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Scalextric Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren is the latest addition to the supercar genre. Mercedes takes the performance to a new level while celebrating formidable SLR race cars of the 1950s. Inspired by the legendary 300 SLR coupe of the 1950s the new SLR McLaren is the synthesis of tradition and innovation.

Mercedes has worked very closely with McLaren with the development of this car. McLaren has transferred their F1 knowledge to the MB-SLR McLaren. One example of technology transfer from F1 is the carbon fibre material of the SLR body. The SLR body is very lightweight and with accident situation absorbs energy more effective than steel structure. Carbon fibre provides also very rigid body structure.

Each supercharged V8 engine is hand-built at AMG, the high performance division of the Mercedes Benz. The engine is mounted behind the front wheels to create almost mid-engined car. Displacement 5.4litres (332ci), power 460kw (617bhp) at 6500rpm. Redline 7000rpm. The car has dry-sump lubrication. This lubrication system is used with racing cars where high G-forces prevent using the traditional lubrication system. Dry-sump lubrication allows also the motor to be mounted lower. Acceleration 0-100km/h (0-60mph) 3.8s.

SLR has ceramic composite brake disks which gives the SLR with astounding stopping power. The brake system can decelerate the SLR up to 1.3G. Ceramic brake disks are lighter, more heat-tolerand and more durable than traditional brake disks manufactured of steel alloys. In addition SLR has an air-brake on the rear spoiler. Air-brake activates under hard braking above 100km/h (60mph) and produces extra downforce which decreases braking distance

It is nice to see Scalextric to manufacture so marginal car as Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren is. I have not seen SLR McLaren in competition yet and unless Scalextric produces fantacy liveries, they will have to get their invested money back by producing street liveries. Scalextric SLR McLaren is so-called Limited Sport Edition. The manufacturer claims that 4000 pcs of this car has been produced. At the picture below Scalextric Sport Limited Edition packaging can be seen.

Inside the box we find the car, plus two extra guides and a certificate stating the manufacturing number of the car. I got the car #3647. A good thing about the Sport packaging is that a short description of the car has been printed on the cover. I would like to have some information of the models I buy. Manufacturers spend much time and effort into research and it would be nice if they would provide short history with each car. SLR Sport packaging does not provide an extra magnet.

Scalextric has transferred the design of the MB SLR McLaren quite perfectly to their model. This is the finest and most accurate model that I've seen so far. The design work of this kind of model would have been very challenging and costly task without modern 3D-CAD software. I just wonder how much original 1:1 car computer drawings have been utilized in the design of this model.

"SLR" and McLaren texts are made with transfers, not tampo. Casting of the body is extremely precise. It is hard to distinguish mould lines. Euro-register plate has a text: SLR 722.

Rims are very nicely done. Mercedes Benz logo is placed at the center of each rim. Black graphite brake disk can be seen behind each rim. Exhaust tubes are connected to the chassis.

Four screws connect the body to the chassis. Two screws in the middle of the chassis connect the interior to the chassis. When disassembling the car I recommend opening all the 6 screws. Guide is the new Scalextric round guide. It allows the car to slide almost 90 degrees. The guide is self-centering.

The Chassis has very interesting motor configuration. The motor sits almost in the middle of the chassis and there is a short drive shaft to the rear. The spring that connects the motor shaft and rear drive shaft is very good and it worked flawlessy during the whole test. The motor is wrapped in sport sticker, but there was no noticeable increase of power compared to the standard Scalextric motors. A motor pinion has 9 tooth and an inline gear 27 tooth. Another standard 1:3 inline power transfer ratio. The chassis has one so-called progressive magnet which is placed between the rear axle and the motor. Rear axle and drive shaft bearings are plastic. There is a ready made place for digital decoder at the front of the chassis. Front and rear LED-lights are integrated to the chassis.

Interior is very detailed and nicely done. Speedometer and Mercedes Benz logo are printed details. It is funny to see "Starsky" figure driving this modern car.

Test drive was done at "Speedy Raceway" clubtrack. This is almost 46 meters (150ft) long track that has combination of Scalextric Classic, Sport and SCX track pieces. Controllers are 25ohm Parma Economy, power supply is a car battery. Timing is done with SRM software and laser sensors. Firstly the car was tested as out of the box car. No preparation whatsoever was done for the car. Magnetic downforce was in perfect harmony with the motor and gearing ratio. The car was really nice and smooth to drive.

Scalextric Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren competed against other street cars, AutoArt Lamborghini Diablo Spyder, AutoArt Porsche 911 GT3 RS, AutoArt Ford Mustang GT, AA Nissan Z350 and AA Mazda RX8. Surprisingly the SLR McLaren lost for AutoArt Diablo Spyder and Porsche GT3 RS cars.

Best magnet time for SLR McLaren was 14.048, Diablo Spyder 13.201 and Porsche GT3 RS 13.964. Scalextric car lost for AutoArt becouse of the progressive magnet. It is nice invention, but if you are into magnet-racing, the progressive magnet does not improve your lap-times. You will have to have as much magnetic downforce as possible to decrease the lap-times. In this case AutoArt Diablo Spyder and and Porsche GT had more magnet than the SLR McLaren.

During the second phase of the test drive the magnet was removed and lap-times were recorded for non-magnet car. No additional weight was added to the car. Scalextric SLR McLaren appeared to be an excellent non-magnet car. Tyres were slightly uneven and performance could have been improved if the tyres were trued. For this test truing was not done. The car was very nice to drive and it stayed in slot very well.

Again the AutoArt Lamborghini Diablo Spyder surpriced us for being the fastest non-magnet car in the test group. Scalextric Mercedes SLR McLaren came second. Times: Diablo Spyder 18.112 and SLR McLaren 19.068. As a reference we drove best lap for a very well prepped ProSlot Ferrari Modena with SlotIt rims, Ortmann tyres and Mabuchi motor. Best lap-time for this car was 15.933 at the "Speedy Raceway".

It is time to sum up the experiences of the Scalextric Mercedes SLR McLaren. This car is one of the finest and best performing cars that I have seen. Beautiful to watch and fun to drive. "Out of the box" performance is very good and with a little bit of prepping you can have quite competitive car. Scalextric has done very nice job modelling the SLR McLaren and I have nothing to complain about this nice car. Well, if you really really want to find something to complain about, that would be the driver figure which is Starsky/Hutch chlone. My opinions about this car are positively biased since I love the street liveries and collect and build them. This car would be nice addition to any collection.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have anything to ask about this review !

Julius Wilkko

Lo-Fi Version

Time is now: 22nd May 2013 - 18:55

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