Tuesday April 15, 2008
 SCX Renault Turbo 5 Review By Eric Cropper Appearance:  The Renault Turbo 5 is a very compact car with a wide rear end. The overall appearance of SCX’s version was done very well. The tampo printing was clear and opaque. The y is high contrast livery is finished with a high gloss finish. The car is only around 4 inches long and 2 ¼ inches wide in the rear. Can you say sub-compact?  Up front the Turbo 5 is sporting a bold bumper, painted grill and two monstrous fog lamps. No, it’s not missing a mirror. Only the driver needs to see where they’ve been. The navigator only needs to worry about where they’re going.  The Renault has a stout rear end. The fender flares house some meaty rubber. There’s a rear window wiper, a roof spoiler and a nicely done muffler tucked under the bumper. Looking through the rear window you see a spare tire too. It’s not a real tire, but one molded into the interior tray.  Viewing the top of the Turbo you get a glimpse of the width of its tail end. Needless to say the majority of this slot’s weight is back there. The roof is mostly decorated with the Renault brand logo and you get to see just how glossy the clear coat is on this SCX release.  The hood has a clean finished vent for added detail. The windshield wipers are add-ons. So, be careful where you grab or you’re driver will be cursing you the next time he’s driving in the rain.  There are more cooling vents located in front of the rear fender flares. You get a peek at the navigator hard at work too. The interior sports a beefy silver roll cage and is SCX’s usual half tray design.  The rubber on this SCX is no different from the norm on most SCX releases. The rear tires are huge compared to the fronts. They both have a grooved tire pattern. I love the muffler detail.  The underside is an area usually ignored by most brands, but not SCX. I call these “wreck details,” because that’s the only time you can see them while on the track. Out of the slot, tumble and roll…”Hey! Check that out.” The painted relief details of rivets, suspension and motor areas make crashing a bit more enjoyable when your car ends up on its roof. The chassis is held in place by 4 screws pointed out by the yellow arrows. The red arrows point to the 2 screws that hold the magnet pod in place. These can be loosened or tightened up to get more or less magna traction.  The body shell contains all the lights and SCX’s wireless connector system to power them. The lights have black shrouds to help eliminate light bleeding through the body.  The RX-41 is the standard power plant for SCX cars. Again, the wireless power system keeps the interior of SCX cars very simple and clean. You get to see the tire width difference I mentioned earlier. Standard SCX gearing is present in the Renault too.  GUIDE ISSUE: I’ve never really had any issues with the SCX guide in the past. It’s actually a pretty good system with a vertical spring to keep the guide seated in the groove and a self returning spring system that’s almost flawless. However, I did have a bit of a problem with this one.  Looking at the picture above you will notice a difference in the brass connectors under the guide. The one on the left is sitting slightly lower than the one on the right. Nothing some gentle bending can’t solve, but the picture below shows the reason that this poses a problem while running the car. The braid gets caught up on the brass connector while turning in that direction. Again, it's an easy fix, but worth mentioning.   The lights are very bright on SCX’s. They have had issues with lights burning out completely or blinking in the past. During testing no issues were present. Not only do we have bright headlights, but equally sized fog lamps. The antenna on the roof is made of out of plastic instead of rubber. I know the plastic allows for a thinner and more realistic appearance. However, over time it just doesn’t stand up to wrecks. The tail lights are just as brilliant as the fronts.  TRACK TIME: Usually here on the Garage side of HRW we only test on plastic or painted plastic track systems. Well, those days are gone. Thanks to the resent acquisition of a little wood, we will be able to give some insight into future cars ability to run non-mag. It’s only a 4 X 8 oval, but it’s a start. You can thank Harry for starting the wood lust from our recent trek to HRW Headquarters. PRE-TESTING PREP: NONE!!! It went straight from the case to the track. (Well, I fanned the braids.) I first ran the Turbo 5 on SCG’s painted 2 lane Carrera track with about a 13 foot front stretch. I pulled the trigger. “AHHH, my ears!!!” It was one noise little car. Typical SCX most would say. It had decent acceleration, braking was ample and the magnet did its job too. However, where it showed a serious lack was in the top end department. Coming out of the last turn and into the 13 foot front stretch the SCX maxed out about 2/3 the way down the straight. It average in the 6.7 seconds lap range. Turbo-5-Road-Course Next, it was onto the wood oval. Would this be the Renault’s saving grace? I was thinking maybe it had too much down force from the magnet on the plastic track. Thus, hindering some much needed RPMs. I ran in lane 3 while Shawn ran his SCX Escort from an earlier review in the #4 outside lane. The SCXs where just about right for this sized oval. Not too much power down the short straightway causing you going into the turn too hot. However, even with the shorter lane advantage the Renault couldn’t keep up with the Escort. It handled very well on the wood. Controlled sliding in the turns was easily pulled off even with the heave back end of the Turbo 5. Then something started to change. The Renault started to get a bit faster and started gaining on the Escort. Another dozen laps pass and it starts to reel the Escort in and eventually passes it. Even more laps pass and now the lane advantage and increased speed are allowing the Turbo 5 to pull away and over time lap the Escort. I took it back to the plastic for another go. The noise was still there, but not as loud. It seemed perkier down the straights and out of the turns. I got it down into the 6.3 seconds range. A nice improvement after the non-mag break-in on the wood. Turbo-5-Oval Judgment Day:  I’ve heard folks talk about SCXs being a dog on the track and at first it seemed they were right. However, after some break in on the wood the car did improve. Are you going to be able to run an SCX against other brands successfully? Maybe against some, but it won’t be able to run against others. Let’s be honest, SCX offers good quality cars for the price range they fall into. There are cars that cost 3 times more and don’t have bright working headlights, let along tail lights too. These same cars can take even more effort to hold the track than the SCX. Running SCX vs. SCX is top notched, challenging and fun racing at its best. We had a blast running them on the wood oval. The wood is where I think the Renault shined. I’m sure over time and with more break-in the Turbo 5 will still continue to improve in the top end area. I give it a 3 out of 5 with the potential for a 4 if the top speed continues to increase. Thanks to SCX for providing us the Renault Turbo 5 for review. Feel free to contact me at the email below with any questions or comments. Eric Cropper AKA legionofone ecropper@hotmail.com
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