Disney Pixar CARS: Race Mat – Small But Not Deadly Accurate
Okay, I don’t really know what the above title phrase means but it’s catchy, right?
The Race Track Floor Mat – not from Mattel – from Best Brands!
As you can see, 1:55 McQueen is in Gulliver’s CARS Land … He’s wider than the Race Track and about the length of 15 Haulers …
Old school MINI? still too wide. Next!
Tiny CAR from Vending machine (2006 to 2008)? Nope, only 1-wide racing on this track …
So, not very canon … any math whizzes out there who can determine just how high up this shot is from Al Oft (presumably)? The Haulers are about 9/10ths of an inch … or how big this track should be to fit 1:55 CARS 4 or 5 wide?
You could use it as a real mat in your kitchen or garage though you probably want to glue all the pieces together and it’ll probably only cause you to slip 7-10 times a day … hey, we’re having lasagna for dinner! How do you know? I just saw it flying by … so as long as you don’t mind literally eating off the floor, I highly recommend this mat under all conditions – especially heavy industry involving oil and grease.*
* You probably will live longer not to take my endorsement. I am a paid spokesperson who will answer “Collect Them All” to any question you ask.
Of course, there is the kid play value thing but do you really want your kids to play with an item clearly so off scale it makes Old Fred look like current Fred … or the other way around … though there is that ‘using their imagination’ thing so discuss …
It does have one nice feature. It is 3 feet long so you can study in relative detail how to accurately re-build this in your house …
Though on Eva Foam, not the highest resolution format …
Soft Eva Foam … (Don’t tell Wall-E).
So, that’s the crowdsource T5 project – everyone identifies a CAR a day and if 5,000 people pitch in, it’ll be done in a month …
Mack!
Your turn!
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14 August 2011
12 Comments
First time I saw this mat, I could tell it was too small. I would love to have something like this so we could have a race track on our floor that can accomodate 36 race cars. Right now we have to make do with the design on the area rug! Our “track” can take cars going 3 wide.
I saw this mat in a dollar store a few weeks ago. I thought about getting it for my son but passed. I am so glad I did. What a terrible product. Useful for just about nothing.
The geek emerges! I find it hard to pass up a good mathematical puzzle. Here’s the math I did to determine how big the Race Track Floor Mat should be to accommodate 1/55 cars. I invite anyone to comment or point out any significant errors.
A. Given: in the text of the article, and assumed to be reasonably accurate, the haulers on the mat, as pictured, are about 9/10” long (convert that to 23 mm for later comparison)
B. Measured: the length of an actual 1/55 Mack hauler is about 216 mm
C. The ratio of the length of the real hauler to the to the length of the one on the mat is about 9.4 to 1 (216 mm divided by 23 mm) (See letters “A” and “B” above).
D. Given: the width (actually, the longest part as evidenced by the picture of the child and the mat (as shown on the package) is 3 feet, or 36 inches
E. Measured from my computer screen – Ratio of height to width of mat is approximately .543 to 1 (height of 114 mm divided by the width of 210 mm). (Will vary from one computer screen to another, but assumes that aspect would remain constant and, thus, so would the ratio). Given that the width is 36 inches, the height should be about 19.6 inches.
Conclusion: Assuming that the track width, in the present 36 x 19.6 inch mat size (See letter “E”, above) could accommodate cars in that same scale (tiny) 4 or 5 across the width of the track, a 1/55 version would have to be 9.4 times larger (See letter “C”, above) or 338.4 inches by 184.2 inches OR, in round numbers, just over 28 feet by 15 feet; enough to carpet a large room !
Danrio(at)
sbcglobal(dot)net
(MET: Hard to argue against a guy who shows us all of his work! A+ Thanks! Now we know).
WRONG!!
Sorry sir, but the Mack Hauler is completely the wrong scale for this equation. You would need to measure the Mack Truck Playset (Lightning’s Bachelor Pad), which is what is shown on the mat.
A noteworthy observation ! The picture of the hauler appears to be generic rather than one from a specific playset, so 1/55 scale was assumed, simply because it was referred to in the article as a “hauler”. The model could be recalculated if we were sure and knew the length of the specific playset in question, which, if it is intended for use with the 1/55 scale cars, should also be 1/55 scale. But, to cover bases, can you (or anyone else) furnish the length, in mm or inches, of the “Bachelor Pad” playset you described? Either way, I believe we’re still looking at a room sized mat. Thanks for your input.
danro(at)sbcglobal.net
I know this is off topic, but does anyone know why Siddeley the Spy Jet has been recalled – or if he has been? I was at Wal-mart today and they were pulling all of them off the shelves because they said that when people were trying to purchase them it was coming up “sale not allowed.” The employee said that is is most likely because of a recall, but they have not received the info. about it yet. I was just wondering if anyone else heard anything about this.
(MET: They would’ve have publicly announced a recall. I suspect WM looked at their 4,000 store inventory and realized they probably had 30,000 in their system and asked Mattel for a return. By changing the status of it internally if any store stumbled upon a sealed box and tried to shelf, it would get a NON-LISTED item reading … just a guess).
Is it me, or do those things in the 2nd to last picture look like boxes? Are they supposed to be fans?
“…and 1:55 scale McQueen got a little loose in the third turn, and wiped out nearly half the infield!!!” “Oh, the horror!”
oooh… its in 3-D?
I wrote to the owner of Best Brands several weeks ago when this mat showed up at Kmart. Sent them simillar pics and suggested that this would be a great seller in 1:55 scale. No answer…
Really a missed opportunity, they make bigger mats. There’s a Cars 2 one that measures 4’x4′, but it just has pictures of some of the cars.
Since the 1:55 McQueen diecast is about the length of 15 Haulers anyway, I’d say this mat is pretty accurate.
One could begin by measuring the length of the trailers, and then applying that to the entire track. However, are the math whizzes that Met mentions TRUE math whizzes who know that trailers are 53 feet long? Or are they the variety who designed the stubby Haulers?