SPIRIT COURAGE C65

Review by Taxi

Spirit released their first model of the Courage just before Christmas 07, but the car was in a rather plain red livery so I decided to wait for something a little more interesting. This latest release is the Gulf-sponsored, Ford-powered C65 which competed in the Le Mans series in 2005.

Like the recently reviewed Porsche 936, the Courage comes in a smaller box than Spirit's earlier releases. The car is secured in its box with a single screw rather than a plastic clip and there's a neat vac-formed cover to help protect the car during transit. 

The Courage has an interesting livery, really you could call it a mixture of liveries. It looks like a traditional Gulf car in powder blue, except for the sharp contrast of the lime-green and black X-Box flashes - it's an eye-popping mix!

The paint and tampo printing are done to a good standard. The paint appears smooth and even and I couldn't spot any defects. The tampo is solid, legible and crystal clear.

The body shape looks good and there's some neat surface detail and a few open vents etc (though the vents above the front wheels aren't open). But unfortunately it's not perfect. The car looks really good from a foot or so away, but when you look closely you start to see little flaws. There are visible moulding lines on the nose of the car, not a major problem but it's just enough to distort the stripes on either side of the nose. There are also faint mould lines on the upper surfaces along the sides of the car and on the air scoop. On my car, one of the headlights, the roll hoop and the small screens/air deflectors beside the driver were poorly fitted. 

None of these things is a major disaster but together they make the car look untidy, and we've come to expect higher standards of fit and finish.

The cockpit benefits from some nice detail work - detailed steering wheel, switches, instruments, fire extinguisher etc. The driver is in plain white overalls but has neatly printed seat belts and a painted/printed crash helmet.

But the quality of finish lets it down again. The paint/tampo breaks up along the edge of the cockpit. The driver figure looks slightly odd anyway (and in my car is leaning to the right) and the moulding lines along his arms don't help. There's a visible line across the helmet too, and the visor is oversized.

The chassis looks fairly complex. It's a two-piece chassis comprising a central spine and an undertray. All the mechanicals - guide, axles, motor etc - are carried in the spine. The spine is attached to the undertray with three screws and each screw is fitted with a tiny coil spring. The body is attached to the undertray. This arrangement creates a suspension effect and allows some degree of separation between the body and running gear, which is supposed to be a good thing.

The undertray is quite thin and flexible but the spine, especially around the motor and rear axle mounts, is thicker and stronger. The motor mount is pre-drilled to accept screws to attach the motor but the screws are not provided.

The car includes 'calibrated' parts - axles, bearings, pinion, spur gear and 'sport guide'. In practise, this means that the gears mesh smoothly and the bearings fit accurately on the axle giving a smooth, quiet drive train. 

The front axle is solid and runs directly in the chassis without bearings. Two grub screws are fitted above the axle to enable you to limit the axle travel. There are mounts to fit two short grub screws (not supplied) under the axle to set the axle height.

It's an interesting chassis and it looks like it should work well. But you may have some work to do first...

I think it's only fair to emphasise the fact that I've only seen one example of this type of car, so it may not be representative.

On my car both the undertray and the spine of the chassis had excess material around the motor mount. This meant that the two parts of the chassis were binding against each other and couldn't move freely.

Once I'd trimmed off the excess things worked better but one of the springs was binding against its screw because the screw wasn't in straight. It's worth spending some time getting all 3 screws set up correctly so everything can move freely, even though the range of movement is limited once the body is fitted.

The guide on my car was rubbing against the undertray so both parts were lightly sanded until the guide could rotate freely.

The wheels were quite poor. They seem to round and concentric but all four had a ridge of flash (excess plastic) around the rim which had to be removed to seat the tyre properly. There's also a lot of flash around the spokes which looks bad and is hard to remove.

On my little Scalextric Sport track the Courage felt a little nervous. It's a relatively long, wide car with a fairly weak magnet and a powerful (25,000 rpm @ 14v) motor, so the car needs to be handled gently to keep it within the narrow confines of Sport track.

Within a few laps you start to fine the car's strengths. Acceleration and braking both feel strong but cornering has to be handled with care because of the limited grip from the Sport track and the weaker magnet. 

Strong braking and acceleration are again evident when the Courage tackles my routed track, but this track has a grippier surface and the C65 seems much more composed here.  The tyres needed a light sanding but now they're working quite well, though they seem a little hard. The chassis seems to smooth out the bumps and the car can really be pushed hard. It will wag its tail if pushed too hard, but generally it's easy to recover.

Overall the Courage feels responsive, quiet and smooth. And it's pretty fast too! The motor has real power but it's smooth and controllable. You can tip-toe round the tightest hairpin or tackle a half-power corner with confidence and then unleash it down the straights knowing the motor (and car) will deliver.

It really is good to drive.

But is performance enough? 

I don't know about you, but I want my slotcars to look great as well as performing well. Over the last few years the various manufacturers have produced cars with ever-higher standards of production and finish, but I'm afraid the Courage doesn't quite match those standards. 

In the UK at least, Spirit cars are priced around £35. This puts them in the same price bracket as several others including Slot.It and Avant Slot. Both of these companies produce high performance cars which have been highly praised for their detail and finish as well as performance.

I think the Courage's performance will tempt many people and of course Spirit are the only company currently producing the C65. But I really hope they improve their production and/or quality control. The Courage C65 is a good car, but it could have been an excellent one.