Tuesday April 16, 2008
 SCX Touareg Off-Road Review By Eric Cropper Appearance:  The VW Touareg has a nice stance and looks like it can take a beating. The overall finish was pretty good. There was some issue along the bottom of the body. I found the livery to be pleasing and the blue really stands out. Below are areas where the paint and finish were not that great. However, this is an off-road vehicle and these could be played off as road rash.   The Touareg is a curvy beast all around. The front has 2 slender headlights, 2 painted grills and that historic VW emblem.  The hood has a large air vent and a smaller vent on the left. The windshield wipers again appear to be separate add-on pieces. The mirrors are molded into the body. This should help keep them intact after hard spills.  The tail end of the VW’s body is a thinner width than the front. There are a lot of visuals to look at back here. The top is crowned with a spoiler (again molded into the body), a European license plate, rally marker, rubber mud flaps, and 8 tail lights.  Here’s looking down at you, kid. Logos!!! There’s not a space on the Touareg not covered with a sponsor logo.  Here’s a shot of even more vents found on this VW. The most distinguished are the blue air scoops that flank each side of the roof. These are great details. Plus, SCX hollowed out the opening enough for effect. I hate when a vent is just a painted opening. SCX did it right.  The tires and rims are nicely done and include printed sidewalls. Another added detail that the Ninco tires don’t have. The tire tread pattern is almost the same as the Ninco tires. However, the SCX tires seem a little harder.  What does an off-road vehicle need? Nice bright lights!!! Are these bright enough for you? Check out the bonus lighting in the rear. The lights just below the spoiler work too!!! You’ve got to like that.  Performance:  The picture above and below show you the amount of shock travel under a human load. This is just as impressive as Ninco’s shock travel. Again, this is under my power. Neither brand will see this kind of load on the track.   Ready for take off!!! This is where the differences between SCX and Ninco off-road vehicles begin to stand out. Look at that spring loaded guide arm. The most that Ninco has to worry about is the dune track and small obstacles that can be press fitted onto the off-road track. SCX is a whole other game. They have ramps and bridges for the SCX brand cars to climb and conquer. Hence, the reason for the extreme guide arm. Below you see the guide differences side by side.  The Ninco guide arm only gives you a bit over ½ an inch of play. While the SCX guide allows for a staggering 2 inches or 40 degrees of up and down play. However, since I don’t have any of the SCX off-road pieces this really won’t come into play while running the Touareg. It does make me wonder if the spring powered arm will cause the VW to flip more easily.  Flipping the VW on its roof you get to see the next big difference between the SCX and Ninco chassis. The center section is where the majority of the pivoting in the suspension takes place. This section is solid on the Ninco chassis. The yellow arrows point out the 4 screws that hold the body in place.  The actual suspension rigging is the same principle that Ninco uses with brass bushing on the outside holding the shocks in place. While the inside bushings are the ones that hold the axle assembly. However, since SCX’s chassis center pivots you have even more play than just within the front and rear axles. Will this be good or bad? Will the Touareg be more prone to rollovers?  The Touareg sans body shows yet another difference in setup from the Ninco. This baby is a 4X4!!! Nincos are only rear wheel drive. The power plant is the RX-10.3 double shafted 19,000 RPM motor. I couldn’t find any specs on torque. Now remember this center section rocks back and forth, side to side and front to back too.  The body houses all the light equipment and features SCX’s wireless connection system. The headlights have a black shroud around them to eliminate light bleeding through the body.  Here you get an idea as to the shock play when I press down on the front of the chassis. Again, this won’t be the typical amount of load placed upon the shocks. Enough looking!!! Let’s run it. Pre-Track Prep: Braids. That’s it son. Track Time: I first hit the painted Carrera. Pulled the trigger and off the VW went. The noise from the knobby tires was louder than the Ninco. It was sweet to hear it roll down the track. I wish I found the torque info on the RX-10.3 because it seemed to have a ton of it. The Touareg took turns like a champ. The best part was watching the body roll in and out of the turns. It seemed more obvious than the Ninco. That just adds to the realism along with the tires roaring. I turned lap times in the 8.8 seconds range with the VW. This was considerably slower compared to the Ninco’s lap time of 7.4 seconds. Click here to watch "SCX-Toureg-Road-Course" Now for the real questions!!! Which brand is faster? Hands down it’s Ninco. However, I think on a short curvy track with inclines it could be more equal. The fact that the SCX is a 4X4 has to put it a bit ahead of the Ninco rear wheel drive only Raids in the climbing department. This is speculation since I didn’t run either on any kind of dune or incline, but it would make sense in theory. In a straight line all out drag, the SCX will get left behind. This is just fact. Which brand handles better? That’s depends on your definition of better handling. Doesn’t it mean more or less sliding? Both brands will slide in both mag and non-mag formats. Both will roll if they slide too far. However, the SCX seemed to correct itself better than the Ninco and more likely because of the added pull of the front tires. Which suspension is better? This again depends on the track system you will be running each upon. We have to keep in mind brand loyalty. Each brand was designed to run at its maximum on its own brand track. They both handled well on the painted Carrera and both were sliding fun on the wood oval. Yes, I ran them on the woodie. They drift through the turns with great realism. I’d be happy just going in circles with both brands on the wood. Did I just say that? Click here to watch "SCX-Toureg-Oval" Which guide system is better? The SCX system is compatible to other track systems. However, there is no way that a Ninco Raid guide is going to work on the SCX off-road track set. It’s simply not long enough to climb SCX’s obstacles and still remain in the groove. Again, Ninco’s guide was designed with only Ninco off-road track in mind. Brand loyalty rears its head again.  Judgment Day: The SCX is most definitely the cheaper slot. Does cheaper mean better? Does it mean worse? That’s debatable depending what you want it to do. Personally, I like it. It has ample torque that I know it will climb without hesitation. Will it break any land speed records? No, it’s much slower than a Ninco. The detail and design are dead on except for the minor paint issues I pointed out. The multiple working tail light locations are a great bonus. The mirrors and spoilers being molded into the body to give added strength and less opportunity for breaking is a plus in my book too. I was really hoping that SCX and Ninco off-road vehicles would be able to mix it up evenly. Sadly, this might be more difficult to achieve. Some of the factors I mentioned might make it close, but probably not close enough for a true competition. I guess we’ll call a SCX a SCX and a Ninco a Ninco for the time being. However, where the SCX will beat the Ninco every time is in the wallet. If you have wanted to give a Ninco Raid a try, but can’t see paying that kind cash for one, then SCX is your clear choice. I give it a 4 out of 5. Check out this SCX Off-Road Promo Video! Thanks to CincySlots for providing the SCX VW Touareg for review. Stop, buy and check out their slot stock. Don’t forget about the Specials page. There’s a deal to be had there just about every day. All questions and comments are welcome at the email address below. I’ll return and answer them as quickly as I can. Thanks for reading. Eric Cropper AKA legionofone ecropper@hotmail.com
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