Rally racing is a difficult sport to follow in North America. It doesn't receive nearly the television air time that it deserves which tends to keep it out of the public eye. Still, I've managed to end up with a few rally cars in my collection. Thanks to the popularity of this sport in Europe – home base to most slot car manufacturers' head offices – slot car racers have quite a few interesting subjects to draw upon. Recently, the club at Mini Grid in Toronto started a bi-monthly series for rally cars so I needed to find the most effective tool for racing there. To do this I've reached into my collection a pulled out a cross section of 12 rally cars. I then glued and trued the same formulation of urethane tire to each car, removed the traction magnets, glued in the motors and rear bushings, and then set my best Q time on Mini Grid's Sport track as well as the wood track at Race Haven Hobbies in Brampton. The lap times were averaged between the two tracks and the results and my observations are presented here.
NINCO Porsche 356 – Average 9.596s
The NINCO Porsche 356 I tested is part of NINCO's classic line. It is powered by NINCO's venerable NC1 motor and while it isn't the fastest car in this review, it is one of the better handling cars. The wheels needed to be glued to their axles prior to testing but ran fairly true for plastic wheels. Owing to the length of the straights on my test tracks the lack of grunt from its NC1 held this car back.
SCX Alpine A110 – Average 9.582s
SCX produces a plethora of rally cars. The Alpine A110 is a fairly recent example powered by their unique RX41B motor. This car also has working lights. The wheels on my test car were firmly attached to the axles and reasonable true for plastic wheels. This car also ran out of steam on the long straights of my test tracks reaching top speed after about 2m. If I were looking for more speed the first change I would make would be to replace the 9z stock pinon with a 10z as the stock power plant seems to have plenty of grunt. The RX motors only seem to get faster as they wear in.
Scalextric Austin Mini – Average 9.580s
The Mini suffered the opposite problem of the previous two cars in that it is way overpowered for such a tiny model. This model too has working lights. Scalextric most likely chose the slim can FF050 by reason of packaging considerations. Masive power aside, the wheels on my test car are firmly attached and reasonably round. I had to drive this car with care through the corners but could really wind it out on the straights. This car would benefit from a less powerful motor.
SCX Fiat Abarth 124 – Average 9.420s
NINCO Porsche 356 – Average 9.596s
The NINCO Porsche 356 I tested is part of NINCO's classic line. It is powered by NINCO's venerable NC1 motor and while it isn't the fastest car in this review, it is one of the better handling cars. The wheels needed to be glued to their axles prior to testing but ran fairly true for plastic wheels. Owing to the length of the straights on my test tracks the lack of grunt from its NC1 held this car back.
SCX Alpine A110 – Average 9.582s
SCX produces a plethora of rally cars. The Alpine A110 is a fairly recent example powered by their unique RX41B motor. This car also has working lights. The wheels on my test car were firmly attached to the axles and reasonable true for plastic wheels. This car also ran out of steam on the long straights of my test tracks reaching top speed after about 2m. If I were looking for more speed the first change I would make would be to replace the 9z stock pinon with a 10z as the stock power plant seems to have plenty of grunt. The RX motors only seem to get faster as they wear in.
Scalextric Austin Mini – Average 9.580s
The Mini suffered the opposite problem of the previous two cars in that it is way overpowered for such a tiny model. This model too has working lights. Scalextric most likely chose the slim can FF050 by reason of packaging considerations. Masive power aside, the wheels on my test car are firmly attached and reasonably round. I had to drive this car with care through the corners but could really wind it out on the straights. This car would benefit from a less powerful motor.
SCX Fiat Abarth 124 – Average 9.420s
