by Ken McClellan

If there is one race that we Americans know something about, whether race fan or not, it's the Indianapolis 500, or simply "Indy". As a kid, before Nascar was televised with any frequency, there was the Indy 500 to look forward to. The Great American Race. Our version of LeMans, or Targa Florio, or Nurburgring. The Indy 500 was the mother of all races, at least as far as America was concerned.
Now overshadowed by Nascar, the Indy Racing League (IRL) still takes mainstage once a year when the Indycar Series unloads their cars at the brickyard. If Nascar's Daytona 500 is the Superbowl of auto races, then the Indy 500 is the World Series. Many automotive innovations have been made at Indy, and is still an American Icon, and with Scalextric taking notice, it can now find it's way onto our tracks.

The first of a hopefully long line of Indy cars is the C2442 Dallara Indy "Pennzoil" No. 4 car from Scalextric. Seemingly aimed at the home user, or new user, and definitely taking aim at the U.S. market, this car is no Sport release, nor is there reported to be. Not a limited edition, this car is meant to be raced, by kids, adults, boys and girls. This is a car for beginners, but no one told the car that!

The finish if the car is outstanding, and given that this is a car designed as an entry level car, is very impressive. The Tampo work is very sharp, and I counted five colors in the logos. Again, considering this car is a "cheap-o", it would be easy to cut out a color or two, or do away with a logo or two all-together. Yes folks, this is a $30 car!

In fact, the details are quite impressive for a beginner's car. There is a photo-etched metal gas filler cap. There are separate molded rear view mirrors with silver painted reflectors, and a silver painted differential. Probably one of the biggest drawbacks is that the front wing is molded right to the body, and if broken will either have to be glued, or left off. The rear wing is removable if you are careful. Mine was stuck in only by the paint on the uprights, but I could foresee breakage if you don't pull them straight up. Whether Scalextric will provide replacement rear wings or not remains to be seen.

The car is held together by five screws; four small and one large. It seemed easy for me to miss the rear-most screw in the differential. It would be easy to break the body or chassis if you try to force the two halves apart... (no, I found the screw BEFORE my brute force made me look REAL stupid...). Once apart, the internal workings of this car are far simpler than it's F1 cousins by Scalextric.

Underneath we find an inline motor, a proven configuration in the F1's, a perfect solution for the Indy car as well. The shaft of the motor turns a 9 tooth pinion, which in turn rotates a 27 tooth crown gear. The axles feed through nylon bushings that fit snugly onto the chassis pan. The whole assembly is much less complicated than the Formula 1 cars by Scalextric, and require much less manual dexterity to get back together.

The rear end houses a thin "Nascar" bar magnet that does a good job of keeping the car held to the track. Scalextric could have gone all out and put the thicker of their bar magnets, and ensure the car never left the track, but I think they showed good judgment by using the thinner magnet. The car will benefit from a longer motor life, and the drivers will learn to drive just a bit more, but still have enough confidence to race these cars. It would, however, be easy enough to either put the larger magnet in, or remove it all-together to suit your needs.

One nice new feature on this car is the new, fatter tires. These tires look much more real than that "rain groove" tires found on the Formula 1 cars. Also noteworthy is the softer compound that these tires are made of. They are very close to silicone in feel, but stronger. And they are very sticky to the track.

The front assembly consists of a snap-in front axle and associated equipment. This has been described as a suspension, but I find it is described best as "flexible" just a bit. The self centering guide is also here. I am not a fan of the Scalextric self centering guide, and find it only works some of the time. It is, however, easy enough to remove should you choose to. One complaint I have about the guide is that the guide only turns about 30 degrees to either side of center, causing undesirable bouncing in the guide with the car goes into too deep of a slide. This could easily be fixed by trimming just a bit off the guide to allow it to rotate just a bit more.

The driver is very nicely done, with the details of his gloves, harness and buckles painted extremely well. Though the poor driver has had his legs amputated just above the knees, it does not show from the outside. Again, when it would seem logical to mold the driver into the body on a car in this price range, Scalextric didn't not cut corners and gave is some great detail. This is a great model for the price. But how is it on the track?

Over the last couple years, Scalextric has taken what works and either stayed the course, or improved upon it. In this case, it is my opinion that this car has been the product of constant improvement. This car goes right out of the box, and anyone getting indoctrinated into this hobby with the Scalextric Indy Car will certainly be hooked. Right out of the box I found this car to do laps of about 5.16 seconds, about one full second slower than my track record of 4.13 seconds.  After truing the tires, this car just FLEW around my 60 foot track, completing a lap in 4.51 seconds! This is less that 4 tenth's of a second slower than the track record. And this from a stock car with only the tires trued! My Sport Toyota Formula 1 managed a best lap 5/100th of a second SLOWER!

This car is definitely, without a doubt, a winner. It goes fast right out of the box, and faster with trued tires. There is plenty of room to add magnets, or weigh, or remove the magnets all-together. This car is now, in my opinion, the new standard in home set cars, and when the "blank" undecorated cars hit the scene, will become the proxy and/or IROC race standard as well.

Congratulations to Scalextric for a successful launch of an awesome car, in a niche that needed to be filled.

Thank you to Scalextric-USA for sending me this great car. Please see their website, or your nearest Scalexetric-USA Dealer to get yours today!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to eMail me at ken@slotcarillustrated.com.

Ken

This article was published on Tuesday November 08, 2005.