Spirit’s Golf GTI Gr2 KAMEI

Review by Abarth Mike. Action shots by Slotman (D)

Truth In Advertising - Spirit’s Golf GTI Gr2 KAMEI

I am not sure what attracted me to the Golf, maybe it was the colours and graphics or the wheels. Anyway you pays your money and...

Those of you interested in all the 1:1 stuff can surf for "1000 km Nurburgring 1977". There is even one picture of the real car (link).

It arrived in the usual plastic display case prominently describing the "Calibrated Components" So what do we get?

• Calibrated axles, sport guide, aluminium crown, accurate bearings and bronze pinion but not alloy wheels. All normal Spirit stuff, at least for my other two Spirit cars.

It is when one opens the box and turns the car around in ones hands that the initial enthusiasm is dented. Why? Well one has to look closely at the best pictures I could find of this car which are on a Spanish site. Things you will notice in these pictures.

The blemish above the front wheel arch where the tampo is smudged and the featureless driver is sitting too low and looks like a 12 year old ninja.

Notice the RH rear wheel arch is glued on higher than the left.

Notice the blemish above the other front wheel arch and the little piece of moulding flash under the rear wheel arch.
What you cannot see is that the black pinstripe is different heights on each side of the car.
Ok you say the model in the pictures is only one of a batch. Well I didn’t buy mine from Spain I bought it from UK and my example has ALL the flaws pictured. I have to deduce that all examples are the same.
For purists the car is only painted orange on the outside, the moulded body is white. There are some paint runs on the inside of the body but this is a model of a race car and not a production car so…
Not visible in the pictures is a paint blemish below the LH rear wheel arch and the missing spec of black paint behind the front grill. Here in Thailand this car may not pass the 7/11 test.

I have a habit of running my cars on a test bench before the track. In this case it was a good idea. The gear mesh was so tight that the “calibrated” rear axle would barely turn. Then one notices that the front axle has more slop that a bill posters bucket and that the chassis is not centred in the body as the front mounting post is bent slightly.

If you want to buy one of these and simple go racing you will be very disappointed.

OK well I’ve paid for the bloody thing so might as well make the most of it. Off with the body. Hmm. The three mounting screws, one front, two rear are shouldered and have no threads at the top. I reset the gear mesh using the plastic bag method but it was still bad, so out came the AutoSol, Some claim this is too abrasive but it is what I use. The motor would not turn the wheels at 1.5v and barely at 3v. So I used 4.5v. Normally I would run the gears until the motor note changes and stays constant. This car was so bad I left it a bit longer. Well at least the wheels run true. Readjust the gear again and the mesh is quite nice. Hmm. The wheels are quite nice too.

Now to the front axle. It has massive side to side and up and down slop. It needs some axle shims just inside those black ends of the front hubs. Hmm. Why manufacture the silver wheels with black ends? On further investigation and judicious use of an Exacto knife those black ends turn out to be preinstalled friction fit axle spacers. Well I never…..That’s a first for me. OK that is an easy fix.
Now on to the up and down slop. On my Megane I used the plastic tube under the axle trick. So I experimented with a drinking straw, too weak, Chupa Chup stick too small. But wait! There are two holes hidden under the axle, turn over the car, damn they don’t penetrate the bottom, Ah but yes they do, they are hidden under the guide, only visible one at a time. (Now this is the bit I used to hate when reading this stuff). I just happened to have some 2.3mm screws in my box so I shortened them with my cheap Indonesian Dremel.
I then removed the two Allen screws from the top of the axle holder put them in the bottom holes and put my screws in the top. Some minutes of adjustment and the front wheels are a business card thickness above the track surface and have very little friction.

Hmm.. These wheels and tires are quite nice. Maybe the rears are a bit wide for scale as they are wider than the front but……This slot car is rear wheel drive.

While the motor was running-in at 3v for a while, I addressed the chassis/body misalignment. I should mention here that the motor was held in with two screws.

I dunked the front of the body in the office hot water pot, stuck a drill down the mounting post and used a little English. All is Ok now. Damn those wheels are cute. Deep rims with gold inserts. The rear tires are a strange size so replacing then with aftermarket ones may not be possible. I tried 19x10 P6 but they were too loose and HobbySlot ACR-021 wouldn’t fit as they won’t fit over the 6mm rib. Fortunately, like my other Spirit cars, the tires have enough adhesion for me.

On to the track. It looks very pretty. The proportions are good the ‘70’s sharp edges of the Golf are nicely reproduced, the colours are bright, the tampo printing is nicely detailed, it doesn’t appear to have clear coat but I’m not an expert on that. Even after a few rollovers and tumbles the mirrors are still intact. Did I mention how nice the wheels are?
It is still very noisy, which I found out thanks to Slotman (D) (topic) is because the interior is too deep and presses on to the motor. I will fix that later. The Le Mans motor is much too much for this car but fortunately we run a 10v which tames the beast a bit. It still accelerates embarrassingly quickly and brakes accordingly, is fast on the straight and can be made to slide in the corners. It is a joy to drive. As the magnetic pull is relatively small with the magnet in front of the motor I think I will leave it his way for a while. If we ran at 12 or more the motor would need to be changed. Slotman (D) used an NC2 but it depends on the track. I don't have many std. cars and lap times are track dependent. If anyone feels the need I can do some testing.

So what have I ended up with? All the advertised stuff plus fully adjustable front end, motor mounting screws, 3 body mounting screws designed to make the body float, nice wide grippy rear tires.

So what about all those niggling flaws I mentioned at the beginning. Who cares? It is a very striking car that is fun to drive albeit a bit noisy. Exactly what one races it against is unknown to me. But the body does comply with Euro rally 25gm minimum.

Statistics:

• Length 117mm

• Width 54.5mm (to the outside of the arch flairs)

• Height 43.5

• Wheelbase 76mm

• Guide to axle 81mm

• Magnet to r.axle 50mm

• Track Rear 44mm, Front 46.5mm (measured centre to centre)

• Wheels Front 15x7.5, Centre rib 4.0. Rear 15x9. Centre rib 6.0

• Tires Front 18x7.5, Rear 18x9.5

• Motor Lemans (closed can) 19,500rpm at 12v with 280gcm torque

• Gearing 9/27

• Weight Total 81gms (Rear 44 Front 37) Body 25gms

• Magnet downforce 48gms

Errors or omissions please send a PM.

July 2009