Does Size Matter ?????????
Real
Well does it? I want to see for myself. I asked AUTOart to send me 2 Dodge Vipers. One of them in 1/18 and one in 1/43 scales, so I could compare them side by side. On the interior there seem to be very little loss of detail going from 1/18 scale to 1/43 scale. The fine detail work crosses over from the larger scale. The rich detail in the gauges and the switch panel stays almost the same in the smaller scale.
I thought for sure the wheels would be lower in quality in the 1/43 vs. the 1:18th, I was wrong.
All of them sport real rubber.
Real
1/18th Scale
1/43 Scale
1/43 Scale
1/18th Scale
AUTOart did a fine job reproducing the Vipers Carbo/Kevlar body and aerodynamics package
There are small differences between the two, but I wouldn't expect there not to be. My question was how big of a difference?
All I can see in the shell are minor differences.
The 1/18th has raised hood pins and the 1/43rd are decals.
The front tow strap and wing adjustments are real in the 1/18 they are missing on the 1/43.
Rear hood pins are missing on the 1/43 scale car.
Paint is much better on the 1/18th, the hood also looks out of proportion to the rest of the car on the 1/43rd.
Both motors show a good amount of detail in fact the whole underside of the car is full of small details. Every time I look at the car I find another small detail that I overlooked before. The biggest difference between the undersides of these cars in the level of detail in the chassis. It would be very labor and cash intensive to incorporate the equal amount of detail in 1/43rd scale compared to the 1:18th.
1/43 Scale
1/18th Scale
The back of these cars have an equal amount of detail, and are hard to distinguish one from another.
1/18th Scale
1/43 Scale
Real on left
1/18 on right
1/43 on bottom
Launched on the 2001 Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca in California, the Competition Coupe is the race version of the Viper SRT-10 and replaces the GTS-R that reigned at LeMans in its class for three years. Dodge clearly used styling cues of the 2000 GTSR concept but most parts are of the production car to keep costs down, like the windscreen giving the driver 2 inches of additional headroom compared to the 2000 concept. As a result of the many production parts in the car, Dodge hoped to keep the price under the $100.000. The main rival of this Viper is the Chevrolet Corvette C5R, the car that took over at LeMans this year from the old GTS-R, as Chevrolet announced they plan to build a limited run of cars for a private team.
Chassis Code: Viper
Competition Coupe
Curb Weight: 2995lbs
Engine Code: Dodge
Type: V-10
Displacement: 8,275cc
Compression Ratio: Stock
Horsepower: 520 hp
Redline: 6100 rpm
Well I feel I have shown you that there are very few differences between these two scales from AUTOart. Does this hold true in every diecast? NO. You get what you pay for. if you want a high quality diecast you have to pay for it. Also if you want high quality I would recommend a company that has a high standards.
AUTOart is one of those companies. With this diecast company, quality and workmanship matter, size does not. These are fine examples of quality and workmanship.
On a scale of 1 to 10 these are both 9+.
With kind regards,
Franklin Nichols
Die cast/Scenery Editor, Slot Car News
http://slotcarnews.net