[EcurieEquipe]

I was wondering which manufacturer makes the best slot cars. At the moment I mainly run Scaley cars, the GT40's and Merc CLK. They run smooth and fast, I'm really pleased with them. Fancied a change though. I got a GB Track 908 a while back. Was disapointed with it, seemed to be noisy and rough.
What are Fly and SCX like?
I run on the Sport track, in the front room, whenever I get chance!

Thoughts from you guys would be appreciated.
Cheers!

 

[58fury]

one word for you ......NINCO! Give them a try. Solid, well built and fun to race!

 

[Dickie]

The best cars are the ones you have

Seriously, I don't think there is a "best" car. What one person thinks is best might be junk for someone else. Take that 908 you have for example. It might be junk now compared to your GT40's, but in the hands of someone who knows how to fix it's problems, it could turn into your best car.

Another scenario. Take the magnets out of all your cars and see which is "best". Wouldn't surprise me if the Fly ran circles around the GT40's, or vice-versa. A lot of guys run their cars without magnets, so what's best for them may not be what's best for the magnet crowd.

You're bound to get different opinions in answer to your question on who makes the "best" car. Some are pretty loyal to their brand, no matter how good or bad the cars can be at times. You have your major brands like Carrera, Scalextric, SCX, Fly and Ninco. But that doesn't mean the little guys like MRRC, Revell, EJ's, Reprotec, etc don't make good cars. They do. I personnally don't think there's a such thing as a "best" car. Just a lot of good cars

Well, I think I've carried on long enough. I'll let someone talk

 

[moped rider]

If you are running cars in the front room you will find Ninco noisier than possibly even Fly and GB Track. The one exception in my stable is the Ninco Mitsubishi that is super smooth and Scalextric like in it running qualities.

It depends on the tolerence of you and your family to noise in this area of course.

This is not a problem with Scalextric.

Moped

 

[mtucker666]

Have to agree with Dickie in terms of all cars are good although some will take more work to get them up to a smooth running standard.

For out of the box smoothness, out of the major manafacturiers, I have to say Scalextric is currently the standard bearer closely followed by Ninco, Carrera (new chassis), SCX and then Fly. Fly can be hit or miss with some really smooth runners and some others that take alot of work. Other manafacturers like Monogram, Slot-it produce very good of of the box runners and others like Pink Kar, Reprotec, MRRC need a bt more work. Note this is all based on my own experience and might not reflect others opinions.

If you don't mind a bit of effort and do some tinkeirng then you'll be able to get any car smooth. To the majority of us tinkering is an important part of the hobby.

Finally I'd advsie you to get the cars running smooth w/o magnets in (magents hide a myraid of poor design faults) and then when they are smooth add the magnet back in (if you wish) and watch them go. Also you will notice an even bigger diff in some manafacturers smoothness when you whip out the magnets.

Matt

 

[Mr.M]

I was going to add a nice even handed post like Dickies pointing out that all manufacturers seem to be working very hard towards improving their products for the benefit of us all. But not now! Oh no!

Try this instead,

If you are running cars in your front room and don't want to keep losing all the detail parts up your vacuum cleaner you MAY find that Hornby cars fail you in this area. A possible exception to this is the Hornby NASCAR which is almost Ninco like in it's durability!

Cheers, Mr.M

 

[EcurieEquipe]

Cheers guys!
I'm looking at getting either a Fly or Ninco BMW M3 GTR, or the Proslot Toyota GT1. Looks like being the Toyota though.
I normally just like to race, but I did tinker about with my CLK and improved it a lot. Looks like I'll have to get tinkering some more!
Thanks!

 

[Mooster]

Oooh, be a bit careful if you are going to get a Proslot GT-One - if you are able to check a few for the smoothness (or otherwise) of the gears, as they can vary hugely from the not bad to terrible. It's not the end of the world if you do get a bad one, though, as Slot.it gears will make it into a very smooth runner indeed! The Ninco M3 is a great car, though it might strike you as being a bit noisy at first. Very strong, and a very good performer. Good luck!

