Carrera Torino Tweaks
Have you ever looked at a slot car that’s really cool except for one glaring flaw in its design that causes you to wonder what the product designers were thinking (or perhaps smoking) when they designed it. That was my reaction to the Carrera #25770 1969 Ford Torino Talladega. With its glossy black paint and gold numbers outlined in red this is a really attractive model in stock form except for one thing. The body, especially at the rear, rides so high on the chassis it makes the car look less like a NASCAR stock car than like something a 70s teenager jacked up for drag racing. Worse than that, the car’s out-of-the-box handling approximates that of a capsizing ship. On our Electric Dreams test track it was so top heavy it would turn turtle at the slightest provocation. Fortunately, the cure for both the look and the handling takes less than half an hour and costs less than a dime.
Start by taking the body off the chassis. All you need to do this is a Phillips screwdriver. You’ll see two posts extending downward from the bottom of the interior tub. Cut them to about half their original length. I took the interior tub out of the body before doing this but you don’t have to.
Next, trim down the body post sockets at the rear of the chassis to a height above the chassis of 1/16”.
Now go to the front of the chassis and trim down the front body post sockets as shown below.
The next step is to trim the front body posts until they extend only 1/16” beyond the ears that hold the front bumper in place as shown below.
Remove the two exhaust pipes from the chassis by grinding off the melted-over ends of their mounting pins on the upper side of the chassis. Now you are ready to put the car back together. The two front body mounting screws go in exactly as before. At the rear the holes in the chassis are now large enough to slide over the body posts. Put a 2.5 mm washer over each of the rear mounting screws. With the chassis pressed down over the rear posts as far as the ears on the rear bumper, insert the two body screws with their washers into the posts and tighten them down. You may find that the rear tires now rub slightly on the inside of the body. If so, use a moto-tool with a sanding drum to grind a small amount of plastic from the inside of the wheel openings where the tires touch.
Finally, glue the two exhausts back in place so they just touch the lower edge of the body and you’re done! The body now sits much lower over the chassis. Not only does the car look like a proper race car, it also now handles much better.
You can see the difference in these photos. The washers used on the rear body screws should cost 5 cents or less each. Not bad, turning a car from a dog to a performer and making it look like it should for one thin dime.
What’s really interesting about all this is that there is no reason on Earth why Carrera couldn’t have made the car this way to begin with. Everything, even the interior tub, fits together just as well after the modifications as before them. It’s attention to detail in matters like this, or the lack of it, that wins or loses customers.