[ParkRNDL]

Got a bunch of AW cars over Christmas break, and I've been running and diddling with them when time permits. You guys know I love to sit these next to the originals and compare, so it won't surprise you that I'm comparing an AW Cougar with an Aurora Cougar. Not many differences, actually, but there is one BIG one that y'all should know about. More on that later.

Here they are side by side. The blue Aurora Cougar is on an Aurora Tuff Ones chassis.

Something really obvious here is the mold lines on the Aurora... heck, look at Bud's homepage. The cartoon Cougar that Bob Hardin drew for the website art has the mold lines drawn on it, because they're so obvious on the Aurora car:

http://www.budshocars.com/

It's nice to see a cleaned-up Cougar without those lines. :thumbsup:

A few other external differences: The AW's quarter windows are slightly different in shape. The word "Cougar" isn't molded on the AW's quarter panel emblem, and the cat figure isn't molded on the grille emblem. The cowl vents behind the hood aren't quite as sharp on the AW car. Still looks great to me... and the taillight detail on the AW car looks great...

BUT...
there is ONE big difference. Read on...

--rick

 

[ParkRNDL]

Ya know how the original pullback bodies were designed to fit the Aurora chassis, and when the JL Tjets came out, the chassis was a fraction of an inch longer? Remember how the wheels hit the back of the rear wheelwells?

Well, they corrected the wheelbase on the body this time. Look:

When you put the AW body on an original Aurora chassis, the wheels hit the FRONT of the wheelwells... and as usual, when you put an Aurora body on the AW chassis, the wheels hit the BACK of the wheelwells.

This is significant if you want to run an AW Cougar body in a Tjet racing class because you don't want to beat up an original Aurora Cougar. Many Tjet racing series allow the use of new or repro bodies but require original Aurora chassis. (Scott, didn't you run a Wild Ones Cougar at one point?) I'm sure it can be made to work, but pe prepared to do the dreaded wheelwell mod...

Here's a pic of exactly how far off the wheelwells are...

I'm attaching the same pic modified in Paint with little lines...

Don't get me wrong; I'm still excited as anything to have affordable Cougar bodies to run and modify and thrash on. I just figured this was something significant that folks would want to know if they were buying these to race competitively.

--rick

 

[WesJY]

Nice job man!! :thumbsup:

Wes

 

[slots-n-stuff]

Rick, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
We enjoy you stopping by when your in Town.. But we really enjoy the comparsion you do with these bodies.. It is always very interesting to us. Great thread. How about the Henry J body.. What do you think of that one?? http://www.slots-n-stuff.com

 

[JordanZ870]

Great work, again, Rick!
As I read through your comparison, a lightbulb came on. One of my Tjet500 willys is the worst fitting bod I have ever seen! (all of the others look great) I had to go and look. Sure enough, I had put an original Tjet chassis under it. Time to swap one of Toms chassis back into it and move the Tjet to a nice little Daytona that I picked up a while ago.

Thanks again, Rick!

 

[sethndaddy]

Rick, great comparison again, I absolutely love your pictures and wish I knew how to post pics that big.
How about a comparison on the tjet Blazer/bronco, I didn't get my order in yet but I did see the AW one in stores and the little guys heads look alot bigger then the original.
Again, thanks for the cool review.

 

[jack0fall]

I absolutely love your pictures and wish I knew how to post pics that big.

Ed, First, the pictures need to be on the computer you are using to view HT. Click on Photo Albums (at the top), Look at the top right of the Photo Album page and click on Upload Photos.

This will open another window with three [brouse] buttons. Click on one of these, this will open a window of your hard drive, look for where you put the pictures ie. "C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents\My Pictures" and select the picture you want to upload. After the picture is uploaded and in your Album, click on the picture, scroll down to the bottom of the page and highlight the <img> link that is posted there. Paste this link in your post and viola.... big pictures.... :thumbsup: HTH

Jeff

 

[roadrner]

Rick,
Thanks for thr rundown on these two versions. :thumbsup:
Dave

 

[videojimmy]

excellent review!

 

[ParkRNDL]

Rick, :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
We enjoy you stopping by when your in Town.. But we really enjoy the comparsion you do with these bodies.. It is always very interesting to us. Great thread. How about the Henry J body.. What do you think of that one?? http://www.slots-n-stuff.com

hey Andrew, I'll get to the Henry J, I promise... I just haven't had a chance. It's not even mounted on a chassis yet. In fact, my kid noticed it on the slot table last night and said Oooooooooh, what's that? So it may wind up being his...

I will say for the folks out there in Slot Car Land that I originally didn't plan on getting one, as I'm not a huge fan of the 1:1 car... but when I saw it in person, I was sold...

I've also been fooling with the new AW Corvette and GTO, but I haven't had time to post pics of the results. Soon... and I REALLY like the way the GTO came out...

--rick