and girl behind the wheel or in the passenger seat. The chassis had the sliding magnet option like the other 1/32 cars in this series and whitewall rubber tires with chrome wheels. Nothing is wrong here, I found this body is be right on - no real flaws that pop out at you. One of the best efforts from Carrera, good job! Now we need more and more of them - street cars!

As I have ran the 67 Corvette and 65 Mustang before, I expected about the same performance out of it. Yes, it is a little squirrelly in the turns but takes the straights pretty well without any trouble. The car does have the tendency to slide around a bit when pushed but it glides around the track and doesn't flip or jump out of the slot much. It will not stick like glue but will not slide everywhere anyway. A nice overall package. You can probably add some weight in the chassis if you want to help the handling but it works ok as-is when you buy it. The price is right on this one too. They never made a 1/32 slot car 1956 Thunderbird. Revell did make a snap 56 or 57 T-bird snap kit but until you find that, gather up a chassis, interior, driver, etc. it would cost you way much more time and money than this better Carrera example.

I am giving this one a SCG Best Buy Rating of 5 out of 5 tires. Why? First, they took the effort to replicate the 1956 Ford Thunderbird Hardtop as a 1/32 slot car. Second, they got the body and details right on. It looks like they can do a convertible version (hint, hint) very easily in the near future. Third, the chassis handles great - not the stickiest out there but still great for racing 1/32 slot car style. There wasn't really any flaws I could find with this one. Buy this one, get the GTO - grab the 67 Vette and 65 Stang if you haven't already and you have a nice fleet of street cars for your 1/32 slot car racing pleasure.

Lane	Best Lap Time	Average Lap Time	Chronometer
1	5.276	5.556	1:04.166

Back to the main reviews section for a complete listing or take a look at some listed below.

Special Review by Harry Wise:

Lane	Best Lap Time	Average Lap Time	Chronometer
1	4.356	4.583	0:53.773

Among many cars Santa is bringing us this holiday season, Scalextric is bringing us their new line of NASCARS. As with the last set, these are high quality, finely detailed models that are tough as nails and great runners. There are a few changes to this new breed, and we are going to take a quick look at them.

First the bad news, at least as far as the “prototype police” are concerned, the body on the Taurus, most obvious the front, is not quite right. The front end seems almost “fat”, more rounded and full than on their 1:1 counterparts. But for me this no major issue. The scale appearance of the car is still outstanding and should not offend too many folks. The front of the body rides a little high on the front, but can be fixed rather easily, first by simply removing the front shim assembly altogether. Now doing so will “disable” the self-centering guide, but if this does not bother you, it prevents any milling or drilling on the shim or sanding of the body posts, keeping car in original condition. Still, with the nitpicking aside, these cars are still very accurate, and will not disappoint the collector or the racer.

The rest is simply a great piece of work. The interior detail is outstanding, gauges, roll cage, driver are all highly detailed and well done. The markings on both cars reviewed were clean, crisp and overall finish was outstanding. Wheels and tires both looked good, and I was surprised at the quality of the tires in particular. They were almost perfectly round out of the box, with no heavy signs of unevenness or “under-inflation”. This made for great running and smooth handling from the case to the road.

The chassis has been reworked too, with an adjustable bar magnet, with 3 positions to choose from, so really no matter how you like your slot cars, either heavy on rear magnetic down-force, or with a bit of play in the rear, this chassis will deliver.

Next is the motor configuration. This series has the sidewinder configuration instead of the previous inline type. Preference on this varies, with a lot of racers preferring this setup. While I may agree on this as a performance measure, these cars were a touch noisier than there predecessors. After a few laps though, things became quiet and smooth.

All and all these cars are excellent additions to the NASCAR line, and are a blast to drive! They are as tough as they are pretty, and for younger or sometimes lead-footed friends who may happen to drop by, these cars will take a great deal of abuse. Silicone tires, and perhaps another magnet, are just a couple of additions that some racers may choose to make, silicone tires being the top item for me. I don’t prefer a strong magnet car myself as I rather enjoy a bit smoother drive. You can’t go wrong adding them to your stable this year, as they will provide the home racer with hours of slot-filled fun and competition.

Slot Car Garage found these cars to be a blast to drive on the Carrera track!!! They are fun, hold the track well, and have little trouble around the course. Great power and speed, no problems like their other NASCARs. They are a hit thus the 5 out of 5 Best Buy SCG rating!!! Go out and order yourself a pair or better yet get all of these new 2001 issues for racing.

Back to the main reviews section for a complete listing or take a look at some listed below.

Carrera 1/32 1956 Ford T-bird

Test Drive Observations:

Scalextric 1/32 2001 Ford Taurus Stock Car Citgo #99

Special Review by Harry Wise: