Aston Martin DBR9

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SCX & Scalextric Aston Martin DBR9

Review by Nuro

Info about the Scalextric DBR9 from the Scalextric (Hornby) website:

Product Category: Endurance Racing
Product Code: C2644

History
Aston Martin, the world's most exclusive sports car company, has begun its return to international motor sport racing, spearheaded by the DBR9. The 2006 season sees a selection of Aston Martin Racing works and customer teams running DBR9s and DBRS9s. They will be competing in the major GT series across the globe and have the full support of Aston Martin Racing. Aston Martin Racing's preparations for the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours got off to a good start in practice, when its two DBR9s topped the GT1 timesheets.

The Scalextric model
Scalextric Aston Martin models have always been popular from the DBR, the DB2 and DB4GT cars from the 1960?s era and remain highly collectable today. The DBR9 will join that stable.
The DBR9 has a superb standard of tampo printing. High detail interior and metal etched small parts for finer detail make this model stunning to look at as well as race.
Advantages: High quality build specification with expected high performance straight out of the box. Only made by one other slot car manufacturer. Sturdy rubber wing mirrors reduce crash damage. Digital ready chassis.

Features: Magnatraction, front and rear lights and quick change braid plate.

Dimensions & Configuration
Car: Overall length 150 mm, Wheelbase 86 mm, Weight 92 gm
Rear: Axle width 62 mm, Tyre diameter 21 mm, Width 11 mm
Front: Axle width 62 mm, Tyre diameter 21 mm, Width 10 mm
Magnet: Rectangular 2.5 mm, Gear ratio 11:36
Motor: Sidewinder Rear Mounted Rear 2 wheel drive Mabuchi SP 18k rpm

Availability Details: 2006

The DBR9 has been eagerly awaited. A popular British racing car that has made a return to the track and now available as a slot car. I was keen to check out the differences between the two brands. Not to find fault, but to see if these two companies were working to the same plans and to see how they adapted the body and chassis to their various motors and running gear.

Most of these photos can be clicked on to show a larger version. I hope they show you the differences between the to brands. In most cases the SCX model is on the left and the Scalextric is on the right. And just to make everything clear, we are referring to the Spanish SCX brand of Technitoys and the British Scalextric brand of Hornby.

Both models are fantastic. I believe that they represent the best of what each company has produced to date. Each model buy itself looks fantastic, only when you hold them together do you see a few differences. Neither is perfect and each compromises slightly when compared to the real car, but hey, they are 1/32 model cars that can be driven at high speed around a track. They are not diecasts although they would look good on display too.

Looking at the paint and colour, both have a metallic green finish. The SCX is lightly more green and has more gloss, but this causes reflections to be less sharp and give a more toy-like appearance. The Scalextric at a stand-off distance looks more like a real car with its satin finish. The yellow trim on the Scalextric is finer, but the two liveries are different so the differences can't really be compared precisely. The tampo graphics of both cars are very neat. Both companies have achieved the same detail. There are some sponsors logos that are slightly different - the Castrol logo on the front bumper being the most noticeable.

The details of both cars show how far the industry has come over the last few years. Scalextric has thought about racing by giving us unbreakable rubberised mirrors and antennae. On my model the rear spoiler was not glued down, but it was held in very securely. In the event of an accident, it would pop out, but wouldn't break the struts. Scalextric too have included some etched parts uses in the front air scoops and rear grill above the rear parts of the underpan.

The silver wheels on the SCX look fine, but the black Scalextric wheels are slightly finer. The SCX tyres have a lower profile than the Scalextric ones. Both are standard compound and have similar performance on the track.

I don't know enough about the exact real-life liveries to know whether one or the other is exact. I know that for every race, the team may change configurations of body panels, spoilers and wheels to suit the conditions on the day. The Scalextric parts seem slightly finer, the SCX more robust, but I have an opinion that after a some time on the slot track the Scalextric may survive the best.

The main differences between these models is the motor layout and running gear. The SCX has a rear-mounted inline motor and the Scalextric a sidewinder configuration. These setups dictate the cockpit wher the SCX has a shallow cockpit insert with half a driver and not much detail. The Scalextric has a full driver and more detail inside.

