Auto Art Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm - Home Racing World & Slot Car Garage

Thursday July 30, 2009

Alfa Romeo Giulia GTAm
1/32nd Scale

For the second time this year Auto Art has surprised me. Not long after the D Type arrived here did we begin seeing images of the latest Alfa Romeo. Although I am not much of an enthusiast of this brand of car, it is after all classic racing and I have to admit that the car was simply attractive to me. It has arrived here in the slot car dungeon, so let's take a closer look.

If you are just joining us in this great hobby, Auto Art is a different kind of slot car company. They are actually a die cast company first with small runs of slot cars and even RC models coming second. They are NOT designed to be competitive really with any other brand. And that is no slight to Auto Art. I have spoken with them on several occasions and they never intended to be in the competitive slot car racing scene. However, that does not mean that YOU cannot make a hot rod of them.

With that said you would think they would make a very nicely detailed slot car. Well, from the research I have done on this model you should be very happy. They really seemed to capture this classic car quite well. The fenders could have been a little more pronounced, but still an overall great effort. As always, I will let you make the call.

And the paint work is near perfect. Auto Art can really deliver a stunning model when they want to. I found no runs or fades anywhere on our Alfa and the clear coat is as clean as it can be.

The interior is well done enough with some visible roll bar detail. Our driver figure on the other hand looks somewhat odd to me. Seems Auto Art has a little trouble with driver figures with the last Jaguar really being out of scale. Aside from not being very colorful, he (or she) appears to be setting a little far forward. Remember, this is just my personal view. It really does not bother me that much, but you make your own call.

Wheels and tires appear well done and actually seem to be decently concentric. This is however an area that has long been a weak spot for Auto Art. The tire compound they use is rather hard and normally does not grip the track like we are used to with other brands. Still, things seem round enough and a tire change means literally nothing in our hobby anymore.

Before our road test there is one thing you must do: Remove the motor guard assembly. This is an odd sort of item to me, but there is an instruction sheet telling you how to remove it. It appears to be a base plate for the model to rest on while secured to the base of the case. No matter, pop it off with a small flat tip screwdriver and start racing!

While looking at the bottom, you see the magnet held in place by a screw. You can adjust this screw out to lower the magnet if you desire.

Box Stock Track Testing
MidMo International Speedway
4 x 16 - 3 Lane MDF Routed Wood - Flat Latex Surface
Copper Tape Conductivity - Aftermarket Power @ 12 Volts PARMA 25 OHM Control

The first few laps of this model actually surprised me. I did not expect this model to run as smooth as it did. I am not knocking Auto Art, but must say that not all of the models they make run this well out of the box on wood.

There was still work to do however. The tires are simply not designed for this type of surface so a change would be needed. Remember, if you are running on plastic track with the magnet in place, your results will be very different. I also noticed a hop to it when under full throttle. Again, this is normal for not just this brand. Sometimes you need to spend a little time on the wheels and tires to make things better, and I am sure we will.

Also, there is no power shortage here. This car has a motor that will give you some great speed. According to the Slot Car News Motor Chart, this motor gives you between 26,000 and 26,675 rpms. This should be enough for most tracks out there. The braking is not as pronounced as some of you might like, but still not that bad. This car, with this motor really needs a larger layout to be enjoyed to its potential.

One thing worth mentioning is that model is lighted! We might be the only ones who care about such things, but for us night racing is just one more part of the hobby we enjoy. But adding lighting to cars that should have it is pretty much an industry standard for some of the leading brands of models so I am betting we are not the only ones who care :)

Under The Hood

We only have 2 screws up front and they were easily removed. Once inside we see our motor equipped with a 10 tooth pinion that turns the 28 tooth crown gear. This gearing is not a very standard one found in our hobby and I would imagine many enthusiasts will change this out. Gear mesh however is very smooth and quiet.

We also see the lighting system which has a nice quick disconnect feature. I have always liked this design and glad to see it here.

Now wait a minute! Do not just look this chassis over, yawn, and dismiss it already. Take a look up front. The front wheels are independent and are NOT held in place with flimsy plastic stub axles. Instead they are using a aluminum post through the standard brass bushings. Impressive. And so is the fit.

Our model had only a slight amount of play and better yet is that you can tighten them up even more. Each wheel had a little more room to press the post in to tighten it up. After we adjusted it, we virtually have ZERO slop. Yes, this little feature will mean a great deal to many advanced tuning enthusiasts. Good call Auto Art.

Also up front is our standard spring-loaded guide. The guide design has long been a trouble area for some racers as the amount of slop in it basically caused major problems. The guide spring is still a little on the strong side, but that is easily dealt with, just remove it. The amount of free-play is not near as much as we have seen before. No, it is not perfect but it is no worse than many of the other models I have on the shelf.

Without having the parts on hand I want for this model all I did was sand the wheels and tires and lubricated it in the proper areas. The car ran even better of course, but no matter how clean the tires are, they simply would not hook up on our surface. Again, remember we are talking a wood track here and not your average plastic track with magnetic traction. I am sending these tires to my favorite maker to have them made into a compound I know will work. For $4.00, that is not going to break my budget and will almost instantly transform the performance of this model.

Final Thoughts

This model has more potential than I thought. It runs decently out of the box but can also be easily tuned to be a real performer without any real major modifications. I will report on more tuning when my parts and tires arrive. Since I did not expect much from this model, it actually caught me off guard! The price point is around $48.00 which is pretty much where a lot of brands are today. I feel that is fair enough but only you and your wallet can decide.

-Harry

As always feel free to contact me about this article or just the hobby in general at harry@homeracingworld.com, or better yet drop into our Message Forum and share your thoughts with other enthusiasts!

Thanks Go To BRS HOBBIES For Sponsoring This Review!