[vfr750]

I've just ordered one as I love cars from this era and I want to encourage manufacturers to make more.

If the wheels are wrong, I'll replace them and use them on another project. It would be ironic if I replaced them with wheels off the Scaley Vanwall or Maserati.

John

 

[Gaugemaster Controls]

Here are the pictures as promised - sorry the quality is not brilliant, I was a bit rushed, but hopefully will answer many of your questions:

Remember when discussing the price that £39.95 is the rrp, so I doubt it will be on sale for that everywhere. Also, the Cartrix Honda NSX had an rrp of £34.00 and was supplied in a standard jewel case (and was extremely popular) - the Mercedes comes in a presentation tin with commemorative cloth and display stand, and so if we were looking at any other manufacturer we would classify this as a 'special edition' for which we would expect to pay more. Personally I think Cartrix have done well to keep the price below the £40 barrier.

Aaron

 

[Mr.M]

Thanks for the pics, Aaron!

Totally pod-free!!

I have to admit that when I saw the tin originally, it did raise concerns about the price. For me it means having to choose between Fangio and Moss rather than one of each. As we're so keen on scale accuracy could someone tell me who had the greatest amount of success in this car, so I can get that one.

Interesting looking motor too! Not seen that one before, but then I don't think I've ever opened up the Cartrix cars I have, so it might not be that much of a revolution!

For obvious reasons, Aaron has to quote RRP and they will be available for less from our favourite dealers I'm sure, but that price that Russell quoted is a lot less

Mr.M

 

[vfr750]

Hi Mr M.

Fangiowas world champion and won 4 of the 6 GP's in '55. There is still some debate as to whether he let Stirling Moss (his team mate) win the British GP or whether Stirling won it on his own merit. Maurice Trintignant won Monaco in a Ferrari 625. The Indy 500 counted towards the world championship up to 1960 by a strange querk of the rules even though they ran a completely different class of cars!

Sorry, probably more info than you wanted.

John

 

[Mr.M]

No, that's great vfr!

If I can only expect 1/32 of the success, I want the most value for money

Mr.M

 

[JohnP]

QUOTE Interesting looking motor too!
Yes, that motor might come in quite handy for some of those '60s F1 cars were hearing so much about. In the case of my Honda, I had to cut a slot in the shell to accomodate the regular Scalextric motor brush assembly. That Cartrix baby looks like it would have popped right in

Whatever the discussion, I'm pleased to see manufacturer support for this period of Grand Prix racing.

 

[Russell Sheldon]

It's only 40.50 € from Bazar Aloy (£26.85).

Kind regards

Russell

 

[Gaugemaster Controls]

Aaron

 

[mac p]

gentlemen, it would be wrong of me to comment on others modeling, butb i would like to make a few points on producing the older cars.todays gp cars are computer generated, one being identical to its stablemate, but pre-60,s they where all hand made individually, its stablemate would have mods fitted that the first one did not carry as there was no development programs as we see today, they where modified track side "on the hoof" and between races. anyone who has studied the history of ferrari will know that before the 1960,s his cars could be classed as specials, as every one was different to the next even though they carried the same ident number!! going a little farther back, mercedes ran 4 w 154 cars at donington in 1938, NON of them where the same as any of there other team mates and as for the mk 1 BRM that changed by the hour! so when one produces one of these cars its almost imposible to say that is the definitive car. there are two schools of thought when making a model{of anything} 1, you produce it with every diamention correct, but looking at the full size car and then at a model of it , something odd happens,the perspective changes the model dose not look correct, a case in point is the ford anglia as raced in the 50,s, make a model of this car correct to the drawings and it will look too thin and tall, if you lower the hight and widen the body it "feels" right. this is the thinking of the other school of modeler, to capture the "soul" of the car very fine adjustments are made to the model to get the "feel" of the full sized car.rex hayes, one of the finest car model makers of all time stated he looked at a car, and the three point that stood out to him when he first saw it, he would slightly overstate them. the purists will sayNO, the soul seekers will say YES, believe me to get a model dimensionaly correct and get the "feel" is very, very hard. my method , for what it is worth, is to make the basic shape from a good drawing, then with the help of a vidio of the car playing on slow forward i add the "feel" factor hoping to get something that isabout right , but what i see and what another modeler will see could be at odds witheach other, so please, dont shoot the piano player, he,s doing his best mac p

 

[astro]

I understand the difficulties of modelling older pre CAD cars. If Scalextric modern cars are true to the proportions of the modern 1:1, then the 'feel' factor (make em wider and lower) loses its credibility, because they generally feel really good to me. It seems one of Fly's modellers believes in the feel factor with respect to their GT40s and Ferrari Daytonas, this look does not work for me.

(I do appreciate that unscaled plastic thickness, shut-lines etc may affect the finished look)

However - there are other factors coming into play with older vehicles - finding acurate dimensions, and since as you say many racing cars were very much custom built, there is an issue of whether the figures found in books or on the web are acurate to the actual car. A mistype somewhere along the way, a spill of coffee on the napkin they were originally written on, an archivist misreading the tape measure... so blindly following dimensions or criticising based on them is not such a good idea.

 

[moped rider]

QUOTE I think Cartrix have done well to keep the price below the £40 barrier.

