Has Racer Performance Matched the Hype - Monte, Keith, Steve, Others?

[berryman]

Monte, Keith, Steve and a few other initial evaluators were all pretty enthusiastic about the Racer when it first became available for testing. Since that time, those folks have logged a lot more time with their test units and a lot of other folks have gone out and purchased the machine and used it in a variety of hunting environments with several different coil configurations. A few of those folks subsequently put their machines up for sale [in some cases, at moderately discounted prices].

So, now that the Racer has been out there for awhile, what's the general consensus about its performance? Has it lived up to all the early expectations or has it been proven to be just another middle-of-the-road performer?

BTW - I have about 6 hours on my own Racer and the jury's still out for me.

 

[bugg]

I have about 20 hours on it. Personally, I feel its hard to beat in its price range.

 

[3RINGER]

It's serves me well for the reason I wanted one...heavy trash and small coil is hard to beat. Not seen depth with it but have a unit for that. Is it the do all machine, I think not for how I hunt but for the price range it'll hold it's own. Some who have used the stock coil more can comment on that end I hope.

 

[Tom Slick]

I've got about 40 hours on mine and it's now my ghost town detector. It's the best I've used in iron trash. I was a long time White's Classic III and modified IDX Pro user in those sites and I've tried many detectors looking for something better. Tesoro's, Fishers, Teknetics, and Minelabs, but the Racer is now my favorite ghost town detector.

 

[squirrel1]

Racer is a very good machine for the $$$$. Some try and compare fully to a detector costing hundreds more $$$$. The Racer has its place. For me it's the small OOR coil in iron. Being able to quickly toggle between modes is great. The audio in 3 tone is very telling. Those short crisp signals are the digme signals.

 

[DigFella]

Pretty much a simple turn on & go unit with raw power, alot like my T2 at a middle of the road price. Fun to use when I don't feel like fiddling with programs on my Deus, or squinting to try to read the ID numbers on my AT Gold. In frozen New England winters, the only ballgame is the beach if you get the urge to swing. My buddies & I couldn't believe how quiet it is in wet black sands or how it hit a freash buried 13.5" bullet there. My buddy just got one just for beaches. Myself, I'm currently keeping the 5" coil on it to hunt a nail ridden hotel site in 3 tone mode. Video soon of my dughter & I finding silver 3 cent, V-nickles, indian heads, seateds, barbers, all in the nails..... Just a fun unit

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

It is a different machine from what I have used raw power fast deep and I like the overload...I think for the money it's right up there with the T2 and the F75...its not a deus that is a very cool machine...it has nice tones that give you good info...I kept it, it's my backup to the deus and a machine I take to places I have hunted with the deus and want to see what else I can find..It has great coils all three are useful and really help me with relic hunting

 

[Prep1957]

I used one for about 10 hours that a friend of mine just bought.I think I might buy one for myself I found out that a lot of farmers will let you on at night if you are out of sight,maybe they were getting kidded about us at the coffee shop about letting us on.The vibrating handle and poacher light built in is real useful.Good detector in junk with very good depth for price.I might hold back a month or two till they correct a few issues.

 

[Sand dog]

I really like this machine. The small coil is killer in iron infested sites and for separating through dense targets in parks and gets great depth. The build quality is very very good. For the money this detector is above average, it's easy to program, can be run hot or silent, has a built in light for night hunting "which really works well" , the handle has vibration mode if you want it. But the biggest suprise to me is how well it works on a saltwater beach. I've used it on the wet sand and right to the waters edge with salt water washing over coil and it's silent until you get a target and I had the sens at 95 and was hitting 8"-10" dimes solidly, also dug other clad and junk jewelry. It works dam near as good as my Excal in the wet sand.

 

[Monte]

Monte, Keith, Steve and a few other initial evaluators were all pretty enthusiastic about the Racer when it first became available for testing. Since that time, those folks have logged a lot more time with their test units and a lot of other folks have gone out and purchased the machine and used it in a variety of hunting environments with several different coil configurations. A few of those folks subsequently put their machines up for sale [in some cases, at moderately discounted prices].

Dollar-for-dollar, I don't think there is a better "all-purpose" detector on the market. My pre-production Racer provided me with exceptional in-the-field performance, and I really should describe that as exception in the nasty dense trash performance that I want and need.

A good hunting buddy of mine, Oregon Gregg, couldn't decide between the Nokta FORS CoRe and Makro Racer. I picked up a new FORS in a detector trade, and I met up with him when he got his new Racer and unboxed it. The next day there was a loud knocking on my door and [size=small](from an hour-and-a-half drive away)[/size] Gregg was standing there, Racer in hand and asked .... "Want to trade?" He had used it, very briefly, at a park to try and learn it, but he wasn't used to a VCO audio in 2-Tine mode, or a 3-Tone audio either. He certainly wasn't used to, or ready for, the wonderful Overload Audio response, either, and he had even ordered in the 5.[size=small]5[/size]X10 enclosed DD coil for it as well. He just lacked the patience to put in the time to learn it and appreciate what it offered as he was comparing it with his White's MXT Pro and M6, which he's used the most, with a factory 6½" Concentric coil as well as a 6X8 SEF and 5" Excelerator DD coils.

