A lot has already been written about the business agreement between Aurora and Faller in the early “HO” slot car epoch known as The Thunderjet Era (more about that later!), and as historically inaccurate as these time frames may be, they illustrate the point that in the early 60’s the T-Jet was King (and here you thought it was Richard Petty . . . or Elvis!) and all the “also rans” were mere peons by comparison. Sure there was Tyco, then but a fraction of its eventual market power, and Atlas, and Marx, and Lionel, and Bachmann; the list goes on and on. Yet, way up on top, completely unreachable by the standards of the day, stood the mighty Thunderjet 500 by Aurora.

During these dim lights of the early ages, I should also point out; we didn’t have the global economy that we enjoy today. Such was the world back then, that as we American kids devoted countless hours to the improvement of our personal T-Jets, we were totally unaware (at least I was!) that across the Atlantic, little German kids were fiddling with their Fallers, just as the British lads were minding their Minics. It never occurred to me to think about it, as nearly as I can recall now! My only recollection of an encounter with the Faller brand was a photo in an Auto World catalog, back in the contest section, of a Faller Porsche 904 on top of a Aj’s car transporter, the combination having been attributed to one Howard Kilgore. I do remember thinking, “Now that is a good looking 904, much better than the Aurora version!” I don’t remember trying to pursue it beyond that thought, however, not that it would have done much good! Growing up deep in the Midwestern U.S., the few Faller sets that crept into America had nary a chance of making it to my local hobby shops. Later, of course, I did find out about Faller. I even met Howard Kilgore! Life sure is funny, huh? And all of that came about because of my involvement with HO-USA. But that’s another story entirely. The story for today is really about the cars that Aurora and Faller modeled the same, only different. The three examples for this series are the Porsche 904, the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Jaguar E-Type.

The First Faller Racing Cars

As our story goes (skipping over all that “Once Upon A Time” nonsense) The Thunderjet King reigned in the U.S., which is ironic, really, in a country formed because of its abhorrence of kings. Meantime, Faller ruled Germany, Minic was the brand of choice in the U.K., and I’m not quite sure what they were doing about all this in France! Must remember to ask Frank. Regardless, the first Faller motor/chassis were nothing to write home about, looking a lot like a combination of early Atlas and Tyco, and working equally poorly, but the second generation got it all right and performed beautifully!

And the Second!

No big surprise there, you see, since the 2nd Gen. Fallers were slightly worked over copies of the already successful T-Jet motor/chassis! In today’s global economy, with equally global legions of patent attorneys such a thing wouldn’t be tolerated. Yet back in the (relatively, anyway) “innocent” sixties, the good folks at Faller, in negotiation with Abe Shikes plus cronies at Aurora, came to an amicable agreement. If the Faller would keep their product out of the U.S. market then Aurora would keep the Thunderjets from invading Germany, and both companies (and their respective profitability) would live happily ever after. Typical for the day, I suppose, yet rather hard to fathom in today’s market! So successful was their agreement, that they were later (in the AFX era) able to market the same cars (Aurora’s) with Faller’s label in the European Market. Now that’s cooperation, folks! But that really is another story.

What The Big Kids Raced

And while us kids (whether we be German, American or British) raced, tuned, modified and modeled our little scale cars, the big kids (a.k.a. adults) were off racing the 1:1 scale cars at Sebring, Le Mans, Riverside, the Nurburgring, Monza and other fine motor racing playgrounds throughout the world. Ferrari was still the big gun in Sports and GT cars back then, having epic battles with the newly formed Cobra (both A.C. and Daytona Coupe derivatives) Team while the lightweight Jaguar (pronounced Jag’-u-ah in British) E-Types never quite found the racing success of their C and D-Type ancestors. Porsche was not yet in the Big Leagues (that came with the 917) at this point in time, but was dominant in the “Under 2 Litre” class that was very popular in this era (racing against Alfas, Abarths and Alpines), and the 904 was their weapon of choice. And, our slot car subject for today.

Numerology

It probably bears repeating that Aurora called the 904 the “906” for some odd reason, possibly confusing it with the 904/6 (a few 904s had the 6 cylinder Porsche engines installed). The real 906 was more popularly known as the Carrera 6, and artfully done by Tyco in their “Tyco Pro” era; and yes, that too is another story! At least Faller knew a 904 when they saw one, and called it out correctly in all of their literature, catalogs and labels, no doubt having a fine laugh at the silly Americans not being able to get that one right.

