December 07, 2008
 SCX Honda Accord WTCC 'Face Off' Review By Shawn Smith and Eric Cropper Appearance:  Head to head again... Eric and I love to do this every so often but we rarely get two similar cars at one time to run against each other in a heads up style of review. We've done joint reviews on LMPs and DTMs and this time we're pulling a double on the WTCC Honda Accords from SCX thanks to SCX WorldWide.  Because they are the exact same model some might say 'who cares, they'll run the same, it's just different paint jobs' and to that I would say 'I wish!' While they are the same model, wearing different colors and sponsors etc, each car did have a very different issue that we'll be pointing out and both are relatively serious in totally different ways. We'll start off with the 'appearance' issue...   Shawn: Every time we decide to do a head to head review like this the number one question becomes 'who gets which car?'. Now in our third review we've managed to do a good job not fighting for the same car so its either that we just like different things or we love them all and don't care which we end up with. I have to admit though this one was a little tougher, having been able to see both of them before Eric I had to admit that I was really more fond of the dark metal-flake painted one over the red and white version so it didn't shock me in the least when he said he liked the looks of that one best too. While we both agree we like the colors we also agree that we didn't like the little issue on the roof. Eric: All he had to say was, “I’d like to have the dark one” and he would have had it. I chose the dark primarily because of the Russian sponsorships and other amusing logos. The little things make me happy. So, next time speak up Comrade. I’m easy. Like Sunday morning. (Laughing to myself because I know Shawn is shaking his head) Shawn: He's right... I shake my head at him a lot.  Eric: Looking at the picture above it becomes very obvious that the clear coat of my Honda had big issues. The majority of the issue resides on the Honda’s roof. The clear coat is hazed, but a better description might be that it has pooled up and settled in areas. This same issue is in the body lines at the top of the doors on both sides, over the silver stripe on the passenger side of the hood, and a couple of small areas on top of the rear bumper. The arrows in the picture below point some of them out. This is hopefully an isolated incident, however, I do think SCX’s Quality Control should have caught it and discarded the flawed body.   Shawn: The red and white version thankfully didn't show any sign of a problem with the finish or if its there its not visible against the bright white and red paint used for this version. Lines between the black, red and white are good and crisp and the clear coat on the car is really shiny.  Shawn: Check out the interior details... roll cages, painted driver and decorated dash board. The guage graphics are crisp you could almost read them and I like the separate contrasting interior parts like the console and shifter knob and the silver stearing wheel column.  Eric: Wait a tick!!! I’ve been short changed in the interior details department. The only thing that isn’t all black is the driver’s helmet and gloves. Plus, SCX must know I drive without caution and decided I didn’t need any gauges.  Shawn: I also like some of the more sublte exterior details like the muffler tips which some companies are satisfied leaving these unpainted extensions of the chassis. SCX not only painted this detail but they decorated quite a bit of the bottom of the car and on the surfaces paint things like the Honda 'H' emblems and the very small body pin details on the trunk lid and front hood.   Eric: Alright, I’m feeling a little left out here. First, no interior details and now the bottom is all black too. I guess the interior and chassis detail person was ill the day mine went through the line. That might explain the clear coat problem too. (Joking SCX)  Someone even stuck a tiny single-bristle brush inside of each rim as I swear the 5-lugs are painted in there. Features like the tire decorations won't last after much hard racing but we liked that they made them differently, the red and white Accord sporting Michelin logos and the metalic-grey Accord getting Yokohama ADVAN decorations.  Cars also come with working front and read LEDs. Turn down the lights and do a little night racing!! Shawn: While we're looking at the front of my red and white Accord notice the verticle line going right through the 'KW Suspension' logo. That's not a painted line that's a crack that must have happened during my test laps although I can't really recall hitting anything too hard with the nose. It's obvious that I hit something though or a stress fracture is all I could think happened. (frowning)   Eric: The logos and sponsors that made me choose the darker Honda. On the hood is a Russian building company logo. (my sister was home over Thanksgiving and translated for me) The gold is thin and the darker colors bleed through. The logos in the yellow box (left) yes, it says DOGROOM TONI & GUY HAIRDRESSING. On the right …the middle one…I’ll let that one go…LOL. Performance: Five screws hold the body of the Accord to thei chassis with two on opposing sides of the guide, two more on either side of the car near the motor pod and one lonely screw all the way at the back. Shawn: Right before putting any car on the track I do a couple of things out of habit which include spinning the front wheels to see if they spin without wobble and then I turn the rear wheels with my fingers to see how the gear mesh feels. Here is where my mechanical issues comes in to play... the rear axle did not turn! While we often remove the bodies in our reviews to show you the chassis' its normally something we do because we 'want to', not because we 'have to'. This time, we 'have' to.  