Naturally, being the nice guy that I am ... I instantly made the trade.

That set me up with 'R1', my pre-production Racer that I keep the excellent 4.[size=small]7[/size]X5.[size=small]2[/size] "OOR" coil mounted to, and now 'R2', my production Racer that I keep the 5.[size=small]5[/size]X10 enclosed DD coil mounted to. The standard 7X11 and large 13.[size=small]3[/size]X15.[size=small]5[/size] DD coils ride along in a plastic tote for spare coils and gear.

Then I drove over to a ghost town in March that Gregg has been hunting, hard, for about 23 months, and he's been well rewarded for his efforts. Some with a Classic, some with an MXT Pro, but mostly with an M6. He found a trade token, but was a bity surprised when 'R1' w/'OOR' and I popped a 1900 Indian Head cent, then after a while a 1909 Barber dime, and I concluded with my own Trade Token.

We hunted it and some other places again and he could explain why, but I guess he figured he just didn't give the Racer enough time to learn it. He then bought another Racer w/Pro Pack and has mainly been using the little 'OOR' coil and the 5.[size=small]5[/size]X10 DD coils. He's now compared it more, side-by-side with other detectors he has, and can voice his own opinions about how he likes the Racer. I have a fair idea now that I just got off the phone with him and he's about to do exactly what I do for a set-up. Have TWO Makro Racers and mount each with their own coil ... the 'OOR' and 5.[size=small]5[/size]X10 DD's for quick-to-hunt set-up.

We just wrapped up an open invitation to work three or four ghost towns and concentrated on three of them. Gregg and his Racer did very well as he learned what those old railroad ghost towns leave us with in the way of nasty trash with very dense amounts of it being iron.

So, now that the Racer has been out there for awhile, what's the general consensus about its performance? Has it lived up to all the early expectations or has it been proven to be just another middle-of-the-road performer?

The Racer has exceeded my expectations in performance. It is definitely NOT a "middle-of-the-road" performer. It is one of the best, affordable, versatile, all-purpose detectors you could own.

BTW - I have about 6 hours on my own Racer and the jury's still out for me.

It's all a matter of time to get to know the Racer and coil selection well, understand the settings, and learn how to get the most performance out of it for varying site environments. Hang in there and I think you'll find out just how well built and designed these detectors are.

Monte

 

[OregonGregg]

Well Monte the Fors CoRe will be gone Sunday and in its place will be R2. Do to work I have been out of state most of March and should end sometime in June and haven't had time to really use the Racer. I have only been able to use it in a few local parks, enough to get to know the machine, settings etc. This ghost town trip in Nevada was the first time to really get to use my Racer in that kind of environment.

I used the small "oor" coil, 3 tones, 70 gain most the time and id mask at 23 to just knock out a nail. If I ever said i was hunting knee deep in iron, then this site would be waist deep. It was a carpet of rusted pieces of tin, rusted cans and anything else you could think of........a very tough site to hunt. After hunting the site awhile I came across a little zinc lid (one that is not masked or partially masked will ring in copper penny/dime range and about the size of a dime) I could just barely get a little bleep out of it as it was parked next to a big ol' rusted can. I was telling Monte about it, he asked what were my settings and he suggested that I set id mask at 10. I did that, granted the machine was nosier as you heard a lot more iron instead of being disc'd out. What a difference, I went back to that zinc lid next to the can and I got a good solid beep. Needless to say I stayed with those settings the rest of the hunt. I do have to say the Racer proved to be a amazing machine in all that iron trash.

On the second day for a bit I tried my MXT Pro and the little 5" round Detech DD coil. ( approx same size as the small 4.7 x 5 coil on the Racer) The MXT Pro is a great machine, but with the same coil setup it could not do in the dense iron trash what the Racer could do. My M6 I didn't get to try as someone in the group flew in and they used that machine for the duration of the hunt. After a couple days hunting in some of the worse iron trash conditions that I ever hunted, I was sold on the Racer, it flat out performs.

The Racer in all that iron trash found me a 1887 seated dime, a 1899 Barber quarter, 2 Chinese cash coins, 3 IH pennies a 1860, 73 and 80 ( the pennies were pretty beat up, the silver cleaned up nice) a 1935 wheatie ( found at a different site) and some artifacts. The thing that says "Norton Bros. is a sheep ear tag dating back to approx 1901-02 era. It was a great trip, met some nice people and we all had a fun time.

