Until 2007, the 24 Heures du Mans category had been dominated by open cockpit LMP1 cars, especially by the Audi R8 and R10 TDI cars. The open cockpit design had been mandated by the Automobile Club de L’ouest since 1995, however, in 1994, Kremer Racing began the move toward this trend of LMP cars with the introduction of their K8. For 12 years the open cockpit LMP cars were the norm until 2007 when, upon approval by the ACO, Puegeot entered a closed cockpit prototype now known as the 908 HDI. The HDI, much like the Audi designation of TDI, indicates that this car runs on clean-burning diesel fuel.
Diesel Fuel? Well, Audi was certainly successful with their TDI cars in the 2006 running of the 24 Heures du Mans. And a closed cockpit LMP car after all these years? Yes, and about time in many race fans minds. In fact, the closed cockpit LMP prototype cars have been mandated by the ACO for 2009. The 2008 running of the 24 Heures du Mans will be a transition year toward the closed cockpit LMP prototypes. That is the LMP future, however, let us return to June of 2007.
The Puegeot 908 was a bit of a surprise entry and caught Audi quite off guard. Certainly Audi knew of the 908’s development, however, nothing could even run with the now famous R8’s and R10’s for the previous 8 years, outside of the Bentley Speed 8 which actually were the only cars entered in the LMP GT category for the years 2001 and 2003 when they took overall titles. Kinda hard to lose with no competition.
Testing for the 2007 running of the 24 Heures du Mans proved that Puegeot had done their homework. The cars were fastest in the open test and gave the formidable Audi R10’s a real run for their money. Early on, the Audi’s seemed determined to hand the race to Puegeot as the #3 R10 crashed out of the race after running only 23 laps . The remaining 2 Audi’s and both Puegeots battled throughout the French night until the #2 Audi lost a wheel early in the damp morning and the #7 Puegeot developed ignition, fuel injector problems after 338 laps……victory was in sight for the French team in front of a raucous record 350,000 race fans.
It was not to be, with the race running the final one and one-half hours under yellow flag conditions due to what could best be described as a “frog-strangler” rain storm, the #8 Puegeot slowed to a stop with less then 30 minutes remaining in the race. Although technically the #8 never finished its’ final lap, the ACO declared the # 8 car as the second place finisher. ACO rules dictate that a car cross the finish line running after the 24 hour mark is reached. This is the ACO we are talking about, thus the rules were “reshaped” for the French Puegeot team. Never the less, it had to be considered a successful debut for the 908’s.
I wanted to present this recount of the events of 2007 in order that we may under stand the potential significance of the Audi R10’s and the Puegeot 908’s. Both cars run on very clean burning types of diesel fuel. In this age of environmental awareness, these cars could well represent the future of the automobile outside of electrically powered cars. This, to me at least, is what prototype racing is about. Remember, the dominating Porsche 956/962’s were developed as a result of the fuel shortages and embargos imposed in the late 1970’s. Certainly the fuel injection systems of these cars paved the way for more refined systems in our street cars.
The Puegoet 908 has been modeled by Carrera, Avant Slot, and SCX/Technitoys. Scalextric also plan to release a version of the 2007 908 later this year. This review covers the Carrera and SCX versions. I currently do not own an Avant Slot 908 as I am waiting for the race livery car to be released although I hear many good things concerning the AS model of the 908 test car.
From the outside, both the Carrera 908 and the SCX 908 are faithful recreations. Side by side, the cars are nearly identical except in a few areas. The Carrera version sports unusually large tires and the massive guide blade present on most newer Carrera cars. The SCX version sports a lower, more correctly modeled rear deck, as fine of detail as the Carrera version, and is much lower resulting in a very low center of gravity (CG). Turning the cars over is where the real differences are noticed. The Carrera 908 has 2 massive magnets which virtually glue this car to the track. The SCX 908 has a single small magnet attached to the floating motor pod. In running both cars, the Carrera is a very quiet runner and fast. The SCX 908 is slower and the rear end will slide out if the car is pushed too hard. My SCX also is very noisy although there seems to be no effects of the running of the car. Testing the cars on the Magnet Marshall, the Carrera weighs in with a whopping 282 grams of magnetic down force where as the SCX 908 has only 183 grams of magnetic down force. With this difference, it is very hard to compare the cars against each other. Out of the box with only basic lubrication and modifications to the Carrera guide blade, the Carrera 908 ran laps of 7.3 - 7.5 seconds on Matador International Raceway. The SCX, with basic lubrication, could only manage a best lap of 9.1 seconds and that was a frightening lap in its’ own right. Comparing these cars is impossible in this configuration.
So how can we make the cars equal? Pull out the magnets! Sans magnets, the SCX 908 weighs in at 84 grams where as the Carrera 908 weighs 85 grams. Close enough for me to compare them. On the track, the Carrera 908 proved to be a beast to drive. The tail slides were completely unpredictable and I could manage to put together only 5 hot laps before deslotting the car. On the other hand, the SCX 908 proved to be a good candidate for non-magnet racing. The car was predictable even when cornering although top end straight line speed was less than the Carrera 908. The best laps in this configuration were 12.996 seconds for the Carrera and 12.525 seconds for the SCX. That may not seem like a significant difference, however, if you are going to tune one of these cars for non-magnet racing, I would suggest purchasing the SCX car. If you run an unlimited class such as our small Alabama Slot Car Society runs, the Carrera would make a great starting point.
Why the difference? Let us look “under the hood” so to speak. As you can see from the pictures, the Carrera chassis is simply packed full with electronics. The SCX chassis on the other hand has ample room to place weights. The SCX chassis and body make use of copper strips to conduct current from the guide leads to the lights and finally to the motor. Lead as we use for non-magnet racing is non-conductive, so covering these copper strips should prove to cause no problems. Also, SCX has equipped this car with a floating motor pod which was first introduced on their Pro Audi R8. Although the SCX 908 is technically NOT a “pro” car, it is very close.
In the end, both cars are wonderful models to look at and both perform very well under their own circumstances. The Carrera 908 can be considered more of a toy whereas I would not allow my 9 year old son to race with my SCX 908. The SCX version will certainly be more popular in club racing alongside the Avant Slot 908. However, as I said before, the Carrera 908 could be a terrific challenger in classes such as the RAAce 2008 LMP-M division.
In closing, you must decide which car you would prefer to purchase. Both cars have their own unique place when racing. Another positive for both cars is the price point. Both cars can be purchased for less than 50 US dollars, leaving your wallet with some left over money to purchase upgrades. Both cars are well modeled and very pleasant to look at. The cars just look fast sitting still. Again, you must determine which car is better suited for your own style of racing. Personally, I like them both.