We see the SCX motor mount that connects to the rear axel and allows an amount of play. The motor is connected to the guide pickup via copper strips. The body too with the lighting installation connects via copper strips. I suppose that if there is a bad connection, one simply bends the copper strips until a good contact is made. The Scalextric car has the lights attached to the chassis and is wired up ina classic way. Adding a digital decoder wouldn't be difficult at all.

Here we see the two systems: inline and sidewinder. Each to his own - the two systems work well with similar noise coming from the gears.

An issue that has been mentioned on the forums and was also found on my model was the split body mounting post. This is caused by some guy in the factory over tightening the screws during assembly. They can be fixed with a drop of glue and a sleeve can be fitted to make them rock solid.

The SCX metal bearing on axel attached to the motor pod.

Standard Scalextric axel.

The blue-white LEDs of the SCX.

The surface mounted white LED on the Scalextric.

Detail of the copper strip connections of the motor pod.

Scalextric front light plastic that touches the surface mounted LED on the circuit board.

At the left, we see the two cars from below.

The extended double braids of the SCX don't appeal to all racers, but they can be adjusted to your own taste.

The Scalextric braids are typically scrappy out of the box and have to be neatened up a bit before going on the track.

The two cars are both very good. Viewed separately, they give the impression of being virtually perfect in their own right. Brought together and you see the finesse and slightly better quality in the Scalextric car. Scalextric design and building methods have evolved to this level in the last few years - we almost expect it of them. What a change from cars that were available only 5 years ago. SCX has to catch up a bit and I'm sure they will if this car is any indication of their abilities.

The SCX car probably handles a little better on the track right out the box, but with a little tweaking, you can get the sidewinder to perform well in any race. The tires and magnets make them perform well. Remove the magnets in both cars and you have to do some tuning to get the weight distribution and traction to a level that keep them on the track as with any car.

Taxi has provided the following info about handling:

Ok, so Nuro has told you all about the cars’ appearance and mechanicals, but there’s one thing we haven’t talked about yet – how do the cars perform on track?

I tried both cars on my wooden track and Scalextric Sport track. The Scalextric track is a temporary one set up in the garden, not ideal but enough to get a bit of a feel for the way the car behave. No lap times for either track though – sorry!

First of all though, I just wanted to note that I had no initial problems with either of my cars. They both ran smooth and quiet straight from the box, just as they should.

The Scalextric car has a definite advantage on the Sport track. Its motor is slightly more powerful and it has a larger, stronger magnet so the SCX car was outgunned on the straights and through the corners. The downside for the Scalex DBR9 is its typical magnet car behaviour – crashes tend to be at higher speeds and potentially damaging, but it gives you more warning than most. The SCX version is slower, but much easier to handle. The motor has a gentler power curve, and when the car runs out of grip it tends to slide quite nicely, even with the magnet in place.

Without the magnets things are much more even. The SCX DBR9 is gaining a little in the corners, negating the Scalextric car’s power advantage. Both cars work quite well without mags, though they slip and slide a bit on the Sport track.

On to the routed track. Both cars have more traction here, the slightly textured surface offers better grip than the plastic track. The Scalextric car still has the speed advantage, but it’s losing ground to its SCX cousin. The SCX Aston is great on the routed track, its flexibly mounted inline layout seems to work better than the Scalex’s sidewinder, which seems to push the car sideways more easily. It’s still fast and fun, but the SCX is smoother and can be pushed harder through the corners, where the Scalextric car feels a little twitchy. I haven’t tried any alternative tyres, but I suspect the Scalextric Aston would benefit from a change to Ortmanns or similar, probably more than the SCX car would.

So there you are, two models of the same car but very different to drive. If you’re racing with magnets, the Scalextric car is brilliant. But if you’re running without mags, especially on a routed track, SCX may be the better choice.
Or you could do what I did – buy both!

Rob

PS I’ve now fitted my SCX DBR9 with a Slot.It motor adaptor and 20K motor – perfect!!

On the forums (linked from the button below), we take this a little further and compare
the two RTR cars with the Milan Tomasek car and the Proto Slot kit from Chris Deco.

- Nuro 08/2006

Lo-Fi Version

Time is now: 3rd September 2010 - 09:02