Another Spanish (Barcelona based) Company starts on the production road.

For their first release they have chosen to do the Ferrari 312PB in two liveries.

A note of CAUTION: These cars do NOT appear to have either a Ferrari or Mattel license. If true then there may be Customs issues.

Ferrari 312PB nº.6 T.Schenken-R.Peterson

Daytona 1972.

Ferrari 312PB nº.2 J.Ickx-M.Andretti

Daytona 1972.

For a History of the car take a look HERE or click on the picture to the right.

I thought I would try seperating history and review so those only interested in the slot car didn't have so much information to get through.

Comments on this style welcome, would you rather have integrated history, seperate history or no history?

In fact I will make the link post to this review into a Poll.

Dimensions in millimetres.

The chassis, wheels and body are all plastic injection molded and to a high quality. Using a sidewinder set up similar to the Fly classics, there is however no seperate motor pod and none of the usual annoying 'play' with rear axle, gears and front wheels predominant with the Fly classics.

The car is light too! weighing in at a paltry 61.7grams I am guessing it is marketed for the Spanish racers, who use rules that, almost exclusively, allow no weight or magnet to be added and therefore the adage 'the lighter the better' applies (Now you know where the ideas for all these hollow axles, magnesium rims and lightweight parts come from).

Taking a closer look into the mechanics I was a little concerned that the axles appear to be low quality and the rims no better than anything else plastic in the market with, for example, the usual sprue nodes not being removed prior to tyre installation. Tyres look unique to the model as opposed to a specific Manufacturer, I am awaiting confirmation on this so will update when I get the answer. They sit well on the rims (nodes aside!) but are not trued as you will see further on.

Motor is a standard Mabuchi same as the Scalextric standard one if you need a reference point and the gears appear generic too, 12 tooth brass pinion and 35 tooth black plastic crown.

The chassis is flat with plenty of space for weight and two places built in for a magnet if you can't do without them. It is also flexible but not too much so and mounted to the two part body via three screws. Yes the body is split but not seperate, once the chassis is removed you can not divide the body without cutting welded spot joints. I think it is simply to do with their injection molds.

FINISH?

Superb, I found no blemishes, the decals are crisp and clear AND top coated. Driver is sitting right and the wheels look lovely.

INNOVATION?

Not abundant but it IS there... Look at the pic on the right and you will see a wider than average guide that is free moving, does not flex side to side or back to front and has a small hole in to provide access to the front mount screw. I like this although as you will see later, the braid isn't the best you can get and is very hard to 'set' (I like mine flat as possible with a slight bend downwards at the tip) and they seemed to like sitting in a perky manner (see right).

TRACK TIME?

So then I put it onto the tracks at the club, 'Mugello' (Scalextric Sport) first and the 'Wood One' (Nebendahl routed). Set both to 12 Volts and used an NSR Controller set for no magnet slow motor 1/32 cars.

I was feeling a little unsure going by the impressions I gave you above - I was expecting not alot to be honest, take the light weight along with the untrue wheels and the braid that would not easily allow the guide to sit low.

Deep breath, pull the trigger and its off... Slow lap feels good no deslotting on the sharper corners or gradient changes. Increase speed - same!. More - same??................Ok lets really give it some........... Holy crap.

What can I say? a 5 minute test run on Mugello turned into a half hour fun overload I am not kidding OR gushing.

I DID deslot of course (I suspect a little weight on the front end because it lifts slightly under hard acceleration or maybe something simple like new, softer braid would help) but this car loves to be pushed, corners like a sticky thing with extra stickyness and just enough side slide to impress. Those tyres are good, very good even though you can see below that not alot of the surface actually touches the track front or rear. I will true them and get back to you.

Another amazing thing about this car is it behaved exactly the same on 'Wood One' ! there was NO bouncing and jumping (normal for a factory car on a wooden track with plastic rims and cheap axles), no tips unless I pushed too hard it was simply wonderful on both tracks. I can't wait to get it on Ninco and Carrera.

05 December: I trued the tyres slightly last night and added 5 grams of weight behind the front axle. It made the car even more stable and fun to drive with 0.5 to 1 second average reduction in lap times on both tracks.

COMPARISONS?

Well size wise, look to your left at it sitting next to a Fly B21 Chevron. This is the car that springs to mind in a comparison but the 312 is better - FAR better out of the box, in fact I would say you wont get a better handling 'classic' type car for your money.

Sloter did good on their first offering - I don't know how because so much of the material used say it won't work well, but lets seriously hope we see many more like this.