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I purchased my first Carrera car about 2 weeks ago; a Ferrari 458; AF Corse livery. I like the detail job that Carrera did on the body, but the body seems very heavy to me for a performance slot car.

Up to this point, I've been purchasing cars from Slot.It, Racer Sideways, NSR, Fly and Scalextric. Of those cars, the bodies are lightest on the Slot.It, Racer and NSR cars; next are the Fly cars and the Scalextric cars are the heaviest of that group; but still reasonably light. However, my Carrera F-458 is setting a new standard for heavy bodies..........by a wide margin!

Since I'd like to race this car, I'm interested in finding out how the body can be lightened. I assume that a dremel and lots of hours of careful work may be the answer, but if there is an easier way to do it, then I'd like to find out about it before I plunk in a few dozen CD's and head for the little rotary sander.

My concern is that weight high has, up to this point, not yielded a fast car for me; all other things being relatively equal.

So, two questions:

1. Why does Carrera make bodies that are so heavy? Is it a crash/durability issue?

2. What's the best way to make them considerably lighter?

Audi1

PS - there are two other Carrera cars that I'm eying because of the finish/graphics on the bodies; the Black Falcon Mercedes GT and the new Audi RS-5; buy I'm not going there until I know if/how to get a lighter body for these cars.

You are comparing apples to oranges, or maybe apples to watermelons. Fly, Scaley and Carrera are one kind of slot car, NSR, Slot.it and others are another type. If you really want to run scale cars against speedy cars, just put a hotter motor in the scale cars and be ready to fix them after they hit the wall. The two types just don't belong on the track together.

From my short experience in slot cars, I do like Carrera digital 1/32; if you get Carrera, it is for looks, solidity and to have fun with friends and family and surely not for competition.

I'm keeping all of my Carrera digital 1/32 because I like them as they are and I even bought 2 1/24 models for their looks ! ;)

The detailing level of the Carrera cars does make them weighty. Detail to weight ratio I'd put them akin to Auto Art. Though Carrera would win on usability.

Not sure what others would do, but you might need to make some detail sacrifices to get a Scuderia version. Best place to look would be interior tray.

Thanks Ember. The interior tray; which is large on an F-458, is already going to lightweight (photo paper with a 3D driver's head; that's it). It's the body itself that I want to lighten.

Does anyone have any experience doing this successfully?

Audi1

Back when we were making 1/24 slot cars exclusively from heavy AMT model kits, there were those who sanded the inside surface of the roof, hood, and deck lid and replaced the windows with acetate from balsa airplanes, in addition to the cardboard interior swapout. The only thing you have to watch out for is the heat of the sanding-- it can distort the nice flat panels in such a way you'll never get them back.

Thanks waaytoomuchintothis, that's more or less what I figured the answer would be.

The advice on excessive sanding heat is much appreciated; I'm sure I would have done that in an attempt to make the job go more quickly.

Maybe I'll throw in a couple dozen dozen CDs................ :)

Audi1

Ok so lightness comes at a cost... accuracy and scale and detail. If you're talking about vac bodies you're not talking about scale and accuracy you're getting into the speed at all cost area where front wheels don't touch the ground (and are often stickers?????) Comparing any injection molded car to a vac car is like comparing apples to watermelon.
Carrera bodies are a bit heavier than most other brands everyone knows this it's nothing new. What a heavier plastic body offers you is a car that's more friendly to the beginner/casual slot racer which is mostly where Carrera is aiming their slot cars.
Trying to get an RTR car to race against a car like a Slot It and NSR on equal terms is a road that is long and filled with Dremel usage...

I've worked on a 458 GT Italia for my club to try to get it in the ballpark with cars with articulated chassis and much lighter bodies. I'm still working on it.

Dave,

Relax, chill out. I'm not advocating this type of racing as a mainstay, simply as one to answer his query.

Personally I have converted to scale type of racing and while the urge to go faster sometimes still beats in my body, I simply run some of the greatest looking slot cars around and it quickly goes by the wayside.

At the top of my pile are many Carrera slot cars. I love racing them against other Carrera slot cars. We have a great time at our club when someone grabs say a Carrera Cheetah, then someone grabs about Cheetah of another color and another grabs a Cobra and finally the last racer gets his light blue Cheetah out and we start to "running" our slot cars around our MDF track. Or when someone grabs their Carrera Stock car and the whole scenario commences all over once again. This happens with GT and DTM as well. Your product is almost the one of choice with many of our club members, strictly based on value.

I've spent many years in that other environment and I enjoy where I am now. Thanks for caring.

Forgive me but I just sooooo dislike the vac body in slot car history. It can be traced to the reason for the decline of slots in the US and the lack of the vac body in Europe as a dominant material for slot bodies is one of the reasons for the continued strength of a viable slot hobby there.

YES!!! That's exactly right. To me, stupid fast kills the hobby just as fast as giving in to outrageous pricing. In fact, both evils go hand-in-hand many times. I will say, I do remember fondly the days when we gathered at the hobby shop to run on the huge 8 lane track they built. And we all made some cars that were vac formed bodies, but that was before the sophisticated superfast things came into being. The magazines didn't even have them yet. Pretty much all chassis were stamped brass. Cox hadn't come up with that magnesium chassis yet. In those days, we ran vac formed bodies with plastic hardbodies and they ran just about even, largely because the tires were not so great. When silicones came into our lives, vac form and hardbody racing split for good. That's when serious engineering chassis came into being under the vac bodies. Then the incredible nastiness of glue drenched foam- ick.

I have slot.It, racer sideways and NSR slot cars and I like racing them. I also have Scalextric, SCX and Carrera slot cars and I like racing them too. But I don't mix Carreras with the faster brands. Trying to lighten a Carrera body to within the range of a slot.It body will result in a burned up Dremel tool and a still disappointingly heavy body. I just face the fact that companies like slot.it, Racer and NSR will never produce as wide a range of body styles as Carrera and Scalextric. If your club races Racer/Sideways I would stick with the complete package and buy a car with the available body you like most.