Aurora t-jet vs. JL/AW t-jet?

Aurora mag. & non mag. vs. JL/ AW X traction?


Besides the obvious, JL/ AW cars are plentiful, and I know parts are interchangble.

The people selling Aurora cars say they're faster than the JL/ AW cars and vice versa.

Who wins?

The best driver.

The Aurora Tjet is by no means faster than the AW. But quality-wise, the Aurora beats the AW hands down. AW has a 14 tooth pinion vs Aurora's 9 tooth on a standard chassis. The AW will be faster, the Aurora will last longer.As far as the X-trac vs the magnatraction, that one's almost a toss up. I've heard about both being faster/ better... The real winner is us. We get more little cars to play with!! LOL

win43.........Go Jerry...Whooosh he wins! :woohoo:

Bob...This seems like a can of worms question to me...zilla

I have screamers and losers from both sides. The best thing is, a little tweaking will usually get things in better shape regardless of platform. But being raised on Aurora, I'd have to stick with them in general. But I'll play with all of them! :):) rr

Car-Guy, though it was stated which would win, an AW/JL tjet is actually a Tough-Ones clone. So it should be Aurora TO or JL-AW tjet? And yes, it's a toss-up.

When I was building t-jet drag cars I tried every t-jet chassis made, JL~AW Even the Original Aurora tuff-ones silver chassis, ~ Out of all of them the old standard copper Aurora chassis work the best out of all of them hand's down. ~ But I have to vote for the JL & AW Bodies, as in better detail ~ price ~ and verity of styles. ~ I even tried putting all brass gears on an AW chassis, with a JL top plate it worked ok but sill no comparison to the original.

IMHO the Aurora chassis was way more precise in the tolerance department. I also believe the materials used for the chassis and top plate were better than the JL/AW stuff. Add the brass gears, the thicker cluster shaft and brass plates with better rivets and you get a winner...:thumbsup:

It's just like anything else made in the 60's vs now. Imagine what the cost to manufacture a 66 GTO, a 69 Charger, or a 67 Mustang fastback would be now, vs what it cost then. AW is lax on quality to make a relatively inexpensive product. And I must agree the detail on the AW bodies is far better than the old Tjet...and they look better ... unless Bill Hall gets the buffer out.. :lol: Once that buffer hits that old plastic, magic happens!!! :thumbsup:

JL/AW has stronger mqagnets in both t-jets and X-trac, but their gears suck. Their arms tend to go up in smoke as well but I suspect this is a result of the bad gears.

I'll trade anyone 3 AW t-jets for 2 Aurora's any time.

i'll go with the aurora too.my willys flat hauls!its faster than one of my mts!mean green with jl magnets,and afx wheels and axles.what impressed me was after i lapped the gears,how much coast the little sucker has!the smaller pinion just keeps me in the corners better.i have a pretty good aw,set up the same and i cant keep it on the track.maybe that 14 tooth pinion just makes it spin out,i dunno.yeah i'll definately be in the aurora tent on that question...

that's the exact reason I've been replacing the 14 tooth pinion with the 9 tooth. I hate doing it, but all I have been able to afford are AW chassis, and I have a bunch of them now. The stupid thing(on my part) is by the time I pay for the chassis, and the pinion, and the crown, I could have bought a NOS aurora chassis!! DOH!! At least it only took me a year to figure this out!!

yeah its funny i thought the aw chassis were good until i figured out how tune a real tjet!and my mods are minimal compared to you guys that really get em hummin!aw just doesn't have the quality.they might run right out of the box,but half of them are tricycles!why should i have to buy a boiling jig for a brand new product?ridiculous.if they paid more attention to quality control,they wouldn't have an inferior product!nice looking bodies are great for shelf queens,but i will take a smooth reliable,dependable chassis any day!oops...got carried away there...i will now return my soapbox to the closet where it belongs!:rolleyes:

An 18 cent magnet and a small dab of crafting glue "tunes" an AW Tjet just fine.

i will ask my LHS to start stocking hobby glue that trues warped plastic then...lol

win43.........Go Jerry...Whooosh he wins! :woohoo:

Bob...This seems like a can of worms question to me...zilla

Bob, :wave: a can of worms ???...LOL :rolleyes:


Being a basher of AW (tjets),:rolleyes: their early gears really stunk. There was a meshing problem that was unexcusable (in my opinion). To me, replacing gears on a NEW car was not the solution to the problem. I'm told that the problem has been fixed in the more recent releases....but I wouldn't know about that....."fool me once, shame on you....:mad:..fool me twice, shame on me" :eek:
I try not to buy AWs. If you want to slow down(change gearing) your AWs or JLs you have to use Aurora parts or similar. AW doesn't make these type of parts.

