It has been 3 years since we last looked at this car and I for one am happy to see its return. The livery chosen for this release is very attractive to me and NINCO has done a decent job in the application. The white on the hood is not as opaque as it could be as some slight bleed through is noticeable. Is it enough to bother me? No way. The rest of the fit and finish of this car is excellent and although the scale detail level is minimal, I think overall NINCO has done a fine job.
Wheels and tires are standard NINCO fare and all seemed relatively round and true. Most all models need a little help from us to get things where we want them, and such is the case here. A good sanding of both tire and wheel will certainly improve things. I know a lot of enthusiasts change the rubber on their models to match individual driving tastes or track surfaces but we keep the originals in place. The added touches of visible brake rotor detail did give the wheels a little more appeal, although they are not easy to spot at first glance.
Turning the car over we see up front the standard spring loaded guide and that this car is equipped with the NC-5 (20,000 rpm @ 14.8 volts) Speeder motor which for many is a good thing. The last few releases have had the same power-plant and I am happy to see them keeping things the same.
Out Of The Box
Since it was such a nice day outside, I decided to set up a quick road course on my deck. I used the standard NINCO transformer for power and the 55 ohm Plus controller. Out of the box this car functions as intended but it can use a little fine tuning. Braking and acceleration were both crisp using this controller and power, although slightly a little more than I am used to. There was a slight hop to the car and it had a little rattle to it as well. Still, the car ran right out of the box with only a slight braid adjustment so it passes with flying colors.
Under the Hood
There are 4 screws that mount the chassis to the body, so let us remove them and take a look inside.
The standard NINCO button magnet is in place and provides plenty of downforce. Of course, for some enthusiasts this one magnet is not enough, in which case there is plenty of room to add more. The same can be said for non-magnet fans as there is equally enough room for tuning with lead. The motor is equipped with a 9 tooth pinion that drives a 27 tooth crown gear. Gear mesh is slightly on the noisy side, but it will smooth out and quiet down after some break-in time.
The motor in my model doesn't set as tightly in the chassis as I would prefer and the flex that it had under load was quite possibly the rattle I was hearing during testing. (This and the front axle free-play I suspect) I simply applied a bead of hot glue on each side of the motor and across the front and this cured the problem quickly and easily. Remember that hot glue is your best friend in times such as this, so if you do not have a glue gun yet, go out and get one. You can find them for around 2-3 dollars so the investment is not going to break your budget.
"Standard" Tuning Tips
On a large amount of cars produced by NINCO, there are some tuning tips that you should think about performing. In this case, the front axle on this model is identical to prior releases and has a very noticeable amount of side to side free-play. You can either trim the axle down, or you can add washers on each side. For this model I decided to just add washers to cure the problem.
I just removed one wheel and pulled out the axle. Then I placed 1 nylon washer on each side as shown in the photo. This eliminated almost all of the excess free-play and I was pleased with the results. The washers are by Hillman and can be found from a variety of the dealers out there so check your favorite hobby store.
Another common modification to the front end is adjusting the vertical free-play. NOTE* You may not want to perform this modification if you race on varied track surfaces. Some track is just not as smooth as others and might have a bump or 2 in them. In these cases, having this free-play is a good thing as it will allow the car to navigate over these uneven surfaces without de-slotting quite as easily.
Since I want this modification it was time to cut our tubing. I used Evergreen Styrene 3/16th tubing for this model and it works well. Using the hollow tubing allows me to flatten the tub just slightly so it fits perfectly under the axle on each side. I do not allow the tubing to be too tight of a fit, just enough to eliminate about 95 percent of the excess free-play.
My final tuning process was cleaning up the wheels and tires. My first step is to remove the rear tires and sand the wheel until no excess flash molding can be seen. You can do this by just placing the car on the track, but a 9 volt battery held to the braids works just as good. You can use a very fine grit sand paper or a sanding barrel from your moto-tool works very nicely.
After this was completed it was time to give the tires a good sanding and cleaning. Once this was complete it was to head over to the track for more action!
More Testing
This time we are using after-market power (Pyramid PS26KX) set at 12 volts and PARMA 35 ohm controllers. The first few laps told me these little modifications made all the difference. The car was noticeably smoother with the rattle noise eliminated almost entirely. Braking and acceleration were just as crisp as before I began to really attack the tighter corners on the road course.
This car has always been a favorite and this model reminds me why. It just has a great overall feel, a well balanced model that challenges you like a good slot car should. After I settled in with it my lap times were an average of 4.4 seconds which is very respectable on our track. This puts the car right in striking distance of other NINCO models such as the recent Super GT models like the Mosler. In fact one of it's best running mates was the Ferrari F50 which NINCO is re-releasing soon. I look forward to that battle as it has been a long time since they have traded paint here.
This model has proven itself over time to be one of the nicest efforts by NINCO and I am glad to see yet another come our way. If I could have my way, I would have them re-release all the older liveries of years past so we could introduce them to the new enthusiasts today. I can only advise you to think about picking this model up, and soon. It delivers a lot of fun on its own and really could compliment your current collection.
by Harry Wise
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