I decided to grab this car a couple months ago when it was released and what a nice car it turned out to be.
While it still races in the Historic T/A series it was originally driven by Jerry Peterson and first raced in the 1972 season. It only raced in four races in 1972 but came in 9th at Donnybrook and 10th at Watkins Glen. A bad transmission at Mid-Ohio and a crash at Road America prevented him from placing better finishes at those races.
I personally feel Scalextric did a great job on this car and the electric blue finish it has is outstanding! With the red and white stripes around the roof and rear of the car they really pop against the blue. One of the things about the car that impresses me the most is the fact the Scalextric did the livery how the car was originally raced in 1972 and not how it is raced today in the Historic series.
A couple things I did notice compared to an older 69 Camaro was that the front spoiler on this car is much closer to the track. I also noticed that this new model no longer has the lower lights molded in the front of the chassis. Although its hard to tell from vintage pictures, I find it a little odd for the 69 Camaro not to have these. Of course its no big issue and to be honest I never even noticed it until I started taking pictures of the car for this review. Maybe the new chassis was designed without them?
Front spoiler, notice how much closer this one is to the track compared to the older one. You can also see the molded in lights missing from the new one. Also you will find that the front spoiler on this new car comes out of the chassis when you unscrew the front screws. I couldn't get the screws to come out of the spoiler holes but once they were loose from the chassis the spoiler lifted out with the screws.
Once I took the body off the chassis I noticed that they have added a little something to the rear of the interior tray. It now has little tabs at the back of it that they have glued to the body. It used to only be the little snap in tabs that held the interior in place. I know some have complained about the way they did interiors and not having enough support so maybe this new little fix will help with that.
Compared to the old interior you can see the tabs on the new.
Now that we see how nice the paint and finish is we can turn our attention to the chassis of the car. This is the first 69 Camaro by Scalextric to have the new chassis that is DPR. The other new feature of this chassis is that it has the newer style round guide. I prefer this new guide over the old style as they have a better turn radius and I have not had any problems of them popping out when the cars deslot like the older style did.
Here is a side by side comparison to see the old and new chassis.
Looking inside the chassis you can see the new DPR plug, magnet, standard motor and gearing as in models past. The chassis's are not much different from each other, but as you can see you don't have the two extra front magnet pockets in the new chassis and there is no magnet at the rear of the car but there is a place for one if you wanted to put one in.
Another side by side of old and new.
So I am guessing you would like to know how it runs am I right? On my wood track right out of the case this was a great running car, I have David Reinecke that can back that up as I never put the car on the track until he was here. We both agreed that Scalextric has got to be using a new compound for their tires as this car screamed around the track with no loss of traction straight from the case. This car is really smooth and quiet too. I don't have a lap counter to gives times but this is easily one of the best Scalextric T/A cars I have in my fleet. If you like the T/A series and want a car that not only stands out and looks great but drives great too, you will not be dissapointed with this one. I think with the new chassis and updated guide Scalextric did a great job all around on this classic.