The Comparison Test

For this article, I have taken some photos of the two cars together so you have some idea what it is I’m talking about! Please ignore the fact that the Faller 904 has Martini decals applied, as these are absolutely incorrect for the period. Speaking of innocence, this was also the era (just) before sponsorship (such as Martini) was used to pay the bills for the ever more expensive sport of racing motor cars. It was also the era before Porsche turned away from the more traditional German silver and began using white as their “base” team color. So ignore the Martini decals and the white color of the Faller example. Before you start thinking that Aurora got the silver part right, you really should know that I painted the Aurora 904 silver, as opposed to the molded in red (which is more appropriate for Ferraris and Alfas) color that lurks underneath!

Checking The History Books

Looking at period photos in my Porsche books, it seems that Faller may have modeled the “street” version of the 904 (it was a GT car, after all), whereas the Aurora more closely matches the cars in racing trim (numbers on the doors are a dead give-away!). The most conspicuously wrong proportion on the Aurora is the rear overhang, which is far too long. The Faller may have erred slightly to the small side in this dimension, but overall theirs is much more accurate than Aurora’s. Please see the side view photo for comparison. Once the Carrera 6 (906) came along Porsche was all about experimentation with the Long Tail concept, so perhaps Aurora was looking into the future for Porsche; just a few years before their time! Specifically, their time was December 1963, 1964 and 1965; that is when the 904 was the top racing (and rallying, along with the 911) vehicle from Porsche. Those of you who are really paying attention may wonder how the 904 could have had a lower number than the 911, but in fact, . . . it didn’t. The “real” number of the 911, within the Porsche factory, was 901. It was changed to 911 due to a conflict with Peugeot, who had some kind of trademark distinction for car “names” with a zero in the middle. I knew you really wanted to know that!

Useless Statistics

Living out in there in The Never Land of Useless Statistics your Mother (probably) never wanted you to know: Porsche entered exactly seven 904 variations at Le Mans, both in 1964 and 1965. The best finishes were seventh overall in ’64 (Buchet and Legier) and fourth in ’65 (a 904/6 in that case), driven by Linge and Nocker!

From the top view you may notice that the filler caps on the front hood panel are placed differently on the Faller and the Aurora, but in fact both cars are correct. I’m not sure why, but I do have photos of the real cars with both centered and off-center locations for the fillers. Aurora definitely wins on the rear vent, however, as Faller’s has the screening all wrong, even for a “street” model. Can’t imagine what they were thinking! By comparison, the Aurora’s is practically perfect in every way!

Rear View

The straight back view reinforces the Faller as the “street” version, having the signal lights in addition to the tail lights, a proper number plate, and the off-set to the left exhaust pipes. The Aurora really should have centrally mounted exhausts, but in fact they were left off the T-Jet completely! The reverse is true of the door handles, with nicely molded examples on the Aurora, but none whatsoever on the Faller! The Faller model also has a beautifully done “PORSCHE” script across the rear deck; unfortunately none of my photos reflect the accuracy of such lettering! We should also detract some points from the Faller for having that unsightly chassis visible out the rear of the car.

Front View

From the front we see that Aurora has given the 904 the more popular rectangular secondary lights, whereas the Faller is once again “street legal” with round lights, plus the additional signal/marker lights. After you add up all the points and sort it out, plus have a good long look at both along with the racing a street version photos, it all comes out pretty even. If only they’d gotten the rear end overhang correct, the award would have gone to the T-Jet for sure.

The Drive Home

When it comes to driving, its just amazing how different these cars perform, considering how similar they look! In a nutshell, the Faller has more power, and the power comes on quite quickly, but when it comes time for brakes, well . . . there aren’t any! The price you pay for the quick spin-up of torque is absolutely no motor-braking on the way down! So the driving technique is totally different. Since I grew up with T-Jets, I was able to get the T-Jet around my track much more quickly. Given some time to get used to the Faller, I may be able to give it a fair comparison, but for now I’ll leave the performance issue an open question. Maybe someone who has years of experience driving the Faller would be better judge. In the meantime, I invite you to do your own T-Jet and Faller comparisons, and see how different you impressions are than mine!