May 4, 2009
 SCX Mercedes Benz C-DTM 2007 Review By Shawn Smith I have to admit something embarrasing... I thought this was just a repaint! Yes, sometimes I get a little numb by all of the slot car releases we see and I often don't give a repaint much of a second look unless its really just a livery I like a lot. When this SCX Mercedes DTM hit the shelves I thought to myself 'well... its better looking than the plain orange one I got back in June of last year, and I could stand a running mate for the orange car, so yeah this silver version will fit the bill nicely!' Then something ironic happened. I finally got around to this silver version and was getting ready to start tuning it to run with my other one when I stopped in amazement and realized... its not even the same car after all!  In fact... its entirely different both inside and out! Now mind you I'm a fan of the series, when SPEED actually shows DTM racing in its programming I record all of it, but with it not getting all of the coverage that our biggest domestic series gets I don't think I could tell you when each year was for what body style or livery change in the DTM series. I knew this was a DTM and I knew it was a Mercedes like my already owned SCX orange one so it never occured to me that this car would be anything different.  Well all it took was getting them side by side on the track and WOW what a difference. Everything is different! Different headlights, different grill,different mirrors, completely different body shape.  Having now realized my error I took a look at the bottoms of the cars and it all started to make sense. The orange car I reviewed last summer is that of the 2004 model. This silver car is of a three year newer 2007 edition. Now it makes sense why so many parts of this car look different from the other.  Even down to the front splitter. Look at how much farther the black lip of the silver car sticks out. Notice how much smaller the lower grill opening on the silver car is. Check out the difference in the canard-style wings mounted on each of the front bumpers. And while it might be tougher to see, the tire to fender clearance on the silver car is considerably closer and the overall height of the silver car is lower.  In back even more differences. Styling differences include drastically different rear wings, a smaller revised trunk area of the car and countless other aero-changes both on the sides and under the rear bumper area.  A problem I had with the orange car was perhaps a design flaw where when the rear body screw was tightened all the way the ends of the chassis were bent downwards away from the body creating a gap. Thankfully this 2007 modeled version shows no such issue and the body and chassis fit together perfectly.  Livery wise the plain orange 2004 version looks nice although it comes across a little boring and the Audi DTM Eric reviewed at the same time as my orange Mercedes got the most compliments based purely on looks. This Original-Teile livery gives a lot more for the eye to be happy about with such details as the replicated motor effect painted on the hood surface.  Interior wise I love the way the drivers sit so far back in these cars. Look at it from the side and the driver is practically driving from the back seat.  Some details like axhaust ports are painted in rather than molded on to the body. The passenger side (above) has a little circle painted on to look like the pipe opening although the driver side (below) seems to be missing the same treatment making it look like a black hole on the side.   It might be tough to see but if you can make it out check out the small wing molded on the body sticking out right above the tires. Hopefully well protected by the buldging fenders I was impressed that SCX took the time to model such an intricate part of the car as they could have easily skipped such a tiny detail and still managed to pull off the overall look of the car.  Tires have a combination of molded SXC markings and printed on Dunlop graphics. Some SCX cars seem to have an odd clear coating that flakes off after a while but these tires had no such treatment. I actually like the lack of clear better. Flipping the cars over (below) you'll notice that the chassis is entirely new also. The first thing I noticed was two screws on the new version, versus four screws on the previous release, and the two screws on the new chassis are father in (closer to the guide) than the previous car's front screws which made the chassis a little weak around the holes.   The back of the chassis was totally redesigned as well and as I mentioned earlier this change is a major improvement as far as I'm concerned. With the older version (right) the chassis extends all the way behind both wheels where with the new chassis the width is considerably less and fits in to the body with side tabs on the chassis.  Body removed we get a look at the in-line rear engine configuration of the chassis and before I could even say the word 'same' another major difference jumped out at me.  The 2004 version modeled by SCX came built with a solid front axle assembly and grey plastic bushings where as you can easily see in the 2007 rendition SCX has done away with the front axle and given this car independent front wheels.  While it might not be the standard motor anymore the RX-42 is what you'll find in this release. To be honest I'm ok with that as I know it 'should' run similar times to the 2004 model and as I wanted them to be on track rivals the closer they run without modifications the happier I'll be.  The pop-out guide and copper tab system is obviously still in use although this too has had a design change since the 2004 version of last year. The tabs themselves are disigned differently, how they fit through the chassis has changed and the centering spring design has been changed also although the change in the spring I noticed on other recent releases like the SCX Porsche 911 GT3 and the recent SCX Lancia Delta S4 rally car.  Back together and on the track the car handles and runs like I expected it to. The RX-42 motor has plenty of initial torque but falls a little short on top end speed. Handling is good with a back end that will slide out when too much trigger is applied but the slides are mostly controllable and you quickly get an idea of where you need to adjust your driving the most.  Lap times for my testing hovered around the 5.7 to 5.8 seconds a lap mark. Fastest time of the test showed as 5.646 which when compared to the DTM Audi and Mercedes we looked at last summer the 2007 version is two-tenths quicker and with the average lap times of this car being close to the fastest laps of the previous cars I'd have to take this 2007 version in a potential race situation. Of course this is untweaked and in stock magnet trim. Some adjusting of the magnet height in any of the cars, and or taking the magnets out, could even things up pretty quickly. Either way I like the way this new 2007 Mercedes DTM performs and I'm happy I finally got around to putting this car through its paces.  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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