QUOTE It's only 40.50 € from Bazar Aloy (£26.85).

The lesson here is never to attempt to justify a price to the masses if you are an area distributer.

However, there are exchange rates to consider and additional shipping charges. It is more likely to cost you £28.32 on a rate of €1.43 to the £1 so Russell is being a bit optimistic. And then there is the cost of insured shipping to the UK.

And what happens if all is not well when the car arrives? What value do you put on that service element?

There will be far fewer Cartrix cars sold in the UK than in Spain so overheads per car imported will be higher.

Clearly Aaron chooses to offer a service to UK slot car enthusiasts and import these cars but he must wonder if it is worth it at times.

As a slot car collector who may winge at the limited range of cars available in the UK we cannot have our cake and eat it. We either make a decision to support the UK market or the range of cars available to us in the UK with full UK support and service will diminish further.

And ultimately we will be limited to only being able to purchase home grown product in the UK as importers simply will not bother with the UK market.

Moped

PS Even though I may be slightly pro-Scalextric even I recognise that even the mighty Scalextric have not got the resources to produce every car ever made!

PPS and I would also agree with Mac P. The model railway world suffers from rivet counters and one of the joys of the slot car world is that it doesn't (yet!). The soul of the car and how it is remembered matters much more than whether it is 2mm too long!

 

[Guest]

Mac built me the most wonderful wooden body Maser sport car for the rail book and I am a big fan of his bodies as they alway look right and capture the feel of the cars.

RR.

 

[Gaugemaster Controls]

QUOTE The soul of the car and how it is remembered matters much more than whether it is 2mm too long!

Aaron

 

[Russell Sheldon]

QUOTE However, there are exchange rates to consider and additional shipping charges. It is more likely to cost you £28.32 on a rate of €1.43 to the £1 so Russell is being a bit optimistic. And then there is the cost of insured shipping to the UK.

A difference of £1.47....

The cost of postage from the UK to Dubai is exactly the same as the cost of postage from Europe to Dubai.

I try to support UK retailers, but in this case the cost difference is unjustifiable, IMHO, as it is with all Fly models sold in the UK (except of course when Sean and Gary have those great sales to move their overpriced unsold stock).

Kind regards

Russell

 

[Ecurie Martini]

QUOTE PPS and I would also agree with Mac P. The model railway world suffers from rivet counters and one of the joys of the slot car world is that it doesn't (yet!). The soul of the car and how it is remembered matters much more than whether it is 2mm too long!

As a one-time model railroader, a sometimes shipmodeller and a car modeller, I agree with Mac in all respects save one: He has the demonstrated credentials to comment on any modelling efforts!

This elusive "look" was exactly my point. I do not have the specifications of the Merc chassis at hand but the typical GP car of the era had a track measurement of 50" (1.27 m) or less and the Mercedes cars of that and earlier eras had a markedly "crabbed" track - the front track was wider than the rear. In addition, and especially when seen from today's perspective, the cars rode on very narrow tires, rarely exceeding 6.5" rim width.

If you look at the photos taken in that era, one striking thing about the Mercedes is the fact that the rear wheels/tires are very close to the body reflecting not only the width of the body which was lower and wider than the others of the time but also the fact that the brakes were mounted inboard so there was no need to have the drums out in the airstream for cooling.

As far as counting rivets is concerned, I can no longer even see them in 1/32 scale!

EM

 

[astro]

My intention was not to criticise MacP's fabulous models.

When applied by an artiste with a real eye, the principle he sets out obviously works.

In many many many other cases, that same principle of 'eye over dimensions' is used to defend models which do NOT capture the spirit of the cars to many people. To me - unflattened models seem great. I am sure some mildly flattened and widen models also please my eye. But there are many other models which this exageration has been carried far too far, and given the choice, i choose dimensions.

 

[Dennis David]

Dimensions:

Track: front/rear 1330/1358 mm

Wheelbase: 2350 mm, from Argentina 1955 also 2210 mm, from Monaco 1955 2150 mm

Tires: front 6.0 x 16, rear 7.00 x 16

 

[astro]

- its 1:29 scale then?

one to keep the vanquish cars company

 

[Dennis David]

I posted these dimensions and pictures without comment. I have seen these cars up close. The last picture was taken at the Mercedes Museum and for me the Cartrix proportions look off but if the price was cheaper I could see myself buying one anyway!

 

[mac p]

em i quite right with his points about the fullsize 196 chassis and wheels, i tryed to keep my coments restricted to the bodywork, as i am a model car maker that happen to put electric motors in them, anyone who has seen my chassis will know they are S H one T so i did not comment on, but it dose seem a little strange that time is taken making the master model, pre and production moulds, decals ect, ect then fitting wheels and axles that are open to question, withh closed body cars , one sees only the side walls of the tyre and wheel, but with open wheelers , the tyres and wheels are aprox 25%of the viewed model, affecting the stance and look of the car. a thing that hits me about theses posts, 20 years ago we purchased a car model and ran it, no probs, today they are under close scrutiny as soon as they leave the factory, are we getting picky, are we more descerning, requiring more for our money or more knowledgeable, maybe there is another thread here? mac p