Special Exclusive Review of the Carrera 1/32 Audi R8R at SCG

Slot Car Garage - Info about Slot Cars

The item reviewed here was purchased directly by Slot Car Garage

1/32 Carrera Audi R8R #25418
Sport Team Joest Le Mans '99

Features:

Inline chassis with adjustable traction magnet - [photo]
Switch on bottom allows you to change polarity so you can race on any track since Carrera track is wired backwards than standard 1/32 tracks
New 1/32 Carrera chassis design eliminates the old friction drive and replaces it with the common gear drive
Standard powerful Mabuchi S can-drive motor.

Overall Rating:

3½ out of 5 tires

1/32 Carrera Audi R8R

We are one of the first to review the new Carrera 1/32 Evolution cars here in the United States. They should become available soon from various sources.

These reviews are done on my custom Carrera 1/24 Exclusiv road course layout.

Test Drive Results - Ten Lap Sprint:

Lane	Best Lap Time	Average Lap Time	Chronometer
1	4.778	5.741	1:00.523

* Data does include some minor wrecks during the course of the trial run...

Test Drive Observations:

Carrera has updated their Evolution line of 1/32 slot cars for 2000. They have gotten rid of the old 1/32 friction drive chassis and created a new gear driven inline set-up similar to the other 1/32 manufacturers. The new chassis design also includes a neodymium magnet which you can slide back and forth to fine-tune the handling of the car. Overall, the quality of the car is well done and it includes nicely detailed body work and markings. Looking at the detailing of the body and the markings, it is on par with Fly, Ninco, etc.

I took the Audi R8R and configured it for my track using the switch on the bottom of the car. The car has a large guide flag and braid for running on the Carrera 1/24 - 1/32 line of track but I doubt you will have much trouble running it on other tracks. The magnet was adjusted to its farthest point back in the chassis for this test run.

The car took the course pretty well and handled ok with a smooth running drivetrain. There is plenty of power to take the straights and around the curves but the car is a little tail happy so you will have to deal with oversteer. The magnet does hold the car to the track pretty well but it is not as fast as the Carrera 1/32 BMW V12 slot car that I also tested. I do feel that this Audi R8R is a decent car and takes the course pretty well with some slight understeer and oversteer. A better magnet system might help but at least there is a traction magnet to aid in handling to keep up with the performance of other 1/32 slot cars.

The tires on this car are similar in design to the slicks used on various other 1/32 slot cars such as ProSlot, Ninco, Fly, etc. They have nicely detailed sidewall markings and good grip for the track. The tires are not silicone but they do grip pretty well. I feel that a silicone tire upgrade will increase the performance of this car. I might try that at a later date.

The adjustable traction magnet helps but it is designed to slide on an angle so the further you move it to the front of the car the higher up it goes in the chassis. The more you move it back the magnet will get closer to the track surface. This is still a nice idea to give you a way to adjust the magnet in the car without having to disassemble the chassis. You do need to watch that you don't push it too far forward as there is not actual stop to keep the magnet from going into the chassis. If this happens, you just need to remove some screws to get inside the chassis and push it back out from the inside.

Overall, I am happy with the car but it is getting 3½ out of 5 tires because of the tendency the car has to get out of control and they could have did a better job on the magnet design. The car does have sticky tires and a powerful motor for decent racing on 1/32 slot car tracks. It will definitely hold it's own against the likes of many FLY and Ninco 1/32 slot cars.

Note: The case has a slicker that says for use only with Carrera 14.8v transformers but the car works great on my 13.8 volt (12volt) 25amp peak system without any problems. I doubt you will have trouble running it on your 1/32 layout with standard 12-volt type power supplies. Another nice feature from Carrera is the include extra pair of braids for the guide flag and instruction booklet.

Slot Car Garage Review Rating:

3½ out of 5 tires

More Reviews and Test Drives:

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.