[peter]

Carrera track is not really marketed in the UK and it is not broadly available. I have no idea what Nikko (Carrera distributor in the UK) is doing to change that - but they certainly seem to have a very low profile on Carrera products (to put it politely). The cars you might get in many shops (but who knows about the 1/24 cars for the closest future), accessories will be more difficult and separate trackpieces - well VERY few UK shops can even get them, never mind having them available... OK - there are SOME shops that will get you most (not all) accesories and track for Carrera. (I know I where I can get most everything Carrera but that is not the point here).

But Nikkos reliability with deliveries on anything except for the most common cars leaves a LOT to wish for. And as opposed to Germany where the Carrera Digital system has been hyped up whereas in the UK it has been more of a total silence. Actually when I last year asked about it Nikko responded more with a questionmark and did not seem to have a clue of its existens. It is one of those unfortunate experiences when customers ends up informing the distributor about the products they supposedly are distributing... Now I am not suggesting that Nikko are sabotaging Carreras market in the UK on purpose - but on the other hand...

Personally I would really like to get a digital system - but the impression I got so far is that the technology proposed would have been of interest ten years ago but currently the suggested functionality is more than a little dated. The whole digital slot issue is still a not-all-to-well thought through experiment - or at least that is my impression of the information so far. But I will certainly follow the development with great interest - with great hopes for the future.

//peter

 

[peter]

I really look forward to more information regarding all digital including Carrera.

some comments:

1) I do not know about others but personally I find that it is very seldom that there are more than four people available (at once) for racing at home tracks I know of (me and my friends) and certainly six would cover most of the exceptions as well. Even when we are more than that not everyone wish to race at the same time. So if the digital systems would run well with four and with aftermarket parts also with six this is not for me a problem.

2) Track - what I find interesting is the possibility for pit-lanes, Le Mans start etc. Also how about being able to have a variable track? For example that you could share one start / finish and pit lane section and then several interconnected race tracks (e.g. one for racing and another for rally)?

3) Lanes - for me it would is not currently of interest to have a full four lane track - but I do think it would be interesting if some parts of the track could be two lane and some parts four lane. The start and finish straight could for example be four lane (and maybe some other smaller sections) but most of the rest I would like to have two lane. No matter if I would run up to six cars (I am happy with six as a maximum for now).

4) I know that in the UK (I live here) the dominant actor is Scalextric. But strangely enough the home tracks that I have raced at (in the UK) have all been based on Carrera... The cars however come from most any manufacturer and not only from Carrera. I do have track from most manufacturer (Scalextric new and old, SCX, Ninco and Carrera) and even though I live in a small english house I tend to prefer the wider (and less magnetic) Carrera track to race on. And yes I would certainly like to have a cellar or attic available for a setup with landscape etc - maybe in a future...

5) I hope that the digital systems will allow older cars to be easily converted. Some option for 'backward' compatibility would be prefered as well (e.g. to be able to easy 'switch of' the digital system maybe?

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[peter]

have the machineguns already - on the Carrera Aston Martin...

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yes Thomas we really look forward to it... also if you ever get a little time over.... could you comment lite on the other Carrera system - the one which is some kind of "RMS". It was let out on the German market last year but it seems awfully quiet about it right now, I thought there would be a lot information about it after the fairs.... what happend??? I thought it had some really interesting ideas - except for racing management and software it was supposed to come with recorded sounds that changed according to your driving. I imagined that it could be rather interesting with Carreras musclecars on the track and the PC connected to the home HiFi - if they did it well it could be quite an amazing experience..... - ofcourse only if it was well executed...

I like the idea though - big V8 engines roaring in my lounge....

//peter

 

[peter]

The Carrera Pro-X Digital set has been priced at 159.99 pounds inclusive UK delivery by TimeTunnel http://www.goldstarstockists.com/

The Digital Carrera cars (two F1) are priced to 24.99 (inclusive delivery) as mentioned before the rest of the cars do not seem to be available by the uk distributor.

And the contact information for the UK distributor is supposedly:

NIKKO UK Ltd.
Hertfordshire AL7 1EW
7 Little Mundells, Welwijn Garden City
Tel.: 00 44 (0) 17 07 37 77 767
Fax: 00 44 (0) 17 07 37 77 769
Email: [email protected]

The above is just information 'distilled' from the net - I am not in any way affiliated with any of the companies etc... But generally speaking my experience of Nikko UK does NOT let me believe for a moment that they are particularly well organized... (I am being VERY polite here...)

regards
//peter