November 25, 2008
 SCX Touareg RedBull 'Mud Effect' Review By Shawn Smith Appearance:  Let the mud flinging begin! By the looks of it the mud has been flinging already which is understandable seeing as how this latest SCX Volkswagen Touareg has been aptly nicknamed 'mud effect'. This 'muddy' look takes what would be normally a beautifully decorated RedBull paint job and covers it with a medium-brownish' over spray to help pull off that dirty look of a heavily raced off-road truck. This of course is not the first time SCX has gone the pre-weathered direction on their trucks. The SCX Worldwide website shows this truck as well as a complimenting 'mud effect' Mitsubishi Pajero although interestingly enough the site doesn't show the rather clean looking Lagos Touareg that Eric got to look at back in April.  Not having 'weathered' racers in my collection I'm starting to wonder why I don't as the look is really pretty realistic. SCX has done a really good job, as you'll see, in covering this thing from pretty much every side. I do have perhaps one helpful suggestion to improve on their dirty paint job but we'll get to that in a few moments. For now, some highlights of the model.  Lights! Tons of us are fans of lights, and the added realism they provide to slot car racing, and the SCX Touareg does not disappoint. The bright white LED's give off that high-beam Xenon effect that seems to disregard that some of that brown weathering over-spray has gotten on the headlight covers.  Similar deal in the back. Even though it looks as if its just spent hours on the trail the rear lights are bright and I love the multi-light effect with both bumper lights and the high wing mounted lights.   Even after taking the time to place BFGoodrich decorations on the tires the rubber and rims get a fair amount of mud effect applied. The treads are even painted although a few hours of running will take the paint off of the contact surface of the treads.  And yes, even the bottom is painted and the 'effect' gives off a bit of a 'military' feeling. The 'mud' paint is everywhere on this thing. Even the shock/springs inside the wheel wells and the very bottom of the windshield was hit right along the wipers. About the only 'clean' surface on this thing is the roof which in contrast is really high gloss.  Only suggestion I might have however, and maybe this was done and it simply doesn't help, would be for SCX to spray a generous shot of flat clear coat over that muddy look. The reason is that it scratches off maybe a little easier than I would like and with a simple scrape with my thumb nail it left a noticeable mark. A few brushes with track walls, or decorative guardrails, and you're going to notice it especially along the edges of the fenders.  If you have an airbrush though there is nothing saying you can't give it a light shot to touch it up any time you want. And since it's already 'muddy' its not like you can really mess up a perfectly clean paint job so in time I think I'm going to add a little more brown just for the fun of it. Overall I really like the looks of the muddy RedBull Touareg and my other rally cars better watch out once I get a little brown paint loaded in the airbrush. Performance:  For performance information I'll refer you once again to Eric's previous visit with the Lagos Touareg although i wanted to show a few things that weren't touched upon in his review. Eric mentioned how the center section of the chassis acts like a pivot and how the shock set up is similar to another brand however they are quite different.  The entire chassis assembly is really a two piece affair with that center 'pivot' really being an entire chassis within a chassis. As you can see simply disconnecting the springs and releasing small tabs from their holes in the outer cradle allows the entire working assembly to be removed. Snapped back in to that outer cradle the springs actually allow the entire sub chassis to move independently from the rest of the car, within a limited range of movement. Pretty slick design and knowing that the sub-chassis comes out it gives me some pretty cool ideas for other model conversions.  Same motor and same stock magnet set up as the previous Touareg although I have to say that this is yet again another slot car that I prefer more without the magnet in it. Thankfully the magnet holder detaches with two very small screws on either side so its easy to make this a no mag runner in a matter of seconds. Why do I like it better non-mag? For starters the gearing on these things is already pretty tight and the 19K RPM motor already works pretty hard at making this thing go. Add the artificial down force provided by the magnet and you just get the feeling that this 110-gram beast is being held back by it. Off the magnet came and I was right. Slides were incredible, and easier to control, and this is where I feel the motor is best suited. Any more motor and this Touareg would find itself on its side more than on its wheels and while the RPMs aren't terribly high the way it is the torque is actually really good...   And speaking of torque get a better look above at the gearing used in this thing. Yes the motor is dual shafted, and fitted with a pinion on both ends, but the set up uses additional gears uniquely fitted in the chassis to ultimately deliver the power to the axle crown gears. Now I had read that this gearing was more than just gimmick and that it actually provided a function beyond making the wheels turn. Get a load of this:  Try THIS with any other RAID or off road truck from the other brands that produce them. That's about a 45-degree angle right there and that truck is not rolling backwards. Of course I tried this with another brand of off road trucks and they promptly rolled backwards down the grade and crashed rear first on to the floor. Important to note here though that this little trick only works with the magnet back in the truck, or the 110grams will slide this baby down the slope too, however as the other brand of trucks actually rolled down the grade with their magnets in the magnetless SCX Touareg's wheels never rolled and it slid with the wheels locked in place to the bottom. This stock SCX truck is rock solid on the hills. Seems what I read about the gearing was true.  And of course this thing is made to go over some rather large track obstacles and the drop-arm guide is a major reason for that. The guide blade itself is a little odd looking, you can see how it looks like the majority of the blade isn't even the slot, but I'm thinking this has more to do with strength than looks as there is certainly a good amount of guide that rides below the surface.   The drop-arm itself is spring loaded but just enough to force the arm away from the bottom of the truck as it climbs. This is certainly needed considering how much travel this arm allows but the tension isn't enough to unsettle it during flat track operation.  If the wheels can climb it this Volkswagen Touareg will go over it. The foam block you seein this image wasn't actually climbed by the truck but for illustration purposes it shows you what the truck is capable of if obstacles are built the right way. Eric's review has a link to the SCX promotional video showing the trucks in 'obstacle conquering action' so if you haven't watched it yet its worth a look. Hard to doubt the capabilities of these things once you see them in action. The Final Verdict:  The SCX Volkswagen Touareg is one cool off road truck and with the right 'mud effect' paint job it actually looks more the part. A non-muddy RedBull livery would no doubt have been gorgeous, and perhaps SCX will still make a perfectly shiny one, but the dirt is fitting and I do like the added realism it provides. On the track it must be said that you don't want to get one of these with the hopes that it's going to fly around the track, like the majority of other slot car products available today, as it's simply not made to be a speed demon. These SCX trucks are specialized vehicles made with a specific function to perform so keep that in mind when it comes time to race. A couple of these things on the track together, track being filled with stuff to climb or perfectly flat, can be a ton of fun and that is what they are made for. If anything they are a fantastic change of pace in the ever growing 'fast as you can at all costs' slot car mentality so I'm a pretty big fan. Clean or 'muddy' I like these Volkswagen Touaregs by SCX. As always HomeRacingWorld.com would like to thank SCX Worldwide for sponsoring this review. If you have any questions feel free to contact me via my email link below. Shawn Smith - SJSlots shawn@homeracingworld.com Thanks Go To SCX For Sponsoring This Review!
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