Initial inspection: Nothing looks wrong really. Everything appears to be typical SCX and that means that typically we wouldn't be finding any problems here. Eric's Honda felt like it had no issues with the gearing however mine clearly did. Getting right to the trouble area it took all of a second to see what was wrong...   Apart came the chassis as it was obvious the motor was going to need to be pulled. While you can't really see it in the angle of the shot above the pinion was WAY too far on the motor shaft and it was pushing out on the crown gear so much that the axle wouldn't turn at all. After carefully prying the pod out of the chassis, taking care next to remove the rear axle, I popped the motor out of the pod and reached for my gear press.  On the left; the pinion as it came from the factory. On the right; the pinion after having to take the car apart and needing to use a gear press to move the pinion back just a couple fractions of an inch. For those of us who have the tools and the ability to make a fix like this a problem like this is no big deal... for a first time buyer however this is the type of thing that might turn a buyer off as this car would have needed to be taken back to the store.  As you can see in this shot, with just a literal 'hair' of clearance between the pinion and the crown, there is a good amount of that motor shaft tip that rides in the channel of that gear. This makes a good point of why cars would benefit from a simple quick test before they leave the factory as had someone put some volts to this car it never should have been packaged for the consumer. Certainly something I've never had happen with my other SCX cars but its something that really shouldn't happen anyway.  When putting everything back together, or really for anyone running SCX cars, it's a good idea to pull the pod out and make certain these motor 'ears' are bent downward enough to assure good contact with the electrical strips underneath them. If you have a car that just feels like its hesitating, and you've checked that your braids are adjusted etc, it could be that one of these connections isn't making good contact. Some take the time to solder these connections, and if I was going to be competitively racing one of these I would to, however for casual running making sure the ears are bent downward enough should be sufficient.  A shot of those electrical strips coming from the guide. You can also see how the guide has a small self-centering bar spring attached to the very front of it. This too is often an area to check to make sure that the end of the tabs make good contact with the braids of the guide. The guide is easily popped out with light hand pressure pulling the guide away from the bottom of the chassis then you can make slight adjustments to the ends of the metal tabs if need be.  Eric: I had to gently bend and push on my guide leads to give them proper placement. Also, I had to remove the guide before running my Honda. Why, because the lead was between the braid and the top of the guide. This kept the guide from turning completely to one side. (I had the same issue on the Citroen C4 rally car I’m reviewing too)  Eric: Shawn forgot to point out the amount of front axle play. Picture above shows the amount of play via the red arrow. However, this was easily solved by placing a nylon washer on each side between the back of the rim and the axle post. Shawn: Well... I had fixed mine prior to taking images and since my method is to remove a wheel and grind down the axle it was really too late to show it. (oops) Track Time:  Here is where things get back to normal. Issues with paint seem to go away and with both cars now able to go under their own power its right here on the track where everything feels right. The SCX Honda Accord WTCCs are good running sedans that pull off some pretty good SCX times. Lane one fastest lap ended up a pretty solid 5.938 seconds and lane two was just fractionaly slower registering a 6.034. Referencing that DTM review we linked to at the beginning of this one this places the lap times perfectly within the range of the Audi and Mercedes cars we tested back in June. Not only are these Hondas perfectly matched to each other but they will run door to door with other similar SCX cars and that's nothing but a good thing.  The Final Verdict:  Shawn: Having fixed the single glaring issue with my car its easy for me to say I like these Honda Accords and I'd certainly buy more. It's almost ironic that perhaps the only car that went out that way ended up in the hands of a reviewer but I'm thankful that it did instead of ending up in the hands of a first time buyer. If I could make one recommendation that would improve these cars it would have to be a little more quality assurance. The gearing issue was a problem but fixable. Eric's cars paint issue is a different matter but if you have the ability to check yours out before buying I would recommend it. If buying online ask your retailer to give it a quick glance and you should be fine. Eric: Ditto on the quality control. That’s the only thing negative to really say about the Hondas. Shawn and I really liked the SCX DTMs and now the SCX WTCC Honda Accords are on our list of cars we really like too. As always HomeRacingWorld.com would like to thank SCX Worldwide for sponsoring this review. If you have any questions feel free to contact us via the email links below. Shawn Smith - SJSlots shawn@homeracingworld.com Eric Cropper - Legionofone (Minion) ecropper@hotmail.com Thanks Go To SCX For Sponsoring This Review!
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