I started with Aurora tjets way back when they first came out (man i'm old). I had the vibrator cars before that. Sold all my stuff in the late 80s (BIG mistake). Since coming back to the hobby a few years ago my break down of cars(chassis) are:
Aurora tjets....over 400
JL tjets...about 100 (mostly because I have all the JL releases)
AW tjets.....less than 50 (see above statements)
All other chassis(XT, MT, 4 gear, etc.)......about 20 (mainly because I like the AFX semis)

So, I guess i'm just an old dog :D that doesn't wanna be taught new tricks. I'll stick to my Aurora tjets whenever possible. :woohoo:

I dont like comparing apples and oranges. Pounded fruit is called jam and it's production is always a sticky mess.

That said, I like to think that most all cars have some potential for improvement epecially with the wealth of knowledge we have acquired in BOTH tech and tuning. When first reading the initial posting I thought as Dave did; that comparing a t-jet to a JLTO shows that the direct comparison of eras is pocked with complications. eg: There is no direct comparison between the various aurora models unless one goes head to head with the competition (Tyco) of the time.

The only direct comparisons available would be the comesurate Aurora and AW models. Even so any qualified analyst would blow it right out of the water on the first salvo. Materials have changed. Some for the better and others...well maybe not so much LOL.

With that in mind I'll make a sticky preserve of humble "O" that goes like this.

T-jet to JL/AW: No contest. I was there (old). Decent QC with a great out of the box experience. Good customer service, waranty and parts. The latter.....well....gulp, not so much.

Tuffones/JLTO: Again no comparison. The TO's of the day were more consistent out of the can than todays facsimilie. Certainly they had their overheating problems as well as the normal glitches however I can attest to dropping a handful of lawn mowing money on the counter and shortly there after dropping a pretty new TO Willys (and a host of others) on the track and ripping it right through the course with wreckless abandon. I will not pound the horse further on the latter's out of the box experience save for to acknowledge it.

Standard AFX: Is on an island by itself in my book. A drivers car without a doubt. Gobs more power, better handling, but no anti grav yet so lil' Johnny ADD was still whining about not being able to keep his car on the track. For the comparative record, the properly tuned, foil shod Tycos were blowing the AFX offerings right off the track. Standard AFX is still a sentimental favorite here...because ya have to DRIVE them!

Maggies/XT: Having left the hobby prior to the magnatraction release I have no pertinent observations from the way back. What I do know is that once AW worked the bugs out in later releases the XT is a good facsimilie with some as good or better right out of the can.

Now that I've made this delicious fruit salad I'll get off my soap box and leave with the idea that now more than ever it's about releasing the maximum potential in a given configuration. eg: I have a viscous "55 Chubbie", poly magged AFX magna with a holy grail stock armature, and drag trac silicones. Through testing and tuning I found the the limits of it's potential and it will run nicely against many more modern inline cars. Just hand over yer pink slip now. LOL! I also have some vibe hotrods that will run away from middle of the road t-jets. No matter what you will always have what I call holy grail cars that overlap the boundaries of their design into the next classification. The trick is having the knack to find them. Beyond persistence and dumb luck I'll let you know when I figure it out. :freak:

Rich hit it dead on. The patient, best prepared driver wins hands down every time! :thumbsup:

how could anyone argue?apples and oranges...yer right of course.its not what ya got,its what ya do with it...i will now return to my humble pie and hope i get a scoop of ice cream!thanks bill...

Well, apples to oranges,
Why not just run a Tyco?

Rich...Save yourself a lot of trouble... not zilla.

We could tell you why Rich.....but then we'd have to kill you.

Which in retrospect would be a waste of time... you are already dead to us cuz you run Tycos.

We could tell you why Rich.....but then we'd have to kill you.

Which in retrospect would be a waste of time... you are already dead to us cuz you run Tycos.

whoooaaa???? i run tycos !!!!!! so i guess i am on rich's blacklist?

Wes

I started with Aurora tjets way back when they first came out (man i'm old). I had the vibrator cars before that.

.... before that you had a metal hoop with a stick... and before that you had a log that some other cave-kid dropped. :lol: nd

whoooaaa???? i run tycos !!!!!! so i guess i am on rich's blacklist?

Wes

Hahahahahahahaha! No way Wes. Yer far to willing. I was just teasin Rich cuz he asked for it!

I know I'm going to stay on Mr Hall's good side. :thumbsup:

Hahahahahahahaha! No way Wes. Yer far to willing. I was just teasin Rich cuz he asked for it!

HAHAHAHA :)

Wes