 

[squirrel1]

Some great finds. My Racer won't be going anywhere except staying with me. Fantastic machine for the $$$$$.

 

[steve herschbach]

There was quite a bit of hype about the Racer but I do not think I contributed to it. I actually have been very quiet about the Racer outside of my initial review at http://www.makrodetector.com/reviews/Racer-SteveHerschbach.pdf

When I read that again now it seems fairly low key to me. If anything hype does not do anyone a service as expectations get set too high, leading to disappointment in otherwise fine detectors. That no doubt contributes a bit to the buy, try and sell thing but we see the same thing with all new detectors.

The same theme get repeated a lot and I agree with it - the Racer packs a lot of value for the price both in features and performance. Look at anything at the same price and the Racer comes out tops and actually compares favorably to detectors costing hundreds of dollars more.

Me, I am still holding out for that Gold Racer!

 

[ChuckVT]

Nicely said, Steve!

 

[Southwind]

I think the key has been seen in almost every post. "for the price"

The same is said about the Compadre, ACE 250 and AT Pro. My experience, although short, put the Racer and AT Pro pretty close. I think the Racer had the edge for speed and the ATP the edge for gold. I think the Racer is the better relic detector while the ATP is the better park detector. As far as performing equal to detectors costing hundreds more, I'd have to say that is more a personal opinion and dependent upon the higher dollar machine you're referring to and the type of hunting.

Did it live up to the hype? Close. The Racer is a great detector, for the money, but no direct threat to the majority of high end machines I've owned.

 

[lytle78]

My old friend Jack was a keen sailor. He had crewed several times on the Long Beach to La Paz yacht race - a typical California over the top deadly searious/deadly fun affair.

i remember him telling me about some of the ladies who showed up in La Paz - they were called "Racer Chasers"

What this has to do with metal detectors I'm sure I remembered when I started this post .,,,,,,,,

 

[goodmore]

Hype? What hype? Just kidding. I would say no it has not. Why? Just look at the post above. Southwind is comparing the Racer to the AT Pro. And the AT Pro does some things better. Now think about that. A five year old design does some things better. But why stop at the Racer? Take a look at the most used and cherished detectors out there. For beach hunting you have the Excal and Sovereign detectors. How old is the Excal design? And the Sovereign has been discontinued for over a year. The E Trac? How old is that? 8 years old? Unless you dropped close to two grand on a CTX and I had two of them you really have not seen any major steps in detector technology in at least the past ten years. And the CTX is a reach for saying it more advanced. It has no more depth than an Explorer in my opinion. Fisher is now releasing three new F models and Whites is releasing two new models. All geared toward the beginner. All pretty much a re wrap of models past with new paint and bells. Maybe lighter. In my opinion the last detector to live up to the hype was the AT Pro because the manufacturer stopped designing new high end detectors all together. I guess they figured they just didn't need to.

 

[FollowTheBeep]

I think a distinction must be made between hype and unrealistic expectations. Of the reviews from those who actually had them in hand and used them, yes, it has met the description of performance provided. What some people were hoping it would be, of course it didn't meet those expectations. I was torn between the AT and the Racer and knew the benefits and shortcomings of each. So far I'm still happy with my decision of making the Racer my main detector.

 

[JFlynn]

I think the deciding factor for most is learning how to use a certain machine and what it is telling you. I hyped a lot as the Racer was forthcoming and was supposed to be like the CoRe just in a different dress so to speak. I was running the CoRe and blowing the wheels off of everything I had ran and all the detectors in what had essentially been a dried up spot with some 700 man hours on the old house lot and most high end machines a lot own and run now. There is something extremely special about the Turkish machines that you cannot decide in a couple or three hunts or a couple of weeks usage or even in a coin garden. My buddy and I have talked about it and the crickets you're hearing about the Turkish machines are what I'm hearing too right now. The grass has grown in the places I hunt and a lot of other people's spots too. The Racer will be back on the track when the grass and brush goes away in the fall. I've said this before and here it is again, you don't want someone to walk behind you detecting with a Turkish machine that is very good with one and from what I saw with my own eyes, running "any" machine.

 

[Southwind]

How come we never see any videos to backup these claims of "kicking the butt" of high end machines? A lot of talk, of hype whichever you prefer to call it is what is seen. I have unreal expectations for the Racer because of all the hype. Had anyone simply added the factual comment of "for the money" it would have made all the difference in the world as far as expectations.

I can take a Compadre out to one of my hard hit relics sites and pull a few missed bullets and buttons. Anyone how has tried a few different detectors knows just a difference machine will most likely pull some missed goods. You won't see many live comparisons because there is nothing to video. No one is going out and killing at sites that were dried up. That is the sign of a better machine. Pulling a few goodies from any site with a new machine is pretty common actually.