Carrera Porsche 904 GTS

[ElSecundo]

[Jesla]

Fly's are diamonds in the rough, Carrera are just rough diamonds......

[DaveKennedy]

Just looking over more photos of the 904 (for no reason, honest... not looking for next year's 904 or anything... ) and picking up on a point that I never really gave too much thought to. I don't see many cars with white letter tires at that time. A few cars shod with Firestone's but the vast majority of sportscars had blackwall tires it seems.

[DaveKennedy]

But then the tires would be rolling backwards... oh wait.. nevermind.. :lol:

[ElSecundo]

Well, I broke down and picked up this car today. Straight from the box to the wood track -- smooth and quick, what a sweetie. As I ran it more, the bushings seemed to loosen a bit, and a touch of hop started to appear. This is easy to fix, and with a bit of tire profiling, this car will be fantastic. Another great one from Carrera!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Can you at last answer the big question about these things? Side by side, are they the same scale, or even close, to the very precise Revell-Monogram from a few years back?

[ElSecundo]

[youngster]

I jumped in with both feet and Ordered One Today; With any Luck (and few Less
Coffee Breaks by USPS ; I'll have around Mid week;;;

Youngster

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Thanks, Kurt. I wasn't going to put in an order until I saw that.
It looks like its close enough to be on the track at the same time, but the Carrera is (as usual) too big. And that narrow little intake vent for the fan shroud is odd (it could be from a different version, there were several). Somewhere around here I have the Road & Track that had the car on the cover in a great photo. I wonder which size vent is on it. The scoops on the sides of the roof pillar are close enough for me, too. I just didn't want to find out that they looked bad together on the track like some out of scale cars do. Nice that they washed the vent with black. That's what I did with mine, too. It adds so much, its a wonder more outfits don't do it.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Mine arrived and I'm happy. Pretty well done overall, nothing is perfect but it's close enough for my eyeballs.

Have it "under the knife" now just doing some tuning. But it did run pretty good out of the box on the lumber which is a good sign. Plus it didn't hit that hard in the wallet. :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yep. I just ordered two. I'm shopping for painting plans now. I have two silver ones from Revell, and a red MRRC, so its time for a white and a blue. They built a pretty green one, but it was a street car.

Oh, and the vent behind the rear window is narrow for an opening, but the grillwork over it is wide, so both models are more or less correct.

[ElSecundo]

Hey Rob, that third shot kind of throws things out of whack, and makes the Carrera look bigger. Actually, it's very slightly shorter in length, and at most it's 1/16th of an inch wider. The two cars are extremely close -- I'm as surprised as you are. :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Of all the cars, the 904 is the easiest to mess up. Not many people remember this beauty, and it was incredibly small. My first one was a 1/24 Du-Bro clear body shell that was off the card when I got it. I had it painted before I realized I was in the wrong scale. I saw a photo of a driver standing beside one, and his hip was almost level with the top of the car. The rear wheels were larger than the fronts, and the rear tires were fatter. The tires barely cleared the fender openings, so making a slot car look right means some very careful lowering of the body. I solved the rear wheel problem by using considerably higher profile tires on stock wheels for the Revell. Then there's the 4 versus the 6 cylinder engine. Different exhausts for them. Getting a 904 right really is the province of a German manufacturer, ya know?

[HomeRacingWorld]

It is always interesting how we have our different reasons for choosing a model.

As far as choosing this model, it wasn't that is was a Porsche 904. That did not matter a great deal in my choice.

I wanted it because it is another classic racer to go with the Cobra's and Cheetahs. Another affordable classic I can add that will race right along the others and gives me just one more choice when we get together and someone yells: "Let's race some classics."

So I don't mean to offend those who truly love this car. But for some us, just having one more choice adds a lot of appeal to this classic series Carrera is making. When I can buy 2 of these for the price of one Ninco, it is pretty simple to see why Carrera has been getting the lion's share of my hobby dollars.

I want another myself Rob. Was thinking a repaint but not sure what to do. Feel free to post some photos of your ideas :)

[MrAdept]

My two arrived on Thursday - I was a little surprised that there wasn't a spare exhaust to go with the mirror. One has already met the floor, no damage other than the exhaust is a different angle.
It really is a nice little car and as shown in Elsecundo's photos it is in the right ballpark for size.
Interestingly it is the correct size for 2 resin bodyshells I have so I will need to get a few more.

Mark