Alfa Romeo GTAm

[GPZ]

I've spent some time looking to see who makes these and I've found 3 so far. Fly, Auto Art and Team Slot. They just look nasty with the flaired wheel wells and lowered stance and I really like the look so I want to add a couple to my stable. I have a few Fly cars but no Auto Art or Team Slot. I run Scaley Sport analog and would appreciate any advice re these other two makers.

Gary

[dansula]

The Alfa GTAm was a very successful race car. The 1300cc version was more reliable. The 2000lt faster. Alfa's works race team Autodelta were very adept at placing the car in the right class to win the European Touring Car Championship. They had a choice of engines which let them enter the appropriate class to give the car the best chances of winning. The GTAm had a relatively long race life. In it's later years the Escort among others became more competitive. The rules in those days were less stringent and Alfa tried their very best to be competitive. To do this they made huge adjustments to the body shape. Even in '68 there were small wheel arch flairs. By '73 the car was lowered and had enormous flairs. Along with the fashions of the day? Do a Google search, it may alter your perception of the car.

Regarding the cars the Auto Art is closer to scale than the Fly and Teamslot. The Auto Art runs well, its motor is more powerful than a black strip Fly/Scaley motor, so expect it to be the faster GTAm. The Fly is front motor while the other two are rear inline. I have no experience of running these cars with a magnet. The Teamslot needs significant work to make it a good running car. The Fly is front motor and equally not for the novice. Personally I am soft on the Teamslot car as it captures the soul of the car for me, However the Auto Art is a better running, looking and scale model car. It also comes with lights. There really is no contest.

[SuperSlab]

Regarding the cars the Auto Art is closer to scale than the Fly and Teamslot.

I cannot comment on the scale accuracy, but the AutoArt is a gorgeous model. Appearance-wise, you cannot ask for more in a slot car.

I have no experience of running these cars with a magnet.

Likewise for me, so please consider my performance comments in that light.

The Auto Art runs well, its motor is more powerful than a black strip Fly/Scaley motor, so expect it to be the faster GTAm.

The motor in the Alfa is a bit of a beast. For non mag, note that it is a small, narrowish, uprightish car. The handling will never be in the same class as an LMP car, or even Scaley's TransAms (for me one possible class to race these in). Because of the powerful motor, my car is a true "point & squirt" racer. But it actually handles surprisingly well and is an absolute blast to drive.

Note that, on wood, my car suffered from hop due to the huge amount of horsepower available: I had to stiffen the chassis a bit to "tame the beast".

However the Auto Art is a better running, looking and scale model car. It also comes with lights. There really is no contest.

My sentiments exactly

[Robert Livingston]

If you put the body on a HRS sidewinder, you will kill a lot of T/A Camaros and Mustangs. Check the current performance of this car in the Can Am Proxy, in GTU, but running with the big guns.

[GPZ]

OK, I'll bite, what is an HRS sidewinder?

Gary

[Racerdoug]

OK, I'll bite, what is an HRS sidewinder?

Gary

Chassis kit by Slot-it. Are you running with or without magnets? I have the Flys. I don't have either of the others-Team Slot or Auto Art. I have done some work on my Fly Alfa and I have to say it's one of my favorite cars to just run for fun. With weight and improved drive train,it runs pretty good-no mag,on wood w/rubber tires.

[GPZ]

I don't know yet. I know that sounds stupid, but I'm new at this and am running everything stock so far. I bought a whole bunch of used Scaley track, filled it out with some new stuff, 26 cars of every type in pairs and have spend the last 2 months trying different track configurations to see what I like and don't like. I can tell you my favorite cars so far are a pair of stock Scaley Chappies, stock Scaley Mini's, Slot it 956k's (although they need better tires) and a pair of Racer Riley's. I talked to Micheal at SCC in Quebec and have $250 worth of tires and upgrade parts coming for a bunch of my cars. The nicest cars I have to look at are the Fly 512's and 250 GTO's, but they don't run as well. The GTO's are front motor cars and are the fastest cars I have with the magnet in place but pretty well undrivable with the magnets removed. Going to have to spend some time with them cause they're really good looking cars. I have a new NSR on the way which is supposed to work well OTB. We shall see. The Alfa's GTAm cars just look cool but I want them to be fun to drive too. That's why I'm asking as many questions as possible before I order a couple.

