Here is another Carrera set that caught my eye. I believe this is the first time I’ve mentioned the Carrera Car Racing line, which predates the Carrera GO series.
The Carrera Car Racing line refers to an older range of slot car tracks produced by Carrera, primarily during the 1990s and early 2000s.
What makes the Car Racing line unique is its unusual 1:40 scale.
This set interested me because it features a concept I could easily envision in the Carrera GO line to add an interactive element: the cars have detachable body parts (fenders and hoods) that can break off upon impact.
Welcome to stock car racing: not only do you want to beat your opponent, but you also want to knock off their body panels.
Cars
The two cars are 1:40 scale models, and for the stock car theme, the chosen vehicles are Beetles—one red and one green.
These are two polar-opposite colors: red and green are perceived as contrasting hues (warm/cool, stop/go, attack/defense), which helps symbolically represent the clash between the two players.
Unfortunately, the most common form of color blindness (affecting about 8% of men and 0.5% of women) involves precisely the difficulty of distinguishing between red and green. For these individuals, the two cars may appear to have a very similar yellowish-brown hue, making the race difficult—or even impossible—to play without assistance.
That said, the two Beetles are excellently designed and fit the theme perfectly.
The circuit
To allow for plenty of rubbing and bumping, Carrera offers a specially designed track featuring two lane-changing sections and two lane-narrowing points. There will be no shortage of opportunities during a lap to try and knock a body part off your opponent’s car.
Here is a feature I love that is highlighted on the box: track layout variations. While this has been available in GO sets for a few years now, it was missing from this range for a very long time. Here, 12 layouts are offered—a particularly generous amount that makes it interesting (or appealing) to vary the race profiles.
Results
When will the same principle be applied to the GO range?