Mooster

 

[Swissracer]

NICE reply MR Material!

I do like abit of balance in my early morning reads

I see no real harm in outrageous imbalance as long as the other view can be put as openly and directly, without getting personal.

EcurieEquipe -

All manufacturers have their good and bad points and what those mean and how they are important is always down to the individual. At the end of the day, if you are willing and able to 'tinker' then there is no car unsuitable to your wants. This leaves the only choice (hmm..did I say ONLY???) down to preference on race style.

Everyone with a query -

I also put my neck on the line here and say there is NO slot related problem you can't find an answer to by posting it here clearly, probably in the Tech section. If you don't know how to describe it - take a pic and post it.

 

[Mecoprop]

'Best', but best at what? That is the problem.
Best to race or best to admire without racing?
The problem with 'best detail/looks' is that it's probably least practical for racing and the prime purpose of slot cars is to race - no point in buying motors and transmissions to simply gather dust on a shelf or to skulk in a box!

Here is another angle.
Whether you buy the fastest in a straight line, the best handling, the best detail, the quietest, the strongest or whatever other 'best', then your next problem is likely to be whether you can find people with similar cars to race against or whether you can temporarily provide your friends with similar cars if they don't have anything comparable. The pleasure of having the 'best' very soon fades if you find you have no one to compete with.

In this very important way, 'best' could be considered as 'most nearly comparable with what I or my friends already have'. That is, unless you just want to collect shelf queens, in which case, just buy the prettiest cars you can find and you will then find much better value in die casts.

 

[moped rider]

Is the prime purpose of slot cars to race?

A lot of folk want to run a slot car that looks like a real car. If it does not look like the real thing in miniture then they simply will not buy it.

Folk who time trial, which many of us will do more often than race if only to practice, like to see the beauty of a car in miniture simply rolling at speed around the circuit up to a point beyond which damage could be inflicted in the event of the car coming off. Think about those who purchase the expensive resin cars for example.

The slot car hobby does include all out racers who want nothing but a car that will win, and do not care for the detail.

And then there is the hobbyist who puts the detail before winning.

The simple solution is to run identical cars in a race, and then those who are prepared to make sacrifices may end up winners. However, there may be those who are suffiently skilled to win a race without making the ultimate slot car sacrifice.

I would put the detail first every time, as you can always make a car run better, but you cannot make it more detailed.

If you are aware that a car has weak areas and you are purely in it for racing, then simply use glue to hold it together if it really bothers you!

Moped

 

[Intergrali]

Ninco M3 all the way.

Proslots arent for the light hearted and my lighted Fly M3 was nothing short of a p*** take!

Inte

 

[Tropi]

QUOTE Is the prime purpose of slot cars to race?
Undoubtedly so.
That's the reason for providing them as standard with high speed motors, the track to race on and everything in-between those two basic factors. Also, I think it's very clear that Ecurie Equipe, who asked the original question, wants to race. So not a lot of point in diverting to the realms of collecting and taking the car out for a gentle posing trip on a sunny day!

I also think it is fair to say that ALL current 1/32 cars that are under discussion here undoubtedly look like real cars in miniature. So no problem there either.

Meco makes an excellent point regarding the compatibility of cars. An awful lot of us have wonderful collections of cars that cannot sensibly run with each other without a lot of attention and that is the last thing on the mind of someone just building up his first squad of cars. Time enough for all that later.

 

[EcurieEquipe]

Nicely put Tropi!
I mainly want to race. In fact I have the Challenger system on pre-order, so I've got something to race against.

Admittedly, I have got the scaley Goodwood set, which I won't race(I collect 1/18th cars too). Only because I've got all the other GT40's to race with though.

I am going to have to spend more time tinkering, but as I race in the front room, time is precious. I've got set up time to include, and then I've only so long before it starts getting in the way. Plus the house bunny that enjoys getting in the way as well! So the less time spent tinkering about the better.

Don't mean to sound negative, but a better out of the box car, is better for me. Looks like I might go for a Ninco M3.

You guys are being a great help, and yeah, I need to move to a bigger house.