Gary

[GPZ]

Auto Art

Well, I bit the bullit and ordered 2 of the Auto Arts. Man this slot bug bites hard. 28 cars and counting and I'm barely 2 months in. Ordered a variable PS this afternoon. I gotta get off this forum!

Garyeasycomeeasygo

[TransIssues]

Slot it 956k's (although they need better tires)

Gary,
Are you using the tires that came on the car or the ones under the display base? The tires under the base are S2s and stick very well to Scaley track.

Cheers!
Paul

[GPZ]

They were both brand new and are being used as they came. I'll have to dig out the cases and look underneath. Thanks for the tip. I love how smooth the cars run, but they're slow cause of the slippery tires.

Gary

[BigDog]

I'm curious...

Hi Guys,

I'm a bigtime GTAm fan too: lovely cars with their truly brutal appearance! So I bought myself a Teamslot GTAm and marvelled at it's wide and low stance when it came in.

Unfortunately, this was the exact reason I couldn't get it entered in the Can Am Proxy Race (the reason I bought it for, to begin with), as it's far from being to scale! So I put it aside and all but forgot about it...

But before it was ruled out of the Can Am, I did some laps with it at our track and was a bit surprised with it's performance: I managed a nice 9.872 sec lap, while the record there is 7.203 sec, registered with a totally tuned Slot.It Nissan 390, with a Boxer 2 motor in it. And I ran the little Alfa absolutely in OTB configuration, meaning a lot of slop on the front axle, original wheels/tires (no truing), no weight, lots of noise, well, you get the picture, eh?

Now that some of you started this talk on the AutoArt GTAm, could someone be so kind as to verify if that car is to scale - maybe it'll be one of my entries in next year's Can Am challenge...?

Good luck with your new cars, GPZ, and tell us how they run!

Cheers!

EDIT: where did you get your AutoArt cars from, GPZ - I tried our sponsors but apparently they're out of stock...

[Robert Livingston]

Auto Art evidently uses a scale ruler when they make their car bodies. I would be very surprised to find that their Alfa is not to 1/32 scale. Since they are coming from a die-cast, visual-replica, shelf-model background, they make scale models that look like the real cars, and are all in constant scale, so model-to-model comparisons are valid. They do not make "race" versions of their cars, and they do not participate in the various Euro slot competitions that drive the race-oriented manufacturers to inflate their cars width-wise, to win races.

[BigDog]

Okay... to scale it is.

"Auto Art evidently uses a scale ruler when they make their car bodies. I would be very surprised to find that their Alfa is not to 1/32 scale. Since they are coming from a die-cast, visual-replica, shelf-model background, they make scale models that look like the real cars, and are all in constant scale, so model-to-model comparisons are valid. They do not make "race" versions of their cars, and they do not participate in the various Euro slot competitions that drive the race-oriented manufacturers to inflate their cars width-wise, to win races.

Well... I guess that means I can safely buy me one of their GTAms, eh?



Now a second question: being to scale (therefore a smaller car, with less track than the Teamslot one) would you guys think it possible to successfuly tune the AutoArt car to race well in the midst of the other GTU Can Am cars...? I know... that's a loaded question.

for the hijacking GPZ, but it seems you already made your choice and bought your cars, so I was hoping there's no real harm done...

Cheers!

[dr vanski]

The AA Alfas are available at Mini Grid in Toronto. Very nice looking models. The Alfa is a tiny car and the AA version twigged me onto how huge the Teamslot cars are. I haven't run mine yet.

[Gordo Bond 007]

We race FLY - GTAms on wood up here, and they are wonderful cars. All we had to do was change the rear tires to Tru Grips and they run fine for us.

Being a front motored slot car, you can get a bit of rear wheel hop, but that can usually be fixed if you add some reinforcement to the rear of the chassis to help stiffen things up.

Looks wise, the Fly car may not be perfectly to scale, but I personally think that they have captured the "feel" of the car better than anybody else. The car just looks so tough and mean, like a little bull dog!

Gordo BOnd 007