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Scalextric
C2594
Roush Racing Ford Taurus Driven by Matt Kenseth #17
Review by
Nuro |
| This is the 2005 DeWalt Roush
Racing Ford Taurus driven by Matt Kenseth. The last Scalextric
DeWalt car that we saw was the 2001 edition Ford Taurus. Not a bad
car at all. In fact this latest edition shares many of the features
of the 2001 edition car. Both made in China, the newer car seems at
first to share the same mould, but closer inspection reveals that
the body and chassis have both been reworked. I am not going to list
every difference between them suffice to say that the newer 2005 one
does seem a little more refined and nicely shaped, but that would be
expected after 4 years. |
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| The newer 2005 car has a black #17
on the yellow roof and the 2001 car has a yellow #17 on a black
roof. I seem to have lost a piece of photo-etched grill from the
2001 car, but after all the racing it has had, it has survived
rather well. These cars are very robust. No bits to break off
(except the photo-etched bits that are glued on) and no fragile
parts to crack or get damaged. There are no lights, just painted on
graphics that look OK. These card are fantastic for the kids who
like the bright colours and and graphics and can relate to the
household brand name liveries of M&M's, MacDonald's etc.
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| We even set up a Tri-Oval to test
this car as we had had another layout set up for testing other cars.
The race management system was set up for 25 laps of NASCAR racing
and we were off. It was fun and this drives home the real point of
these cars. You can thrash them around the track getting pleasure
out of it all the way. The side-winder configuration works well for
this solid and square car, and to be honest, the magnet helps it
maintain it's track at these hairy speeds on the banked oval track.
The kids would be crashing on every bend if I pulled the mags. I
suppose though to get the car balanced without a magnet, quite a bit
of lead would go up-front over the guide blade. |
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| Both the 2001 and the 2005 cars
have 11-tooth pinion and 36-tooth gear on the axel giving a 3.273
ratio. It works very well on the track. The drive is virtually the
same between the cars, but I had spent quite a bit of time in the
past truing the tyres and greasing up the workings of the 2001 car
to get it this way. So you can say that the 2005 car is better out
the box with much better moulded tyres, pre-lubricated gears and
perhaps better overall than the 2001 car. |
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| You see from the photos above that
the drivers cages and cabin layout is the same. Same moulding, just
a different colour scheme. The newer car has the driver with the
full face yellow helmet. Below you see the difference between the
guide blade setup. The 2001 car has a blue blade with an external
spring holding it straight, with the spring held in place by a cap
between body and chassis. The new blade on the right seems more
simple and effective with an internal spring and screw holding the
mechanism in place. Note too the Digital chip fixation points and
hole for Lane-Change diode. |
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| A great car and a nice upgrade to
the existing car. A worthy addition to any NASCAR fan's collection.
Now we can just look forward to more of the same and a stable of
cars to race against this DeWalt Ford Taurus. |
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