[Wankel Ickx]

QUOTE I think it is a compliment to me as an Englishman that Carrera compare themselves to the Best of British as a sign of quality!

[Pedant]
Er? Don't the Germans, Volkswagen to be a true pedant, own the car bit of Rolls Royce now?
[/Pedant]

Saw one of those huge new Phantoms late last year. Ugly as sin and a sure sign of a triumph of cash over class. Reportedly selling way below expectations - I wonder why?

 

[Difflock]

Johnny, that would be a great idea for a digital track! However, it would have to be an HO scale mini coz the bus as it stands is slightly too small for a 1:32 mini. We could have a conductive ramp and track section inside the bus so the car could actually be driven into it rather than coast into the back of the bus.

Mark.

 

[Wankel Ickx]

It's been done! One of our chaps has a SCX truck for which he built a trailer complete with foldout plexy track sections. From memory I'm not sure which car he docks into it but it is an amusing piece.

Sadly another of our number has converted a coach to pootle around the track with as well.

Kids, huh.

 

[Rich T UK]

QUOTE [Pedant]
Er? Don't the Germans, Volkswagen to be a true pedant, own the car bit of Rolls Royce now?
[/Pedant]

[uberpedant]
to be a truer pedant, it's BMW, not Volkswagen, that own Rolls-Royce. VW own Bentley.
[/uberpedant]

 

[Difflock]

No, I'm sorry, but the new RR Phantom is a thing of ample, hard-edged beauty! Those huge 21 inch alloys compliment the bodywork perfectly. It has a REAL engine! 6.7 litre V12 producing 453bhp @ 5350rpm, and better still a nicely adequate 531 lb ft of torque @ 3500. Kind of going against the grain of most Roller owners, but put a set of open pipes together with modified fuelling on that baby! Oh yes! Suits me Sir!

Interestingly, one doesn't have a tachometer on the dashboard, one has a power reserve meter - far more gentlemanly! It shows one the amount of power one has as yet untapped in one's brisk progress down t' Queen's Highway.

Sod that, I could always attach a large, round STACK rev counter on top of the dash in my eyeline

Actually, the Phantom reminds me of Dr. Ninestein's Rolls Royce in the Gerry Anderson Tv series Terrahawks.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder! The Phantom should be celebrated as a great Anglo-German collaboration!

Mark.

 

[Wankel Ickx]

Mr Rich T, I bow to your superior pedantry. Uber indeed.

 

[Tropi]

Getting back on track!

I see that Get Slotted are saying
QUOTE the awesome Carrera Digital sytem will be online to order very soon
Not sure just how soon, but we should keep an eye on this.

 

[Oilslick]

QUOTE (Tropi @ 13 Feb 2004, 10:48 PM)Getting back on track!

I see that Get Slotted are saying
QUOTE the awesome Carrera Digital sytem will be online to order very soon
Not sure just how soon, but we should keep an eye on this.
Not sure how awesome either...

 

[jonny s]

Anyone got the contact details for the Carerra UK distributor. I`d like to invite them to the Phoenix meeting March 28 so we can play Digital

 

[Xlot]

QUOTE We have a very extensive Carrera article in preparation right now from the Nürnberg Toy Fair with photos and all.

Did I miss it ??

 

[thomas]

...no, you didn't - I'm still working on it, got some moer information this morning - but not all! Lot's of comments about these systems are spread all over the digital threads....

 

[thomas]

Latest information from a phone call 5 Minutes ago:
The Carrera Pro-X-systems will be in your shops End of May / beginning of June.
Sales price in Germany for the Starter Set 30100 will be around 180€, separate F1 and Muscle-Cars app. 40€, controller for Pro-X 32€, lapcounter 30€, separate switch left or right 42€ (double the length of standard straight), the digital blackbaox 32€ (to upgrade your existing track), 4 separate spare guides 6€, pit lane 50€, pit lane extension (1-lane-straight) 6€, power supply 38€ (suitable for max 4 1/32 standard cars!)
I hope, these informations will help you with your decisions Beppe...

 

[moped rider]

Those prices do sound very reasonable and for somebody who is well into Carrera and has limited space then it looks like a no brainer.

Remember that to purchase all the parts and electrify a point on an HO model railway costs £15-20(22€-28€) and then you have to spend time wiring it up.

So for almost similar money you get the chance to do similar things on your slot car circuit to what you are currently able to do on your train set.

Does anybody remember Tri-ang Minic Motorways from the 60's. I was a great fan and had all sorts of junctions and pits all over the place. It was all done by hand switching but what you could do is take short cuts and whatever and creat a race strategy although it was still 1 car in 1 lane stuff. These are the sort of things kids got up to in those days and those days may well return in a slightly different and more hi-tech form. I just wish in hindsight I had kept all my Minic stuff (loads and loads!) but sadly it was cleared out by my dad who tipped it whilst I wasn't looking as it was taking up a lot of room in the garage!

That Carrera pit junction could have all sorts of uses and not just for pitting. I can see one or two strategic short cuts being put into circuits that maybe could be used by youngsters for example when competing against adults on the family circuit.

Moped

 

[thomas]

...use the pitlane for marshalling when you're racing on a 2-lane track with 4 cars - makes more sense than shortcuts

You can add several of them...

 

[Xlot]

Prices sound reasonable indeed - more reasons to eagerly expect your article !!

Please make it thorough !!

Ciao
Beppe

 

[peter]

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

 

[Difflock]

I postulated this theory regarding actual growling V8s tied into the slot cars on another thread somehwere. (bloody hell...postulated...must have eaten a dictionary this morning!)

I believe that the consensus was that there would not be enough track length for the cars to go up and down the gears properly - if the slot car takes 1.5 seconds to travel the length of a long straight (easily possible) then trying to get the engine sound to go up, say 3 or 4 gearchanges and then come back down those same number of gearchanges, blipping the throttle on the downchange, there wouldn't be enough real time available. Unless the sounds were speeded up, but then the car would sound like a 50cc moped on helium!

Mark.

 

[Mecoprop]

Ah so - it's the helium sniffing we should blame!

But very true about squeezed time envelopes - it's really not possible at current speeds. It would still be very difficult to obtain realism related to the car even at half the max speeds available.

 

[thomas]

RMS - Race management System has been a huge success over here - they have sold out the planned annual production within 5 weeks! There will be a RMS rev.2 with some slight changes. Hope to recover from my influenza soon so I might stay at the PC a little longer to write the articles...

 

[Tropi]

Here is a link for The English Carrera Pro-X Page

I see that Sportcraft Cars of USA now have a pre-order price list for Carrera Digital and the prices seem to be both up and down for various items compared with the Euro prices provided by Thomas above. I guess it remains to be seen where the prices will eventually settle.

Contrary to other people's opinions, I think the price of the Lane Changers is VERY high at €42 (around £29) apiece, although the USA price is showing as $35 (around £21). I am assuming you would need 2 x right-hand LCs and 2 x left-hands as an absolutely bare minimum to permit a single lane change in either direction. At Euro prices, that would be nearly £120! It's not yet clear exactly what you will get in a set, but the set looks as though it will be MUCH better value for money than buying the LCs separately.