The
release of a new body for Slot.It always attracts quite a bit of
attention.
This car, the BMW McLaren F1 GTR, seems to have attracted a surprising
amount
of attention.
The car weighs 74 grams in stock form with the magnet. Without the
magnet the
car weighs 73 grams . . . not much difference.
As noted in other reviews the front wheels seem to rub on the inside of
the
fenders, and maybe the headlight buckets. Further, there are small
stubs of
plastic on the inside surface of the hubs where they ride against the
uprights.
These little bumps cause the front wheels to wobble severely.
Fortunately it's
a simple fix and makes a huge improvement.
The
wheel inserts don't seem to fit well on any of the wheels. Either the
inserts
are on the very edge of the wheel and not pushed back inside the wheel
as they
should be, or they're pushed inside the wheel at an angle. One of the
wheel
inserts had cracks on 3 of the fins. The look of the inserts is nice
but the
assembly seems to be poor.
As
your eye runs along the angular lines of the body you see there are
small
details on nearly every surface of this car. The detail on the tail is
particularly interesting.
The
wires run along the usual channels and under the front axle. The
uprights for
the front axle are quite thin.
The guide lead of the McLaren is 100mm, (which is the measurement from
the
guide pivot point to the rear axle). With the car resting on a 1/4" rod
to
test the center point of the balance of the car, the balance point is
about
65mm behind the pivot of the guide. In comparison, the Nissan's guide
lead is
100mm and the balance point is about 66mm behind the pivot of the
guide.
The
gears seem to work well on this car with a 9-tooth pinion and a
26-tooth crown.
The offset gear arrangement drops the motor shaft 1mm below the axle
centerline, which seems to increase cornering speed and stability.
Testing begins . . . on the 61' East New York Raceway wood track. The
Voltage
was set to 13.6v and we used a Professor Motor 2055
controller.
In stock form (with magnet out) with stock tires and the pod tight, the
first
laps click off and we get a best time of 5.244 seconds. This is very,
very fast
for the stock tires still being on the car. The car feels slippery but
feels
much better than most cars with stock tires. It handles nicely and has
good
balance.
Next,
the body screws are loosened one turn on the rear and half turn on the
front,
still with tight pod screws. The car is much faster, easier, and times
dropped
to 5.156, with consistent 5.2's.
Still with the stock tires, the front pod screws are loosened on the
front,
only about a half turn. The car does not feel much different and the
times
stayed about the same. Next, the pod screws are loosened on the front
and rear
a full turn and now the pod feels very loose. Times again dropped to
5.147 but
the motor felt like it started to weaken. We stopped and lifted the
rear of the
car up a bit, gave it some throttle, and saw a red flash illuminate the
body
from inside! The motor continued to function. Off we went again. Times
dropped
a bit to 5.101. . . guess the motor still works, eh?
We
changed the tires to S2's . . . the pod and body are still loose. A big
change
in grip, and on the first lap times dropped below 5 seconds, and on
nearly
every lap, for a few laps, the car rang the "faster" bell on the
timer. The car doesn't seem to have any handling vices and never comes
out of
the slot at the front. Best time dropped to 4.765, and solidly below 5
seconds
with the stock S2 tires that come with the car.
The tires are now changed to SuperTires silicone tires (#1408) with the
shoulders rounded by sanding. Times again dropped to 4.604 at best,
with
solidly lower times under 4.7 seconds. Down the straights the car feels
very
fast, much faster than with S2's.
For comparison, the Nissan 390 recently tested did a best lap time of
4.723. In
spite of near identical mechanical specs, the driveability of the
Nissan isn't
as good as the new orange McLaren. The advantage appears to be the free
moving
motor pod in the McLaren which allows much more movement of the pod
out-of-the-box.
Several orange end bell motors have been tested by Slot Car News and
the
average rpm is about 23k.
Of
note are the large holes for the motor pod screws, which allow plenty
of pod
motion when the screws are backed off. The amount of pod motion is
larger than
seen on any previous, unmodified Slot.It car, and it does seem to help
this car
go fast. This small innovation is a huge improvement that will
hopefully be
carried on with every other new Slot.It car.The
lap time with this car rival those achieved in the recent Slot.It Shoot
Out
held at this track, in which 20 modified Slot.It cars were raced, each
carefully tuned by racers across the US and Canada. Out of the box, the
Slot.It
McLaren is a sure contender. A very fast car!
Thanks to Fantasy World Hobbies for the car for review.
Written by Dave Kennedy and Robert Livingston of Slot Car News.
|
|
