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[rvec]

Porsche Carrera 6 Build
By: Rich Vecchio Date: 6/8/2015
 
Some time ago I acquired a 1/24 Porsche Carrera 6 (a.k.a. Porsche 906) slot car body made by Tamiya. The body is very light and low. In order to further minimize weight I fabricated a paper interior tray as a replacement to the plastic tray provided in the kit. Because of its very low profile, the body is a tight fit on the Scholer I-55 Intruder 1/32 chassis. It was necessary to fabricate a custom guide tongue to accommodate the Carrera 6 wheelbase and take advantage of its front overhang. My Carrera 6 is powered by a Deathstar motor.

Slot Car Performance

The table below illustrates the performance of Can-Am and Gran Sport Cars at Electron Raceway through June 4, 2015. Looking at the fast lap data, it appears that all of the cars are very well matched. Unfortunately, this is somewhat misleading because of the wide variety of motors used in different rides. After having raced the Carrera 6, Lola T-70 and Ford GT-40, here are my personal observations. To me, the performance of the Lola and Carrera 6 are almost identical. If I had to choose, I might give the nod to the Lola. The GT-40 is much harder to drive. I believe this is because of its higher center of gravity and relatively narrow front track. Ron has been kind enough to let me drive his McLaren Elva. I found it to be as competitive as either the Lola or the Carrera 6. The body is very low indeed.




I believe that the performance of all Deathstar powered rides can be improved. Our experience is that the ProSlot PS 2002 Speed FX balanced 16D is from .1 to .2 seconds per lap faster. Both motors are legal for this class.

There is one last point I would like to make. Rich, Ron and Jack have all built and tested (but never raced) Porsche 917s, legal bodies for this class. My experience is that the 917 is the best body for this class because of its very wide front and rear track coupled with a very low center of gravity.
Images of the Can-Am and Gran Sport cars are shown below











Brief History of the Porsche Carrera 6

The Porsche 906 or Carrera 6 was the last street-legal racing car produced by Porsche. A total of 65 were produced in 1966, allowing the model to be homologated for FIA’s new Group 4 Sports Car category although the 906 would also compete in modified form in the Group 6 Sports Prototype class. The Carrera 6, was a nearly immediate response to the 1965 appearance of Ferrari’s new featherweight hill climber, the 206 Dino. The Dino had rendered Porsche’s fiberglass-bodied 904 GTS obsolete almost overnight.
The Carrera 6 was designed under the direction of Ferdinand Porsche’s grandson, Ferdinand Piëch. Piëch had recently been installed as the new head of Porsche R&D. The Carrera 6 chassis featured a light and very strong tubular steel space frame with 90.6-inch wheelbase, a front track of 52.7 inches, and a rear track of 55.2 inches. The suspension was fully independent, with wishbones and coil springs at all four corners, ZF rack-and-pinion steering, and large four-wheel disc brakes inside the 15 inch wheels. Piëch had wanted to use 13 inch diameter Formula One wheels to lower the new car’s profile. However, the company had already purchased a large quantity of new 15 inch wheels for a planned, but cancelled, second production run of 904s. Porsche could not afford to write off the expense, so the larger wheels were used on the 906 as well, resulting in the car’s steeply arched front fenders. The engine regularly fitted was the 901/20 6 cylinder lightweight power plant fitted with carburetors developing 220 horsepower. However, some examples that were raced by the factory team received fuel injected 8 cylinder engines, especially for hill climbing events where Porsche competed with Ferrari Dinos for the European championship. The body was constructed using unstressed fiberglass and was the first of the Porsche racing machines tested in a wind tunnel. The result was a car that weighed 1,300 pounds (approximately 250 lb. lighter than the 904/6) that could reach 170 miles per hour at LeMans.