| September 2000 Review |
Items reviewed here was purchased directly by Slot Car Garage |
|
Comparison of Various HO Tires for the Aurora Thunderjet Chassis Overview: Slot Car
Garage takes three cars which use the Aurora Thunderjet HO slot car
chassis from the 1960s. Each chassis is stock Aurora with no
changes. The only modifications done if any were to change the
tires for this test. We compare one with stock tires, one with the
Road Monkeys silicones, and one that has the new Wizzard Silicone Coated
LAW tires.
Model Motoring 1970 Chevelle SS454 - Stock Tires |
American Line (Marx) Rolls Royce - Wizzard LAW Tires
Model Motoring GeeTO Tiger - Road Monkeys Tires |
This review was done on my Tomy 2 Lane HO Layout that includes an intersection.
Test Drive Results for Thunderjet Tires - Ten Lap Sprint:
| Car | Lane | Best Lap | Average Lap | Chronometer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1970 Chevelle SS454 with Stock Tires |
2 |
8.032 7.729 |
10.919 8.520 |
1:51.677 1:27.669 |
|
GeeTO Tiger with Road Monkeys Tires |
2 2 |
7.056 6.721 |
8.131 8.020 |
1:24.678 1:22.787 |
|
Rolls Royce with Wizzard LAW Tires |
2 | 7.374 | 8.397 | 1:34.315 |
* Data may include some minor wrecks during the course of the trial run...
Kicking the Tires / Test Drive Results:
The tires performed as expected. I predicted that the Wizzard LAW tires would be the fastest of the group and I was right with the test results proving it. The test was done to try out my new Tomy 2 lane layout with the intersection piece and to see how good the TrakMate Lap Counter worked with the Thunderjets. This track uses the light sensor interface to count the cars so you do not have to worry about magnets or dead strips.
With the Thunderjet chassis from Aurora, it takes some driving skill to navigate the course since you have little if any traction magnets holding down the car. The back end likes to come around (oversteer) and especially is tricky to maneuver around the 6 inch 180 degree turn in my Tomy HO layout.. This will get you if you don't slow down enough. The long straights provide for some speed and the P curve at the end of the other side of the course gives you some good racing opportunities.
The stock tires didn't really perform all that well. I didn't really expect them to but figured I'd give it a try. The only car that was run with the stock tires was the Model Motoring 1970 Chevelle SS454. The car ran good with the stock tires and the silicones but the chassis itself wasn't the best. The next car in line was the Model Motoring 1967 Pontiac GTO. This chassis was better tuned to racing and handled pretty well with the silicone tires from Road Monkeys. I had picked the American Line Rolls Royce to use the Wizzard LAW Tires but there was some problems. The chassis wasn't broken in yet and ran pretty bad. When trying to tune the chassis, the front mounting post broke so I decided to remove the Wizzard LAW Tires and mount them on the GTO's chassis. The GTO was pretty quick with the silicone tires and now fitted with the Wizzard LAW tires, it flies :)
The Wizzard LAW tires work wonders on the Thunderjets and they are pretty small in size so you don't have to trim the wheel-wells for most of the cars. The only problem with the tires is that the wider width will cause the car to hit some obstacles on the track like guard rail ends and terminal track pieces if the back end comes out a bit (fishtails / oversteers). The tires from Wizzard are highly recommended and keeps the Aurora Thunderjet chassis stuck on the track. There is a tendency for the chassis to have understeer even with excellent traction out back but this is expected due to the design of the chassis from Aurora.
If you are willing and able to spend some extra dollars for tires / wheels for your Thunderjet chassis, I would highly recommend these Wizzard HO LAW Silicone-coated tires. They currently come in two sizes (.370 or .380) and are available from most hobby shops and raceways that carry Wizzard items like Rad Trax and ER Raceway. The Road Monkeys are still recommended for slip-on replacement tires on stock wheels but the Wizzard tires will do best with modified or speed crazy cars. I plan to take one chassis possibly a Tuff Ones or just a plain Thunderjet, modify it to the max with the yellow / blue Super II magnets, wheels, tires, etc. to see what it can do with the Wizzard tires.
Current and Past Reviews:
Return to Main Reviews Section - Read more Slot Car Garage reviews of slot car items including cars, sets, parts, etc. involving all scales (1/24, 1/32, HO)
Current Slot Car Test Drive Results - Current data from testing on my Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv track. Includes results from 1/24 and 1/32 scale slot cars.
Slot Car Test Drive Results - This is a run-down of the various slot cars I tested with their average, best lap times and the total time it took the car to complete the ten lap trial run. These cars were tested on my Riggen 1/32 layout.
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